Durb Morrison's photostream

Born in Newark, Ohio on December 28th, 1972, I graduated high school in 1991. Surviving a childhood that seemed doomed by circumstances, I saturated myself in art and went on to excel in art classes in high school with dreams of attending art college. At the tender age of 14 a few of us punk kids decided to bust into mom's sewing machine kit and tattoo each other. I was slowly brought into the world of tattooing through a family member, and abandoned the art college dream to focus intensely on the art of tattooing. I was mainly self-educated from the start, having a bunch of crazy punk friends that allowed me to tattoo them which helped me learn quickly. I began using professional equipment at the age of 17, which was the beginning of my actual tattoo career. Over two decades ago, that was the moment that fueled my fire for tattooing, making my interest grow quickly for tattoos at that moment and sending me on an amazing journey through life!

At the age of 18, straight out of high school, I was invited to work in a professional tattoo studio to work with Tim Miller in Columbus, Oh. Which is what originally brought me to Columbus, Ohio working with him for a year before I decided to travel the country tattooing, settling down in Anaheim, then Huntington Beach, California. Early in my career in 1994 I began receiving dozens of awards for my work and started to get my tattooing published in every major tattoo magazine. I later met the infamous Sailor Moses (R.I.P.) while traveling the country, and worked his booth at Sturgis in 1993. He gave me the invitation to move to Biloxi, MS to learn more from him. In 1994 I moved back to Columbus to open Stained Skin, which went on to become a staple in the tattoo industry. In 1999 I opened my second studio in my hometown of Newark, Ohio called Second Skin. My studios have always had an incredible amount of intensely talented tattoo artists working there over the years, which gave me the opportunity to constantly grow and expand, meet new artists, and learn new techniques. I have since sold both of my studios to focus intensely on The Hell City Tattoo Festival and other art projects and publications.

Today, I am a proud father and also organize and promote the Hell City Tattoo Festival in Columbus, Ohio and also in Phoenix, Arizona, which have become one of the industry's favorite conventions. I have consulted for some of today’s top tattoo conventions. I currently tattoo privately as well as on the road at conventions and guest spots. I have had artwork sell in numerous art galleries throughout my career. I have recently become a contributing writer for Tattoo Magazine, where I interview other tattoo artists. I am very much an Apple Computer advocate and do a lot of design work on them for my own personal art as well as designing many things for Hell City! My interest in Apple’s iPhone sparked my interest in designing apps that give back to the tattoo industry and are educational as well. I have recently released my first “Tattoo IQ” app on the iphone with more in the works. I’m also the owner of Pint Size Publishing, which has released “Miniature Paintings By Big Artists” the first of many pint size books to come.

When I'm not tattooing or organizing Hell City I find time to paint, write, design, play paintball, mma, snowboard, play video games and hang out with family and friends. I enjoy other mediums of art outside of tattooing, including wood sculpture, metal sculpture, watercolor, oil painting, acrylic painting and graphic design.