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Growing up in the radical 1980's, Chris 51 is definitely a bi-product of his childhood environment. "Pop-culture influences every single piece of art I create, whether it is tattooing on the skin, painting on wood, or abusing digital media. I just see a Smurf and a picture pops in my head of it smurfing Strawberry Shortcake's smurf off. After helping run his father's plumbing company for years, it was time for Mr. 51 to start exploring his own, more artistic passions. By age 26 he had begun his own sports photography business. Taking pictures for baseball card companies was fun for him, but it did not pay enough bills. At 27 years old he decided to re-live his youth and play semi-pro football for the Florida Stingrays for two seasons. When he turned 28, Chris decided to follow another passion, so he opened his first record store, called Mayhem Music. "When Napster became popular I had to get creative, so I thought why not have a music store with a tattoo shop in it. When I could not find a good-quality artist I decided to do it myself. So, I closed the music store forever and dove into the first apprenticeship that I could find." "I opened my first tattoo shop the day after I finished my apprenticeship and passed the state exams. I knew from the start that I was going to do things differently in my future shops. I was going to go against everything that was the status-quo in the industry, and create a new kind of tattoo studio for art, families, and fun. There would be no cheap-ass flash pages stapled to the walls or uninviting attitudes or personalities in my shop. After owning and operating music stores and a sports photography business, I learned years ago that smiles and positive customer service are the first things that people notice and remember about your establishment." With exaggerated tales of fallacy and an untamed dorkiness, Chris 51 may bore you to tears with challenges of his vast knowledge of useless Star Trek lingo while working on your ink, but it is a small price to pay for the effort and imagination he will put into your new tattoo. "I like vibrant color tattoos! The more ink caps that I have filled with different colors and the bigger the mess, the better my tattoo will turn out. The same goes for my painting; if I don't end up with acrylic all over the carpet or my pant legs, I know that I have not done justice to the piece." Other than Star Wars, Star Trek (pretty much anything that starts out with Star) comics, classic cartoons or iconic 1980's deities like Mr. T, Pac Man, or Alf; I love tattooing flowers. When about 80% of your clientele is women, you become somewhat of an expert on flowers. "Regardless of what or who I am tattooing though I enjoy it all, because I have the best job in the world. Whenever I even think about complaining I remember that I could still be plumbing in the rain like in the old days. Every day I learn more because every day I push myself to try and outdo the day before. Tattooing has become part of my soul." |
 
    
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