2008 Woodie Awards
Local artist etches with permanet purpose
Nicole Cutler - TNH Reporter
Issue date: 4/13/04 Section: News
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George James Brown III of Dover definitely isn't a part of that boredom. He has 18 tattoos, all representative of one of his personality traits: electric.
Brown is a tattoo artist at Hazel'z Inkwell Tattoo and Piercing Studio in Durham. His parlor is located in the second room of Hair Dimensions, the hair salon on 5 Jenkins Court that recently opened up this past November.
Brown, a 32-year-old tattoo artist, wears jeans, sneakers and a button-down black shirt with red bursts of flame crawling down the center and on the sleeves. He has more hair on his brownish-colored moustache and goatee than he does on his head. His 18 tattoos are located on the back of his neck, his stomach and his legs and arms. He drew the tattoos on his legs and stomach himself, and the others were created by old friends and former bosses.
Although his many tattoos distinguish him on the outside, his morals and values depict that of a loving father, a caring husband and an extremely talented man. He claims that every tattoo artist has a "clouded closet" and admits that he does as well, but his family and job are his foundation; they keep him grounded.
His tattoos range from robots to cable wires, and from men in electric chairs to a man thrashing at another man.
"People misunderstand these tattoos as being violent, but they are reflections of who I am," Brown said. "It's an amped look. I have high energy."
Brown said that the tattoo of the man in the electric chair relates back to his childhood days, reminding him to stay out of trouble.
"This takes me back to my time of crisis, of being homeless, of being kicked out of the house when I was 16," he said. "I used to have dreams about this tattoo before I got it. It keeps me aware, reminds me to not go astray."
The tattoo of the man thrashing at the other man represents a situation when his child was harmed. He said that he put that tattoo on himself to hurt himself instead of hurting the man who harmed his child.
"It was my way of coping, rather than doing something stupid," he said.
