This is Thom DeVita he is a very famous tattoo artist. Thom has been tattooing for years, he started out of his apartment in the early 60s in New York tattooing locals who would come around looking for cheap easy tattoos. Thom started tattooing local people for only $5 a tattoo no matter the size color or anything
On November 2nd, 1961, the day after tattooing was officially illegal in New York DeVita opened his first tattoo shop. He was living on 8th street, near avenue D. an infamously rough neighborhood, “Alphabet City” at that time was the kind of area you generally didn’t visit unless you had a good reason to. He tattooed mostly working class people from the neighborhood and tough guys that other tattooers didn’t want to tattoo. He opened around a hour after dawn and would tattoo until around three or four in the afternoon, seven days a week. It was the time that the tough guys were at their best behavior so it kept problems to a minimum. Thom DeVita has been one of the most unique American tattooers his entire career, redefining the art and including his personal aesthetic more distinctly than just about anyone that I can think of. Thom DeVita has changed tattooing in a huge way through his career, when he was tattooing people only got small tattoos most of the time but Thom introduced the large tattoos (full back or chest, ect.). Thom could and would tattoo anyone, he had an erratic approach toward age. One irish kid came in and got both his arms tattooed by DeVita and later he came back when he was 18 and Thom said he didn’t think the kid was old enough now. Thom would sleep near the window and would tell the people that even though he was sleeping, you could say his name quietly and he would open up and tattoo you. Thom came from a poor family and didn’t have much growing up but when he started tattooing he knew that this is what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. Thom has since been diagnosed with Parkinsons disease so he cannot tattoo anymore because of his shaking.
I choose Thom DeVita because I love art and I enjoy the art of tattooing very much and I enjoy the background of tattooing. I also like the
