Daily Inspiration: Meet Chris Fox

Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris Fox

Hi Chris, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I grew up in a small city here in Michigan, Ionia. My mother was an amazing artist, and my father is a fantastic musician. My whole life they both heavily supported anything I felt was my calling, but being their son, I believe being around them molded my interests to their skill set. So I too ended up becoming an artist and musician.
I became fascinated with tattoos from a very young age. I don’t know how young I actually was, maybe 9 or 10, when my father got a tattoo of Taz playing a guitar on his bicep. I obsessed over it and fixated on it. At the time for my age bracket, Looney Tunes was the coolest thing ever. So seeing that my dad got to have a permanent image of Taz on his arm just blew my mind. At the time I was also very much into comic books and the dream job at the time was to be a comic illustrator. So to think I could have the art that I see in the books I was reading or cartoons I was watching on my actual skin was insanely overwhelming. I started drawing on myself a lot. I would trace the outline of my body from photos onto paper then plan out the designs I would get on myself. When I was 16 I secretly got a tattoo that I hid from my parents (that I don’t even know if they ever knew about to be honest) and the day I turned 18 I got my first professional tattoo. By the time I graduated high school I already had a sleeve started.
As a child, like I mentioned I wanted to be a comic illustrator, and worked very hard towards that. My parents helped nurture that by purchasing me any supplies I would need and signing me up for art classes outside of school. I had a few amazing art teachers in school. Most notably a man by the name of, Doug Lillo. He was my elementary school art teacher. He himself was also into comic illustration. He saw some potential in me and took me under his wing. Teaching me outside of school, sharing his comic collection with me, he taught me about comic artists from the past, he took me to comic shops in cities like Grand Rapids and Lansing that had larger selections then what was available to me in Ionia and he even got me into comic illustration classes at Kendall on some sort of a scholarship. So between my parents and Mr. Lillo, I spent a lot of my childhood training to become some sort of artist.
Despite everything I just said, by the time I had turned 18, I had a new profession in mind, rock star. I was playing in bands already, gigs almost every weekend, and had learned how much it would actually take for me to become a famous comic artist. It seemed like I was more on the track of being successful in the music industry than in comics, so I leaned into that instead, still doing illustration on the side for shirt designs for bands for an extra few bucks here and there.
Twoish years after I graduated high school, I was working at a job I hated at the mall, still playing gigs with the band but very rarely and still getting tattooed whenever I had any sort of extra money. I remember one night after getting tattooed, the question popped into my head, “Why am I not doing this for a living?”. For some reason it had never clicked for me that I could be a very good candidate for this type of work. I reached out to my go to tattooer, Greg Drake (now owner of Local Tattoo in Lansing, MI), to see if I could become his apprentice. If I remember correctly, he wasn’t able to take on an apprentice of his own where he was working at the time. But he did however make some calls for me and got me lined up with another Lansing tattooer for an apprenticeship. My mentor was a man that went by the name, Hawk. Hawk had just opened his new shop in south Lansing and gave me a foot in the door of the tattooing industry. My apprenticeship took almost 2 years while still working a mall job. On July 6th, 2006 I officially finished my apprenticeship and became a professional tattooer. I wasn’t good by any means, but had earned the title.
I spent almost the next decade bouncing around Michigan to different shops. Grand Rapids (The Tattoo Parlor and Piercing Studio), back to Lansing (Fish Ladder Tattoo Co.), Ypsilanti (Depot Town Tattoo), Hamtramck (Harlequin Tattoo) and briefly Troy (Ironclad Tattoo). I was also traveling a lot, doing guest spots at different shops around the country and doing a lot of tattoo conventions. I gained a lot of knowledge and encouragement from more experienced tattooers than me in this time span. I consider them all to be my mentors. Chris Boilore, Eric Jenks, Dawn Smith, Bill Falsetta, Jon Larson, Mike Emmett and of course Greg Drake. With all of their guidance, it molded my work into what it is today.
In 2015, I returned to Lansing to be closer to the area I grew up in and take over Fish Ladder Tattoo Co. in Old Town, Lansing. Since then I’ve been doing what I can to see the shop flourish, teach our local community about the world of traditional tattooing and help the community when we are able to. We have had some amazing highs and some devastating lows since I took the shop over. But I do what I can to keep pushing forward with the support of our crew and incredible client base. I’m mainly focused now on just spreading as much positive energy and love out into the world as I can through tattooing.
That brings us to now. I have spent large chunk of my life within the walls of FLTC and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. We have big plans for 2025 and I’m excited to see what happens next.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Learning how to tattoo properly, in both design and application, is a massive struggle. At least it was when I was coming up in this industry. Access to everything you wanted to know or find wasn’t as readily available as it is now with how far the internet has come since then. Tattooing used to be very gate kept and safe guarded back then. And in 100% honesty, I really wish it still was. I was told once by a more experienced tattooer that I was part of the last generation of tattooers that actually had to work for it. And I know the tattooers that came before me had it even harder, which I can’t even begin to imagine what that was like for them.
I don’t want to go too far down this road because I’m not a fan of being negative or putting that type of vibe out into the world. But the struggle was very real. Lots and lots of trial and error. Thousands of hours spent at home drawing and painting. All that with dealing with classic saying, “you are your own worst critic” applying to it’s fullest extent. So nothing ever seemed or even now seems good enough. But to succeed, the struggle is necessary. This profession, without the right mindset, can lead to heavy depression and leaves very little room for relationships or any meaningful social life. It can be a bumpy road to travel down and I had to work very hard to stay on it to be where I am currently.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Well, I thought this whole interview was already about me being a tattooer. So that is very evident by now I’d assume.
I can execute most styles of tattooing efficiently. There is a couple that I’d prefer to refer a client else where. My main concern above all is making sure any client gets the best piece possible, even if that means I’m not the one making it for them. I’d say I specialize in more of an illustrative take on American and Japanese Traditional tattooing. That is the only way I can figure out how to describe how I draw and design tattoos naturally. It is by no means strict traditional tattooing of either style, even though I have great love for both and do both efficiently I’d like to think. But I use the foundations, rules and subject matter of both styles to come up with the work that I do.
I’m not comfortable trying to guess what sets my work apart from others. Everyone has different tastes and it’s not up to me to decide what’s better than what. I would however hope that clients, who often turn into good friends, return in part because they enjoy who I am as a person and how I conduct myself.

Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
I think what I get the most is how intimidating I look versus how I actually am. I understand how I look and how that still has a stigma with some people. I know people that aren’t thinking about tattoos every single day probably can’t fathom how I go about everyday life looking like I do. And I admit, I still play the part of the intimidating tattooed guy to tease some of the younger generations. But ultimately I really enjoy being positive, helping people when I can and just overall spreading good vibes into the world.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @foxtattoos and @fishladdertattooco

Image Credits
Laicee Thill Photography
Seth Melrose
Chris Sherburt