Hawk's Tattoos
Established in 1979, Hawk's Tattoos is a custom shop that specializes in freehand one of a kind tattoos. Hawk provides outstanding artwork in a clean and safe environment to clientele from all over the world and all walks of life.
Tattoo & Piercing Shop Professional Service
Hawk began drawing people and places from memory at an early age and showed the skills of being gifted in the form of art. He began sculpting by the second grade and drawing portraits at the age of eight. At 17 Hawk was offered the opportunity to attend the Chicago Art Institute but opted instead for a two year apprenticeship in tattooing with Marco and Donna’s Tattoos in Burlington Iowa. Hawk was not drawn toward the popular art culture, but rather the sub culture of tattooing, a choice neither regretted or looked back upon.
Mark “Marco” May was a Marine Corps VietNam Veteran who learned his trade in tattoos after his tour of duty in San Diego California. As a member of the Comanche Motorcycle club in San Diego, Marco applied his trade to the masses. He later moved “Marco’s Tattoos” to Iowa where he met and married the love of his life, Donna. Together they made a team and renamed the business to "Marco and Donna‘s Tattoos", with Marco outlining and Donna shading and coloring. They continued to tattoo until Marco’s passing on Nov. 24th 1994, Donna survived until Sept. 1st 2008. The history of Marco and Donna is one rich with love and also a great chapter of tattooing history.
Hawk went on to establish his own shop, Hawk’s Tattoos, in August of 1979. Being part of the biker and tattoo subculture of the era, he found his niche with hoards of skin waiting. He set out to show the masses that they were not confined to picking from a catalogue of flash, but that the designs were as broad as the imagination and that one can illustrate more of ones self on themselves with Hawk providing the artistic ability to achieve their visions.
Hawk set out to bring more recognition to tattooing as an art form and help change the stereotypes of tattooing. The wall that he worked against for the era was something the new generation of tattooists will never feel. He followed the lead of great tattoo artists like the rebellious Spider Webb, who battled years to free NYC from the tattoo ban of 1958 until it’s demise in 1997, Kari Barba, one of the artistic innovationists to the art form, and Don Ed Hardy, who promoted the art form world wide. Hawk set himself to working long shifts daily, sometimes until three or five in the morning. At the time the “descent” people of society didn’t have any desire to know what “those people” did, yet little did they know that all walks of society entered into the shop for their everlasting mark of distinction. Once accosted by one of the prominent people of the area with the remark “Some unsavory people frequent the tattoo parlor”, Hawk replied “Which ones? The Politicians or the Attorneys?”.
With a hard work ethic, Hawk set to the road traveling weekends on the motorcycle swap meet circuit. He worked the swap meet circuit for years and it took him all over the country, eventually tattooing on main street Sturgis South Dakota from 1987-1993 at the Sturgis Black Hills Motorcycle Rally. Hawk also attended and tattooed at conventions, eventually being part of the panel of judges to help ensure fair and accurate judging of quality tattoos. He later became the first Vice President of the ITA (Illinois Tattoo Association), a lobbying group for fair and accurate defense in legislation aimed at the tattoo industry. In 2006 the ITA helped lead to the abolishment of the 1961 act that prohibited the tattooing of anyone under the age of 21 down to the age of 18. The group also helped to form codes and standards for which legitimate tattoo studios could meet for its clientele. Hawk has also studied at Carl Sandburg College for a degree in nursing to better obtain an understanding of maintaining sterile conditions and was the first in his state to apply the use of the “sterile field” while tattooing.
After the years tattooing at Sturgis Hawk returned to tattooing solely at the shop in downtown Galesburg, where he has entertained a host of tattoo artists. The key word being artists, not tattooists, as Hawk’s has always been. Since the very beginning and to this day, Hawk's is a custom shop only. Custom freehand one off’s built his reputation and has contributed to the tattoo art form. Hawk only employs those with the talent and ability of art, the understanding of the dermis, the understanding of the mechanic’s of the equipment, knowledge of sterilization techniques and the importance of keeping a sterile field in tattooing. Hawk’s provides positive outstanding artwork in a clean safe environment to clientele from all over the world and all walks of life.
Hawk has been the subject of countless articles and interviews, promoted and held many lectures, apprenticed some of the finest compliments to the tattoo community, assisted many other artists and continues applying his art in an otherwise starved area of the world where he feels he is needed.
Hawk has always lived by the mentality and standard that if you do every tattoo as if it were your own to carry for life, was the last last tattoo you'll ever do, was the sole tattoo that you will be judged by and the tattoo was created to the best of your abilities, then the mark you leave in your life as a tattoo artist will most certainly outlast you and beyond the life of the last individual that you will tattoo. This is to say that, we can still look back to the past and on into the future from the toils and struggles of such great artists no longer with us, like Percy Waters, Owen Jensen, Bert Grim, Cap Coleman, George Burchett, Paul Rogers, Charles Wagner, Sailor Jerry, and the list goes on, and to honor them by what we do today is the greatest reward of all as a tattoo artist.