The Hall of Legends
Those who paved the way. The pioneers whose hands shaped this craft, honored here among the ancestors of the needle.
Living Legends
The greats still working among us
Filip Leu
Bullet, Vaud, Switzerland
Studio: The Leu Family's Family Iron
Filip Leu helped popularize large scale Japanese style body suits in the West and developed the large magnum needle groupings, now produced commercially under his name, for saturating large solid areas of ink.
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Gill Montie
Palm Bay, Florida, United States
Studio: Gill Montie's Tattoo Mania
Gill 'The Drill' Montie founded the famed Tattoo Mania on the Sunset Strip and co-founded the Ink Slinger's Ball, helping bring tattooing into mainstream Hollywood culture during the 1990s.
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Kari Barba
Long Beach, California, United States
Studio: Outer Limits Tattoo
Kari Barba broke through tattooing's gender barrier to become one of the most awarded artists in the craft's history, and helped pioneer the sterile standards now taken for granted in tattoo shops.
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Mark Mahoney
West Hollywood, California, United States
Studio: Mark Mahoney's Shamrock Social Club
Mark Mahoney is widely credited as a founding father of fine line black and grey single needle tattooing, helping elevate the monochrome, Chicano rooted style into an internationally recognized art form.
Visit the ArtistIn Memoriam
Remembered with every mark they left behind
