I’m Jacob. I’m the apprentice at Sacred Skin.

My earliest memories are of drawing dinosaurs.

I grew up in small-town Maryborough, just painting, drawing and spent three years studying art at Sea Of Pain Fine Art Studios under master artist Brett A. Jones. I got itchy feet, keen to get out and start on the journey and aim as far as I could, do it now, why not.

I came to Brisbane and handed around a portfolio to about fifteen studios, I didn’t have any family or friends in Brisbane, I just wanted to be a tattoo artist and didn’t care what was between me and doing that. Most of the places I applied to told me there wasn’t enough work around for them to support themselves, let alone a 19 year old apprentice.

Then I got to Sacred Skin. I still love the electric buzz and the smell of swabbing alcohol that hangs in a clean, busy studio. Tony Oliver told me that he’d give me a chance; starting with register duties, drawing up the custom artwork, cleaning the studio, all that jazz, and if I lasted, he’d teach me how to tattoo… Journey started.

People like Hunter S. Thompson, Karl Kwasny, Brett A. Jones and Bill Hicks really inspire me to go harder artistically. I like big, bold, intense, out-there, viscious and beautiful art. I want to make grown men cry when they look at a tattoo masterpiece.

JACOB DITCHMEN.

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