When we ask for feedback regarding what tattoo artists should be interviewed, it never fails that the name Ryan Mason will be mentioned two or three times. There's a good reason for that too, as Ryan's work stands out. Living in Portland, OR, that isn't an easy task with the number of high quality tattoo shops and artists in the city. We caught up with Ryan and talked about his work, tattoos, and his general outlook in the industry.
TattooSnob: Let's break it down: your name is Ryan Mason and you live in Portland, Oregon. You're working at Scapegoat Tattoo four days a week, enjoy bagels daily and have a blog you update on a pretty regular basis. What are five other things you'd like both potential clients and mere admirers of your work to know about you?
Ryan Mason: Well, it's funny to think about what kind of things I could say here.... there's a lot of crap I could try and include. I guess I'll just say I'm 26, Im really good at scrabble, I've never barfed in my entire life, my dog is my favorite thing on the planet, and most of the time I'd rather just be playing basketball. I know this is like a tattoo-related interview, so I should probably be talking about that, but the truth is I'm not much of an artist and, aside from being my chosen profession, tattoos don't play such a huge role in my life. I love tattooing, I am dedicated to it, and it has been incredibly rewarding, but it doesn't define me or my lifestyle at all. I'm just another nerd on an island of misfits.
TS: I know you've been tattooing for roughly six years--most of the tattooers I've spoken with talked about a time when it all came together for them artistically. When was that for you and what was it like?
RM: i don't think it's ever "come together" for me. i am very bad at remaining content with myself or my work, and every time it seems like i might have found my focus, i feel the need to move on to something else. finding my place in the world of tattoo has proven to be a never-ending, retarded quest of futility... it's like i'm a dog chasing a laser pointer. i'll never catch it, or even smell it, but i will chase that stupid little dot until i get bored or die.
i will say that, far and away, moving to Portland and starting work at scapegoat has done more for both my career and personal well being that i would ever be able to measure. it's a wonderful place among amazing people and i'm so thankful for the opportunity to be where i am and do what i do.
TS: How would you explain your progression as not just a tattooer but as an artist over the course of your career thus far?
RM: as i said before, i'm not really much of an artist so it's kind of weird to answer that one. i did go art school for a year after high school, and cultivated more of a sketchy/messy way of drawing/composing. then i didn't draw at all for a few years. then i fortuitously landed an apprenticeship, and really had to dig down to learn how to tighten up and refine for tattoo drawings, as i was both trying to remember how i drew at all, and on top of that drawing in a very different way. i then consequently spent the first few years of my tattooing career with a very weird aesthetic.... which is a nice way of saying i sucked and had really poor taste in tattoo design. eventually, with further study of traditional tattooing, coinciding with a move to the west coast into a city full of awesome tattooers, i had to learn how to not suck if i wanted to stay afloat. it seems that lately, i've been able to make my own natural tendencies for making a total mess of my drawings into something tattooable. so basically, first i learned how to be a mess, then i learned how to be clean, so i guess that means now my style has developed (or devolved, depending on how you look at it) into a clean mess. like a tornado in a room full of desk-drawer organizers.
TS: Recently on your blog you addressed the fact that the time may be fast approaching when you're less inclined to tattoo pet portraits, lest you wind up pigeonholed. That being the case, what kinds of tattoos would you like to be doing more of?
RM: i'm going to go ahead and say that i want to do the same things that tons of other tattooers want to do... large-scale japanese and traditional americana. giant backpieces and sleeves with tigers and dragons and snakes and skulls and assorted badassery. i just want to do it all differently.... in a way that's still making the tattoos unique and stand out from the crowd, but without all the worry about having the subject matter be transcendent or something. i have a tendency to get pretty illustrative, and i'd like to have the opportunity to apply that to some more common tattoo themes so people can better see that it's not as much about what you're doing as much as it is about how you do it.
in regards to pet portraits, it's not that i particuarly hate them as much as i just think people have gotten the wrong idea in thinking that's what i'm best at. i feel like at this point, i just don't think i'm going to get any better at them, and it feels like i'm going backwards and hindering my improvement by spending the time on them. i want to move onward and upward, and it's hard to do that when people keep asking for them. i'd just like to encourage folks to be adventurous, because that's where i think my best work has come from.
TS: Are there any tattoos you've done so far this year you'd consider to be a personal favorite?
RM: i'm not going to answer that one, because whatever i pick out, i will probably hate it by the time anyone reads this. however, i will say that this otter here is the most recent thing i finished and therefore is currently what i'm most stoked about. but that will probably change by the time i go back to work tomorrow.
TS: You've stated you try not to book yourself out more than two months in advance. That has to make for some serious legwork on your end when it comes to staying in touch with new clients--what's the motivation behind this? Do you think your clientsperceive a tattoo differently after a two month wait?
