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Houston Patton, tattoo artist of Greensboro
Kingpin Tattoos, 272-2725

Bombs away

I am a tattoo artist, but I am really influenced by graffiti street art. Whenever I can, I like to go out and just bomb — which is the term for going out and painting graffiti, going out and tagging trains.

My stuff has a comic influence, as well. I liked “X-Men” and “Spawn.” I have been obsessed with comics and spray paint since I was a kid.

I’m a very visual person. If you say something to me, I’m not really thinking, I’m visualizing what you are saying in my head.

I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t creating. I didn’t want to live my life for anyone else; I wanted to just be me. I saw my parents dealing with the crap they had to do every single day. There’s no point in being miserable your whole life. I had to figure out something to make it work.

When I was in seventh and eighth grades, I would sit at home with markers and draw full sleeves on myself so I could go to school the next day with tattoos. I couldn’t see myself doing something normal.

A street show — indoors

It’s called “Art:Unauthorized.” I think I have between 15 and 20 pieces. ... It’s about everything you could think of with street culture in general.

Because it is in a gallery space, I did a few things that played on the formality of everything. Lots of gold ornate framed mirrors that I have shattered and thrown ink on. I created a light box that’s hanging on the wall, and I took a piece of Plexiglas and wrote in the front of it: “Looks like they brought the ghetto in here.” On the back side, there is a creepy smiley face kind of glowing behind the letters.

Any art exhibit I do I like to incorporate my own personal sketches, sort of show the space from my house that I work in and bring it into the space where I am displaying. So I will have balled-up sketches, ink pens, empty cans, markers. I did a lot of stuff I haven’t done before.

I want to believe

There’s no possible way that we are the only planet with life on it. It’s just the idea of knowing we’re a small part of something endless. The last tattoo I got was a UFO abducting a person on my finger.

Around the office

We all know what each other really likes. We do paintings for each other. I did the Newcastle Mustache (points to a huge painting on the wall of a Newcastle beer bottle with a thick mustache). Greg (Martin) has the greatest mustache on the planet, and he loves Newcastle.

We share a room (at Kingpin Tattoos), and when I first started, we realized we had that in common. So ever since then it’s an ongoing theme for me to do stuff with Newcastle and a mustache.

(Owner) Jon (Story) has a gigantic beard, loves “Star Wars,” and he doesn’t like vegetables at all. I did a painting for him for Christmas one time that was kind of pop arty. It was Darth Vader with these dots on the background, he’s sitting there, and he’s all tweaked out, of course, and he has a big beard, and there’s a cheeseburger behind him.

That’s just Jon wrapped up in a painting.

Flesh for fantasy

I love drips. I love the motion of paint and how it moves and lays and splatters. It blows my mind when ink hits, how it reacts. I try and do a lot of those details, colors, lines and movement. It’s art through tattooing.

I've been doing a lot of abstract stuff on people. There was no stencil, imagery or concept other than abstract art, and I love it.

Anytime someone comes in here and actually lets us be artists and show our creativity, you’ll get a better tattoo because we are going to enjoy it a lot more, and it’s personal to us.

People don’t realize you can do anything you want when it comes to tattoos.

As told to Erin McClanahan Rainwater. Contact her at eringrey718@yahoo.com.