Smiley

Hi, my name is Mike Smalley – you’ll also hear me called Smiley around the shop.  I am a native Oregonian, raised in the small town of Elmira.  I have art in my blood – my great, great uncle is Granville Redmond, a famous California landscape artist.  He has an oil painting in the Whitehouse, and I have an old cigar box lid that he did a painting on while cleaning his brushes.

I started doing artwork at the age of five or six.  My parents didn’t have much, so I only had pencils to work with.  Everything was in black and white.  I was eight when I was introduced to the world of color.  My mother gave me my first set of colored pencils, and I became passionate about color.

Despite my artistic talent, I was forced to attend school.  My favorite subject was Spanish because I had a crush on my teacher.  I passed the course with A’s.  I spent my youth swimming, hunting, gathering rocks and camping, activities I continue to enjoy.  I left the Elmira area at the age of 17 to join the Coast Guard, and I was sent to the East Coast where I was a radar operator on a coast guard cutter.

Since leaving the Coast Guard I have pursued jobs in which I can showcase artistic creativity.  I believe in being the best I can be and worked for many years as a bakery manager.  I became disillusioned with baking when all I needed was a box knife to open boxes of frozen bread.

I hooked up with my old pal Bonnie Jean and joined the exciting world of tattooing in 2002.  I enjoy meeting customers and helping them express themselves through art.  I’m proud to work in a professional shop, and of being a member of the Alliance of Professional Tattooists.

Everyday I go to work is exciting and different, I have never had a job so rewarding.  I feel very fortunate to have been able to turn my passion for art into a career.