RM: it can be a time-consuming, yes. i wrote out this giant FAQ thing on my website being all specific and clear in order to reduce the time spent answering emails... but still, half the time people don't read it anyway. two months is just as far out as i'm willing to go because if i set up appointments out any further than that it will severely stress me out if i ever need to reschedule somebody or if there's an opportunity to travel, etc. and i'd say yeah, a two month wait will certainly require people to be dedicated to their idea and to having me do it. there's not much room for indecision or flakiness from my customers... which is definitely a blessing, even as it puts more pressure on me to really make the tattoo awesome. i do keep thinking at some point everybody is just gonna be like "fuck it, this guy's not worth the wait," but for some reason more and more people keep piling up. for now, i guess it's working.
TS: Speaking of which, let's talk aboutthe last time you were tattooed - who did it, and what was it?
RM: i just recently had the top half of my left arm finished by lewis hess at atlas tattoo here in portland. it's a japanese baku, or "nightmare eater," and it looks awesome... i tend to really take my time with tattoos ideas for my own body and this was an idea i had debated on getting for quite a while, but now that it's there i have no idea what took me so long. lewis is a great tattooer and super nice guy, and he killed it on this thing.
TS: What about other artists out there you'd like to be tattooed by, space and time permitting of course?
RM: filip leu, dan gilsdorf, grez, tim biedron, mike wilson, mike rubendall, steve moore, scott sylvia, eli quinters, jarno kantanen, amongst others.
TS: What are some of your favorite tattoo conventions to attend/work at? Do you have any you specifically like to work, or any new ones you'll be checking out this year?
RM: london and reno are really the only ones left that i have an interest in traveling to, and i'll be working both this year. maybe austin next winter, and i'll probably do the seattle and portland shows this coming fall as well. other than that, i'm pretty sick of conventions. i may take part in some more overseas conventions eventually, but for now i'm all set.
TS: I think anyone that's been tattooed for a few hours has fallen under the spell of their own endorphins and maybe let loose with a few funny stories from their own lives to you. Do you have any particularly memorable experiences with a client you'd like to share?
RM: it'd seem a little strange for me to be telling one of my client's personal stories, so i won't tell any of those. but one time we had the power go out at night while i was in the middle of a tattoo on a traveling client, so i had to finish the damn thing in the pitch dark with a battery and bike light. it was actually kinda fun!
TS: What are you involved with aside from tattooing?
RM: i am involved in being awesome. friends, stupid hobbies, dogs, bikes. that's pretty much everything i do.
TS: Any last minute plugs?
RM: I guess my website goes here, huh? RyanMason.com. anything i do will be mentioned there.
RyanMason.com
TattooSnob.com
TattooSnob: Let's break it down: your name is Ryan Mason and you live in Portland, Oregon. You're working at Scapegoat Tattoo four days a week, enjoy bagels daily and have a blog you update on a pretty regular basis. What are five other things you'd like both potential clients and mere admirers of your work to know about you?
Ryan Mason: Well, it's funny to think about what kind of things I could say here.... there's a lot of crap I could try and include. I guess I'll just say I'm 26, Im really good at scrabble, I've never barfed in my entire life, my dog is my favorite thing on the planet, and most of the time I'd rather just be playing basketball. I know this is like a tattoo-related interview, so I should probably be talking about that, but the truth is I'm not much of an artist and, aside from being my chosen profession, tattoos don't play such a huge role in my life. I love tattooing, I am dedicated to it, and it has been incredibly rewarding, but it doesn't define me or my lifestyle at all. I'm just another nerd on an island of misfits.
TS: I know you've been tattooing for roughly six years--most of the tattooers I've spoken with talked about a time when it all came together for them artistically. When was that for you and what was it like?
RM: i don't think it's ever "come together" for me. i am very bad at remaining content with myself or my work, and every time it seems like i might have found my focus, i feel the need to move on to something else. finding my place in the world of tattoo has proven to be a never-ending, retarded quest of futility... it's like i'm a dog chasing a laser pointer. i'll never catch it, or even smell it, but i will chase that stupid little dot until i get bored or die.
i will say that, far and away, moving to Portland and starting work at scapegoat has done more for both my career and personal well being that i would ever be able to measure. it's a wonderful place among amazing people and i'm so thankful for the opportunity to be where i am and do what i do.
TS: How would you explain your progression as not just a tattooer but as an artist over the course of your career thus far?
RM: as i said before, i'm not really much of an artist so it's kind of weird to answer that one. i did go art school for a year after high school, and cultivated more of a sketchy/messy way of drawing/composing. then i didn't draw at all for a few years. then i fortuitously landed an apprenticeship, and really had to dig down to learn how to tighten up and refine for tattoo drawings, as i was both trying to remember how i drew at all, and on top of that drawing in a very different way. i then consequently spent the first few years of my tattooing career with a very weird aesthetic.... which is a nice way of saying i sucked and had really poor taste in tattoo design. eventually, with further study of traditional tattooing, coinciding with a move to the west coast into a city full of awesome tattooers, i had to learn how to not suck if i wanted to stay afloat. it seems that lately, i've been able to make my own natural tendencies for making a total mess of my drawings into something tattooable. so basically, first i learned how to be a mess, then i learned how to be clean, so i guess that means now my style has developed (or devolved, depending on how you look at it) into a clean mess. like a tornado in a room full of desk-drawer organizers.
