Ryan Fleming is the newest artist to join Sanctuary. Known to many around Portland from his time working at Old Port Tattoo and as a member of the former local band "Twitch Boy", Ryan's great attitude and friendly smile will be sure to win more fans here at Sanctuary.
the following is taken from the 5/16/02 article in CBW...Check out CBW's new interview on Ryan
I went to Wheaton College for a year-and-a-half to be a writer. That was a waste of time. I left because I hated it and I wanted to play in a band, so I did.
Under whom did you get your training? I’m self-taught, and I learned by getting tattoos and watching how other artists do their thing.
What is your specialty? I just try to do whatever the customer wants. I like doing big, custom-color work, fantasy, evil, Japanese, religious stuff. I try to do it all and keep pushing myself.
Who are your artistic influences? Boris Vallejo, fantasy artists like him. As far as tattoo artists go, you could say Paul Booth out of New York, who does a lot of evil shit. He’s the king of evil.
What is your philosophy on tattooing? I just gotta do the best tattoos for the customer that I can, try to push my abilities and the customer’s ideas.
Is there any kind of tattoo you would not do? Racist tattoos. I had one Nazi kid once, I told him to go somewhere else. And, everyone’s sick of tribal, it’s way done.
What is the weirdest tattoo you’ve done? I did a baseball with bats flying around it, baseball bats that is, on a guy’s arm.