ASHEVILLE, N.C (828newsNOW) — The sketches Michael McCarthy filled notebooks with as a child eventually became something more permanent.
After decades of drawing, painting and sculpting, McCarthy has spent the past 30 years turning art into tattoos, including the last eight at Diamond Thieves Body Piercing and Tattoo in Asheville.
“I’ve always been drawing, sculpting … some sort of art ever since I was a little kid,” McCarthy said.
Like many in his field, McCarthy entered tattooing through an apprenticeship, a traditional pathway into the profession. His lasted about two years and involved learning under an experienced tattooer, first by observing and later by doing small tattoos.
“That’s generally how tattooers used to start out,” he said. “You have a mentor … and you just sort of learn how to do it from them.”
McCarthy works in what he describes as a “street shop” environment, where artists handle a wide variety of requests rather than focusing on a single style. Versatility, he said, is essential.
“It’s best to have a wide range of things that you’re proficient in,” he said. “A specialty in this kind of environment kind of works against it.”
While he enjoys American traditional and Japanese-style tattoos, McCarthy said his real focus is on designs that fit the body well. He considers how a tattoo flows with a person’s shape and whether it is sized appropriately.
“Any kind of tattoo or design that works well as a tattoo — that fits the part of the body that it’s going on to really well — those are the kind of things that I really enjoy,” he said.
Most customers arrive with at least a rough idea, often inspired by images found online or on social media platforms, he said. From there, the artist works to refine the concept into something that will translate well onto skin.
The job also includes downtime between appointments, much of which is still spent on art. McCarthy and his colleagues draw, research designs and follow other artists’ work online to keep up with trends and techniques.
“We spend a lot of time looking at other tattooers, their work, local artists — just seeing what’s going on around us,” he said.
Even the social side of the shop matters. Camaraderie among artists, he said, is an important part of the culture and the workday.
After three decades, McCarthy has completed thousands of tattoos. The volume of work has shown him the wide range of reasons people choose tattoos and the meanings they carry.
Sometimes those choices are “baffling,” he said, and sometimes they are “beautiful.”
Either way, for McCarthy, the appeal of the job remains simple.
“The best part of the job?” he said. “Doing tattoos, by far.”
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