Jeremy Harrington

I began my journey in tattooing on my 18th birthday at local shop in Tulsa, OK. After quite literally begging to be taken on as an apprentice and showing my talents  through drawings and paintings. I was told to return when I was old enough, a promise I did not soon forget. 

My initial apprenticeship at that shop was very much an old school discipline. I was doing a lot of grunt work in the beginning with very little in the way of actual training. But I buckled down, knowing thatin those times, it was the way everyone began. So if I wasn’t cleaning the shop, I was cranking out more drawings, things I hoped to one day be able to put on people. 

I learned old school ways of doing everything; setting up stations, taking apart and rebuilding coil machines, sanitation, and the science at the time behind tattooing. 

PROHIBITION STRIKES

At the time, tattooing was still illegal in Oklahoma and would stay that way for several more years. But as many other things, I knew that the day would come when it would be legalized. 

I spent much of my time with the Oklahoma Body Artist Coalition, discussing legislation that could be passed to allow all Oklahoma artists a legal career. Many of the people in my shop at the time, and the OBAC as a whole are still tattooing in Oklahoma to this day. 

It wasn’t long however, before the shop I was working at closed. The owner of that shop since passed away and I was left without a home in the industry for many years. I was not deterred from tattooing altogether, and never gave up on my search for somewhere that I could continue after the laws in Oklahoma changed in 2006.