I’ve heard rumors of an amazing tattoo artist.
Only rumors, whispers on the wind. A tattoo artist who is of unparalleled skill, his peers sing his praises, yet his work is unseen.
A tattoo artist that doesn’t submit his work to magazines, who does not put any of his work on the internet, who does not work out of a studio, a tattoo artist who doesn’t advertise much.
An enigma, one who is known by other artists but unknown to the general population?
His name is Mike Roper.
The first time I heard of him was, was on the TattooNOW forums, someone looking for pictures of his work. They were lamenting at the scarcity of examples of his artistry on the internet. In an article in prickmag.net, Mike Roper was praised by Grime as being able to “tattoo circles around like 99% of the tattooers. . . he's the shit!”
Wow.
Now my interest was peaked. Who is this guy, some of his work has to be on line. Right?
Wrong. After looking high and low and I’ve only found a smattering of his work online.
Now I’m fiending , to find out more about Mike Ropers work. How can I get an appointment? Why is he so mysterious?
A While talking about the design for my next piece, I asked Marco if he ever heard of Mike Roper. He looked at me; pulled out a book with some of Mike Ropers work and said four words.
“He is the Shit”
Yow.
See, Marco is all about lines, shading and just good clean quality work. If I trust him to work on me and he says Mike’s the shit, then He’s the Shit.
So saying that, from what I've found out, Mike Roper is one of the best Americans doing a traditional Japanese style in the States. The absence of any online portfolios leads me to belive that he is very private person. There are rumors that he keeps a book at No Regrets Tattoo in Tempe, Az, although they have yet to be substantiated.
After the next few pieces I’ll be ready for that back piece I’ve always wanted. Maybe I’ll run into him in my travels.
