Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris Dominick.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I started apprenticing to be a tattoo artist about 10 years ago in Baltimore. At that time, I was bartending in Timonium and a customer became somewhat of a regular and I started talking about tattoos. Turns out he was a tattoo artist looking for an apprentice. I went in to shadow him, fell in love with the craft, and the rest is history. Shortly after my apprenticeship I moved to Florida and was tattooed on treasure island off of Petersburg. I lived there for 2 years where I met my future wife.
We moved back to Maryland and that’s when my craft really started taking off. I had a private studio in the beginning, building my clientele in preparation to open a studio in fells point. In that time I did tons of traveling all over the country tattooing ans meeting tons of people. I brought on two business partners and the layer three collective fells point was a go! We have had that location for 5 years slowly growing and building over time. Our new location in Towson has been open almost a year now and is doing very well! Towson is the busier of the two locations and has a lot more foot traffic.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
We have dealt with a lot of roadblocks. In our business, you have a lot of people that love it, but a lot that hate it or just doesn’t understand. When opening fells point we had to maneuver through zoning and research some ways to open per the laws. No one had opened a tattoo studio in fells point for over 10 years I believe but we persevered and we’re able to open after months of back and forth. Towson was no different and in fact worse. Same story but with many more moving parts that involved as high up as county councilman and a lot of lawyers fighting in our favor for what’s right and lawful. Tattooing as a whole is a demanding career. A lot of hours spent outside of the shop working. Missed time with family, and stressful scenarios sometimes.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am primarily a black and gray realism artist but I love the color too. I love tattooing animals and anything from nature, portraits, and also lettering. I feel like my style is a little different than others, mainly in the sense that I feel a lot of people can tell I did a tattoo by looking at it. I take customer service very seriously and I think that also makes me stand out above other artists sometimes.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
It’s so mainstream now, I feel like that trend will continue and it will become even more accepted and normal to have tattoos
Pricing:
- Day rates are 800
- 150 an hour
- 80 minimum
Contact Info:
- Email: Layer3collective@gmail.com
- Website: Layer3collective.com
- Instagram: Chrisdomtattoo or layer3collective or layer3collectivetowson0
Image Credits
Brian Tankersley
