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He said, \u201cNo one\u2019s ever taught me how to draw. I\u2019ve always just followed the path wherever the pen took me. I was way more interested in drawing and comic books than football, and my dad couldn\u2019t understand why I drew all the time. I told him it\u2019s just what I do.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like most parents, his dad wanted the best for him and saw only a world full of starving artists and told him he\u2019d end up as a tattoo artist if he didn\u2019t watch it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cToday, my dad is my biggest fan. He shares my work all the time. He\u2019s awesome.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the path of the pen didn\u2019t lead straight to Lost Highway Tattoo Studio and the space he shares with artist Jermain Simmons. Pierce worked several jobs following high school, one at a Fayetteville liquor store. When things slowed on his shifts there, he drew without thoughts or ultimate purpose beyond passing the time until the evening when a customer asked if he could keep his drawing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI went home, didn\u2019t think anything of it. I came back to work the next afternoon, and there was a business card from Addiction Tattoo, the first tattoo shop in Fayetteville. [The gentleman at the liquor store] had given my drawing to [the owner], Robert Wellman, and Robert called and asked if I\u2019d like to come in and check it out and see what it was like,\u201d Pierce said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He was 29 at the time, terrified and intimidated as he watched the artists use needles and ink to trace lines from which intricate designs emerged. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt was weird to see. The customers weren\u2019t crying, and it freaked me out, seeing so much art put on people,\u201d he said. \u201cI struggled with it for a long time but eventually just settled in, and I couldn\u2019t imagine doing anything else. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Following Addiction Tattoo, Pierce worked at Raining Ink in Columbia but dreamed of working for himself. He opened Lost Highway in Pulaski in 2011, then the path of the pen etched his way home when he opened Lost Highway in Fayetteville in 2012. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s an art that has grown in popularity and now spans generations and socioeconomic groups. Everywhere you go, you glimpse inked images engraved on canvases of skin representing love, loss, hobby, hope, fascination, and obsession. They are small and unseen on many you encounter daily and large and detailed on others. They are personal and often represent transition, growth, and revelation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhen I started tattooing, I didn’t tattoo as many older people. It did happen, don\u2019t get me wrong, but \u201cInk Masters\u201d [reality show] hadn’t started yet,\u201d he said. \u201cThen, if you were tattooing older people, they were generally bikers, old cowboys, or old truckers. \u201cLast Man Standing\u2019\u2019 was also a pretty good show. America loves competition. Those shows got really popular, and the next thing you know, we have little ladies coming in for butterflies on their feet, and it’s gone from there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Tattoos are more common today, but, like all art, they\u2019re not for everyone. However, unlike most art, they are sometimes viewed in a less than favorable light. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Pierce said, \u201cTattoos don’t make you a bad person, and that’s a big thing. There are doctors with sleeves and nurses with tattoos. Lawyers and teachers get tattooed.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n And his favorite thing about his work is the people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDifferent people come in every day, and I get to talk to them and cut up with them in a different way,\u201d he said. \u201cIf somebody\u2019s sitting there, and they’re not comfortable, or they’re hurting, I can start talking to them. It will still hurt, but talking makes it better. Or if they’re talking way too much and getting anxious, I can calm them down. The worst thing you can do when you come is be nervous.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n If Pierce could go back today and speak to that little boy who loved drawing, he\u2019d tell him, \u201cIt’s gonna be okay. Yeah, you got this. Just keep being you. You’re not weird.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Follow the path of the pen. GN <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" JOHNNY DEPP said, \u201cMy body is my journal, and my tattoos are my story.\u201d American tattoo artist Kat Von D agreed when she said, \u201cI am a canvas of my experiences; my story is etched in lines and shading, and you can read it on my arms, my legs, my shoulders, and my stomach.\u201d And […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":18542,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-feature"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/goodnewsmags.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/lost-highway-3-1024x683.jpg\")
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