Name: Tom De Schuytere
Birth: 1976
Born & raised: Ghent, Belgium
Story:
At a young age, I was fascinated of creative things.
This led me into the world of graffiti at the age of 12 and progressed into airbrush 2 years later. From canvas to bikes and helmet to cars and billboards...I did it all.
Learning the techniques of airbrushing was not an easy task, since there were no classes...it was not even seen as an 'art' at that time. Everything I created was trail & error and based on things I have read in the magazines from overseas.
Even then, I was already intrigued by tattooing and wanted to expand into that field of expertise, but was told that even with the expensive courses, I would not get the chance to get into that world of 'tattoo artists'. So, I left it for what is was...
After 20 years of airbrushing and going through all types of designing arts...graffiti, airbrush, sculpting, oilpainting, webdesign, vector arts, digital drawing & airbrush, etc...I never felt like 'ok, now I have found that way to express myself artistically'
And then tattooing was back into the game, but now, I was determined to give it my best shot! Bought a tattoo lining machine and started on pig-skin. After a while and getting the hang of things, I took it to the second level and started to visit several shops in the hope of getting some kind of apprenticeship with the help of my sketchbooks. All ended up saying that my drawings were great and I had potential, but none would go futher and give me that one chance I needed, since I had no needle on man/women experience.
But nothing could stop me, so I went and bought the equipment I needed to progress and frequently posted pictures on facebook.
After a few weeks, I was contacted by people who offered themselves up as quini pig.
They seemed more confident in me than I was.
The more I practised, the more I got addicted and decided to move forward and make it my line of work.
I got in line with legal procedures, got certified and found what i was searching for...a way to express myself creatively.
An occupation which is different every day and where you keep learning and growing artistically.
The name 'never settle for less tattoos' was chosen by me because of my belief that if you want something bad enough, you will work hard to achieve it and not settle for anything less then your goal.
I hereby would like to thank the people who were insane enough to give me that chance and draw on them! ;-)