Chris Winn
Occupation: Tattooer
In Business: 15 years
Specialty: Traditional ,New traditional ,Oriental, New School And anything else you want to throw at me! haha!!
Goals: To do the best I can for each and every Customer and give them exactly the tattoo that they Will love for years and that they will remember this experience Happily and look forward to their next tattoo if they so choose. Influences: I have had a lot of them through my career some Were great and some very disappointing. Some of my favorite influences are my good friend Aaron Bell He is the best at everything he does! Kahili Rintye for great friendship and inspiration and tattooing, Ed Hardy, Horiyoshi lll, Mike Rubendall, Seth Ceffari, Mike Malone, Scott ”skully” Helms, Meg McNeil, and the man that I owe it all to Rick Walters, thanks papa!!

Hopes: To be the best Father, Husband ,and tattooer and be well Respected for the person that I tried to be and to have a shop that Is well respected for having great artist, being the funest place to Work in the world and making each customer stoked every time they Think of us!! My mantra is” Live long and prosper and my the Force be With you!! Thanks to all that have helped along the way! Thank you Wife and Son for all you have done and sorry for all those lonely nights And weekends. I Love you!!

As for my story, here it is. After a year long apprentice at the world famous Bert Grimm’s Tattoo on the old Pike in Long Beach with my friend and mentor Rick “Papa” Walters. I moved to 29 palms and went to work for Catfish Carl at Realistic Tattoo. Was there for a year then went to work for Tillie Todd, wife of the late Colonel Todd at Custom Tattoo and was there for about 2 years. My family and I moved again to sunny southern California and I went to work for Kinsey Bolson and Big City Tattoo/1482 in Pacific Beach, California. I was there Tattooing and managing the shop till leaving there to work at Beachin tattoo for Neil Kotter that’s now 454 tattoos in Encinitas, California. I then opened my own shop and that is where I continue to work today.

I have been in the tattoo biz for many years now and have seen many things change. I still strive to do the best tattoos each and every time a new client comes to me to get new work. As my art progresses, so do my influences. I love a number of styles of tattooing. I come from one of the oldest tattoo families in the country, (Bert Grimm’s Tattoo/ Rick Walters) so I am a big fan of all the traditional greats like, Bob Shaw, Colonel Todd, Owen Jensen, Sailor Jerry, Cliff Raven and Paul Rodgers. I am also a huge fan of tattooists like Mike Malone, Bob Roberts, Greg Irons, Jack Rudy, Phil Simms, Fip Buchanan and last but not least one of the greatest tattooist of all time Hiroshi 3.As time goes on many new tattooist that are doing some of the most amazing tattooing that I am inspired by on a daily basis. And all the tattooist out there holding it down and keeping it real and there are many more and could go on for days! You know who you are and thank you for being and inspiration and a friend to me daily.