JON

 

My name is Jon Whitman and I started drawing at an early age working with my father, Maurice Whitman, comic artist for DC Comics, Charlton Press, and Fiction House along with many other publishing companies.

 

Most of my formal art training came from my dad and my enrollment in the School of Art & Design, NYC and the NY Art Students League of Lower Manhattan. At the age of 15, I lost most of my left hand in a 4th of July explosives accident. I was always interested in tattooing, though I knew with one hand I would have many hurdles to overcome to become the best tattoo artist I could be. My first tattoos were done at Big Joe Kaplan's where I hung around and was getting tattooed at with my older brother. The earliest influences on me were the crew of Big Joe, Zeke Owen who did my first tattoo, and Louie Lombi. At the age of 16, my father knew that tattooing was going to be my niche in life, and he often took me out of the city to visit Huck Spaulding MFG in Voorheesville, NY where I first met Huck Spaulding and Paul Rogers. Both were incredibly welcoming and helpful to me through that time. My pursuit of tattooing was truly made possible by Zeke, who believed in me and taught me the building blocks of this craft, and told me that I could do this despite having one hand.  I soon went on to open my first tattoo studio, Irezumi Designs, in 1978, and then expanded to open up two more shops, Bare Necessities and Murder Ink in Waterbury and Torrington, CT where I spent my career leading up to moving to VT in 2008.

 

After becoming ill with diabetes, I closed my shops in Connecticut and moved to Vermont.  I trained Rachel Brown, a very talented local VT artist, who opened Strange Brew Tattoo in Brattleboro, VT in 2011. While I still have a deep love for old-school tattooing, I am now enjoying the opportunity to expand my knowledge of new styles of tattooing among our ever-steady and growing clientele. Being old-school, and loving traditional tattooing, Sailor Jerry, Lyle Tuttle, and Zeke Owen are icons I look up to. I also have specialty experience in the field of cosmetic and surgical reconstructive tattooing. I am licensed and I still perform this service under the supervision of Dr. Joel B. Singer of Imperial Plastic Surgery in Westport, CT.