Tattooing combines creativity and skill with personal meaning. These are the hallmarks of art as individual expression, and yet it wasn’t until recent decades that putting ink on skin moved from the fringes to the center of culture. Tattooists are artists, and few people in today’s society would argue otherwise. No one illustrates this like Jesus Ramos, owner/operator of Inkologist Tattoo Therapy, a tattoo shop in the heart of the Route 66 Historic District.
Ramos got his start as an airbrush artist and muralist before entering the tattoo industry 11 years ago at the urging of local artist Joey Martinez. That experience—and Ramos’ expertise with the soft shading and realism of airbrushing—has given him a reputation for extraordinary realism in his tattoo portraits.
His path from art painted on walls to art inked into skin isn’t particularly unusual these days. “Tattoo artists are accepted in today’s culture much more, because tattoos are attracting more fine artists,” says Rachel Chico, a fellow artist who now works as the manager at Inkologist, alongside Ramos. She says realism and other styles have broadened the acceptance of tattoos. “Getting tattooed is more like collecting artwork now than it has
ever been before.”
That cultural influence inspired Ramos to launch a new YouTube channel, Tattoo Talk Therapy, dedicated to recognizing other artists and tattooists on the High Plains. “I want to create a better way for people to find local artists not based on popularity, but based on skill,” Ramos says. In the meantime, he continues to create murals and tattoos, and will be live-painting a mural during this year’s Texas Route 66 Festival in June.
