Matthew Ellis is a tattoo artist with his own business, Seven Crowns.

Caribbean Bistro in Toronto . . . 7:00 p.m.

Beef Roti for Matthew and Vegetable Roti for me.

THE CONVERSATION

Matthew is used to being asked questions about tattooing, most anyone with visible tattoos is. His answers are insightful and well-informed, a caution to anyone too attached to their stereotypes about big, tattooed men who make their living tattooing others.  His insight into people, open mindedness and self- awareness would serve him well in any of the helping professions. And hearing him talk to his daughter, you would be lucky indeed if you could get him to babysit your children.

Tattooing did not interest Matthew initially. In fact, he says, “When I was really young, like preteen, I thought tattoos were yucky and stupid. One, the tattoos I saw weren’t well done. Secondly, people that I knew that had tattoos were all younger. When you have tattoos at that young an age they are not done properly. What spurs a twelve year old to tattoo themselves in a basement is usually passion. It can be passionate in the direction of a lover’s name, which at that age is ludicrous. Or in the other direction, it was hatred, also ludicrous.”

Matthew’s ideas began to change during university. He studied art at York and had a strong clique of friends that included the woman he is still married to. One of those friends was looking into getting a tattoo with his aunt. “He was drawing, going to different tattooists and asking a lot of questions.” Matthew says, “I kinda got this bleed of knowledge through him. I was exposed to what you could do with tattooing. Pretty much anything you could draw with your hand could be done as a tattoo.”

The friend died of a brain aneurism before he could follow through with the tattoo he was designing. Matthew says, “This was my first real exposure to a death that wasn’t an older person. There was nothing to blame. That affected me greatly.”

The members of their friendship group decided that they would get the tattoo in their friend’s memory and the friend’s parents used the tattoo design on the headstone at his grave. Matthew explains, “I had reservations toward the entire process still. I wasn’t going to get something done for someone else without doing it for me first, so I went through the process of designing one for myself.”

Matthew was caught and continued getting tattoos.  He says, “The sensation is definitely part of it and I think that catches a lot of people. I was also in school for art. I was being exposed to all the mediums. This was an unexposed medium. It was like a secret medium and it’s the only social medium. You can’t tattoo without two people.”

His reasons go on. “It’s a precision strike. There are no redos in tattooing. The body doesn’t want to be tattooed. It fights it, so it’s a battle as well as a medium. It’s vanity and pride at the same time. The vanity is you have something beautiful to look at on you. The pride is you went through it yourself, facilitated it yourself and experienced it yourself.”

Matthew certainly understands the experience of tattooing and is not alone in his fascination with the art. As a tattooist, however, he has a perspective fewer have. He knows, “It’s not only the addiction to the medium. It’s really nice to make people feel good about themselves.”

Reality television has given audiences a limited glimpse of tattooing. Matthew jokes that the television shows make it seem like all tattoo artists are young party people and that only really attractive people or people needing memorials get tattooed. There is more to it than that and the stories are more moving.

Matthew talks about tattooing a woman’s scars from a botched breast reduction and how that gave her the confidence to have a romantic life again. He describes his heart sinking when women come in with the blue cards they are given with the names and footprints of the babies they have carried to term and lost.

He says, “Everybody’s got a story and everyone wants to share it with you.  It is emotionful.”

As knowledgeable as he is about art, Matthew clearly understands people. And he has learned through repetition about bodies. While he doesn’t know if tattooing has changed his body awareness, he does know that “tattoo artists are much more accepting of different body types and can see the beauty in different body types.”

Making people comfortable and being respectful is a part of the work. Matthew says, “it really is an odd thing to be a big, burly older man and take a situation where a young, tiny person, especially a female for me, is nervous about me performing a medical, repetitive, not normal act. It’s much more personal in that I see their blood. Think about how many people in your life see your blood.”

“There is someone you have to put implicit amounts of trust in with a needle that’s going to mark you forever. There is that sort of quality about it that freaks me out still about what I do. Some people will word it in a different way that makes it seem like a very oppressive, life altering, creepy thing. It is one thing to ask what it’s like to do that to someone. It’s another thing to ask how could you do that to somebody.”

A tattoo artist’s life involves tattooing one to ten people a day, five days a week. He explains, “You couldn’t do it if you didn’t enjoy it. It’s tedious, painful and kinda gross really. I’m wrist deep in people’s blood whether they are clean or dirty. It’s mentally very demanding to know that you’re putting people through pain and to know that you are pushing people through that. And to put away that nurturing instinct.”

Not everyone assumes that big, tattooed men get warm fuzzies hearing people’s stories, nor do they imagine a tattoo artist talking about nurturing. Matthew says, “Sometimes I think about it and I think it’s an incredible skill or sensibility to have. But it’ not like I’m a police officer. I have to calm people down that are a little nervous. I don’t’ have to give people really bad news. I’m not a bank forecloser. If anything, I calm them down about something that will make them feel better. It’s not like I’m a priest.”

Matthew gives people exactly what they ask for, and says that there are some times when he is little more than a technician. To those who return to him again and again, he is definitely an artist.

He says, “There are times when I like what I’ve done. And there are times when I’m content with what I’ve done and how I’ve done it. But that changes shortly afterwards.  I’m kind of glad. The time when I’m happy with everything I’ve done and how I’ve done it, I’m fooling myself. There’s always room for improvement.”

Matthew says, “As much as I would like to be the guy up in his palace only doing things he thinks up in his head, that’s not reality.” People come to get tattooed by Matthew because not only do the things he thinks up in his head make extraordinary pieces of art, the things he says reassure them that he is a thinking, feeling person capable of understanding the importance of what the tattoo means to them.

STILL DIGESTING

There is a long history to tattooing and tattoos themselves mark history for people. When a friend asked me about the impact a tattoo artist has on others, I had to laugh. My answer was simple. They leave permanent marks on people to help them recognize their most important experiences.

Being tattooed is an experience in itself and it certainly changes how people see themselves and often how others see them.  When I first started to meet people who were heavily tattooed, I spent a long time thinking about the wisdom of altering yourself so visibly. It gives you an opportunity to try to exert some control over how others see you and even if they see you at all.

If you cannot see past a person’s appearance or express a genuine interest in what their choices about their appearance mean to them, then you may not have all that much of value to offer them. Tattoos are certainly trendy, but they are also powerful.  They can attract and repel, and can certainly fuel a conversation.

Even the most common tattoos say something about who people want to be, what they value and how they see the world. The custom designs say even more about how the person with the tattoo shared a vision with someone they trusted enough to realize that vision on their skin.  The more dimensions the people doing the art have, the more dimensions the art. There is almost always a story that goes deeper.