Jerad Halverson was always into art.
“Even when I was little, I always had a coloring book,” said Halverson, who’s still putting his artistic talents to use, but these days his canvas is the human body.
Halverson has owned the Atattood Art tattoo shop in Columbus for over five years and recently moved into a new building at 120 E. James St. that will allow him to spread out, display his favorite artwork on the expansive walls and continue to grow.
“I love this building,” Halverson said. It has high ceilings, an arched front doorway and big windows that flood the space with light. His father and brother remodeled it to suit his needs, painting the walls and ceiling, installing four tattoo booths and putting in a wood floor, keeping the historic look of the building while bringing it up to modern standards.
Starting small
Halverson got his start in another (now closed) Columbus tattoo shop called Electric Ink, which was run by Will Scherbarth. The first few times Halverson went into Electric Ink, he was just a client getting tattoos. But the more he watched Scherbarth work, the more he knew he wanted to learn the trade himself.
Scherbarth agreed to take him on as an apprentice, and after six months, Halverson decided to open his own shop, first in a small building on Ludington Street, then into slightly larger digs on James Street, and finally, in January, into his new home, across the street from his former location. He designed his own logo, which is displayed in the shop windows, and is gaining a reputation as a tattoo artist for his full-color, detailed work.
“I’ve been on a rose kick lately,” Halverson said. “Full color roses are really fun to do.”
Every tattoo he draws is a little different. He often incorporates skulls or other graphic elements into his rose drawings, and he likes to use color. Lots of color.
Today’s tattoos are bigger and bolder than older style tattoos, Halverson said. In fact, he often gets asked to cover up small tattoos that look dated, which he can do by strategically placing the new design over top of the old one and using color to draw attention away from any parts that aren’t completely masked.
All of Halverson’s work is custom designed. When clients come in with a picture of another tattoo or a photo off the internet, he uses it as inspiration but makes his own drawing, in his style. “I don’t want to be ripping anybody else off,” he said.
“Sometimes I draw. Sometimes I work on the computer on Photoshop,” Halverson said. When he wants to show a client a design concept, it’s easier to mock it up in Photoshop.
“I can take a rose and bump up the contrast, or darken or lighten it, or add a background to it,” he said.
His clientele
Halverson’s typical client is a woman between 18 and about 40 or 45 years old.
“My style attracts more women than men,” Halverson said. “They like the bright, bold colors that I work with. And girls love roses.”
The oldest client he’s ever worked on was a 79-year-old woman from Las Vegas who wanted to get a big magnolia tattooed on her back shoulder.
“She was really cool,” Halverson said. “I tattooed her daughter and her granddaughter too. They came in together and all wanted to get tattoos to celebrate her birthday.”
Probably his most memorable client, though, is the one who he worked on at a convention in Chicago last weekend — who fainted in the middle of the process.
What does a tattoo artist do when his client passes out? “I just got him a candy bar and a soda and made sure he was all right,” Halverson said. “The guy’s blood sugar had dropped.”
The client was OK afterward, but Halverson decided it was best to call the session done, even thought the tattoo wasn’t. Halverson said he’ll schedule another session with the guy soon to finish.
Spreading the word
In addition to working in his shop, Halverson travels to tattoo conventions, where artists rent a 10-foot-by-10-foot space, where they have just enough room to do their work and display their art.
“You basically run your shop out of a booth for the weekend,” Halverson said. “You can schedule appointments or get walk-ups. It’s a really good way to get your name out there.”
It’s also a great way for artists to meet each other, share ideas and sell drawings or paintings they’ve made. At the Chicago convention, Halverson bought a lot of his fellow artists’ work to hang on the walls of his new shop.
“We’re all in for the art,” Halverson said.
A new Atattood: Columbus tattoo shop moves into bigger space as artist/owner expands his client ...