TS: Recently on your blog you addressed the fact that the time may be fast approaching when you're less inclined to tattoo pet portraits, lest you wind up pigeonholed. That being the case, what kinds of tattoos would you like to be doing more of?
RM: i'm going to go ahead and say that i want to do the same things that tons of other tattooers want to do... large-scale japanese and traditional americana. giant backpieces and sleeves with tigers and dragons and snakes and skulls and assorted badassery. i just want to do it all differently.... in a way that's still making the tattoos unique and stand out from the crowd, but without all the worry about having the subject matter be transcendent or something. i have a tendency to get pretty illustrative, and i'd like to have the opportunity to apply that to some more common tattoo themes so people can better see that it's not as much about what you're doing as much as it is about how you do it.
in regards to pet portraits, it's not that i particuarly hate them as much as i just think people have gotten the wrong idea in thinking that's what i'm best at. i feel like at this point, i just don't think i'm going to get any better at them, and it feels like i'm going backwards and hindering my improvement by spending the time on them. i want to move onward and upward, and it's hard to do that when people keep asking for them. i'd just like to encourage folks to be adventurous, because that's where i think my best work has come from.
TS: Are there any tattoos you've done so far this year you'd consider to be a personal favorite?
RM: i'm not going to answer that one, because whatever i pick out, i will probably hate it by the time anyone reads this. however, i will say that this otter here is the most recent thing i finished and therefore is currently what i'm most stoked about. but that will probably change by the time i go back to work tomorrow.
TS: You've stated you try not to book yourself out more than two months in advance. That has to make for some serious legwork on your end when it comes to staying in touch with new clients--what's the motivation behind this? Do you think your clientsperceive a tattoo differently after a two month wait?
RM: it can be a time-consuming, yes. i wrote out this giant FAQ thing on my website being all specific and clear in order to reduce the time spent answering emails... but still, half the time people don't read it anyway. two months is just as far out as i'm willing to go because if i set up appointments out any further than that it will severely stress me out if i ever need to reschedule somebody or if there's an opportunity to travel, etc. and i'd say yeah, a two month wait will certainly require people to be dedicated to their idea and to having me do it. there's not much room for indecision or flakiness from my customers... which is definitely a blessing, even as it puts more pressure on me to really make the tattoo awesome. i do keep thinking at some point everybody is just gonna be like "fuck it, this guy's not worth the wait," but for some reason more and more people keep piling up. for now, i guess it's working.
TS: Speaking of which, let's talk aboutthe last time you were tattooed - who did it, and what was it?
RM: i just recently had the top half of my left arm finished by lewis hess at atlas tattoo here in portland. it's a japanese baku, or "nightmare eater," and it looks awesome... i tend to really take my time with tattoos ideas for my own body and this was an idea i had debated on getting for quite a while, but now that it's there i have no idea what took me so long. lewis is a great tattooer and super nice guy, and he killed it on this thing.
TS: What about other artists out there you'd like to be tattooed by, space and time permitting of course?
RM: filip leu, dan gilsdorf, grez, tim biedron, mike wilson, mike rubendall, steve moore, scott sylvia, eli quinters, jarno kantanen, amongst others.
TS: What are some of your favorite tattoo conventions to attend/work at? Do you have any you specifically like to work, or any new ones you'll be checking out this year?
RM: london and reno are really the only ones left that i have an interest in traveling to, and i'll be working both this year. maybe austin next winter, and i'll probably do the seattle and portland shows this coming fall as well. other than that, i'm pretty sick of conventions. i may take part in some more overseas conventions eventually, but for now i'm all set.
TS: I think anyone that's been tattooed for a few hours has fallen under the spell of their own endorphins and maybe let loose with a few funny stories from their own lives to you. Do you have any particularly memorable experiences with a client you'd like to share?
RM: it'd seem a little strange for me to be telling one of my client's personal stories, so i won't tell any of those. but one time we had the power go out at night while i was in the middle of a tattoo on a traveling client, so i had to finish the damn thing in the pitch dark with a battery and bike light. it was actually kinda fun!
TS: What are you involved with aside from tattooing?
RM: i am involved in being awesome. friends, stupid hobbies, dogs, bikes. that's pretty much everything i do.
TS: Any last minute plugs?
RM: I guess my website goes here, huh? RyanMason.com. anything i do will be mentioned there.
RyanMason.com
TattooSnob.com