I began my tattooing career in 1989 with an apprenticeship by Gary “Professor Inkslinger” Barber of Olathe, KS. He was reluctant to teach me because I was only sixteen at the time, but he did anyway. In 1994, I met East Coast Al and went to work at his studio in Kansas City, KS. It was during this time that I was introduced into the National Tattoo Association and met Rand Johnson of Cherry Creek Flash. Creek would later be the primary distributor for much of my flash, along with National Tattoo Supply and TattooFinder.com. After several years of tattooing with East Coast Al, I felt that it was finally time to have a studio of my own.

In 2000, I opened Shane Hart’s Studio of Tattooing in Lawrence, KS. Two short years later, I hosted a one-time tattoo expo at the Adams Mark hotel in Kansas City, MO. Around that same time, a good friend turned me on to product design and I closed my studio in 2004 to pursue this field full-time. I was also blessed with regular guest artist spots at several Kansas City tattoo studios during this three year period, and had a short stint on the Board of Directors of the Alliance of Professional Tattooists. In 2007 my family and I decided to move to Colorado. This would allow me to pursue working with Rich Ives at Steel City Tattoo in Pueblo on a collaborative project to create an “Institute” to pass our tattooing theory and methodology on to fellow tattooists. I am also still currently doing illustrative, custom tattooing.