Our story
The team
Nate and Lof started tattooing together when the world shut down. Being locked down with long-time friends and owners/artists of the well-known Tattoo Lounge, well guess it's no surprise they embraced the opportunity to learn the wonderful art of tattooing. Years later they're still at it, hungry for new experiences and honing their skills every step of the way. When Nate found running partner Gina one thing led to another and soon she joined the team as a piercer, with her keen interest in the human body and body modification it was a perfect fit. Together the trio are The Tattoo Valley team, for now at least. As the past few years have shown Nate and Lof are always working on something to improve their art, their business, and themselves.
Lof's version
Amongst the variety of life experiences, tattooing is one that has finally managed to steal his love and start the chase to mastery of this craft. There is never a point of completion or final success in the arts and this is what he loves about it; the continuous challenge for improvement, the philosophy of Kaizen – a concept he lives by (and in fact was the very first tattoo he ever got).
While tattooing is his life now he still loves getting physical, be it martial arts or one of his many other activities from running or cycling and recently even swimming when he decided to try his luck at a little triathlon. If there’s something to do he is probably game. So don’t be surprised when you catch a glimpse of boxing gloves or a bicycle at the studio, he’ll probably be heading off somewhere when he is done working for the day.
Nate's narrative
The stoic, who is always the life of the party. While this may seem like a contradiction at first glance it is a practice in the virtue of temperance as Nate would say – one of the four virtues he strives toward along with courage, justice, and wisdom. Finding balance is only natural as he has gone from one extreme as a locally famous, or perhaps infamous, rockstar – to the other when he went into corporate working in design, marketing, and advertising. Now besides being a tattoo artist, he is also a trail athlete of note, although he will be modest and claim it's not so impressive we beg to differ.
While the music is on the back burner have no doubt he has a busy life between training and tattooing. Bringing his skills of composition from his background in music and graphic design to his art of tattooing it is a pleasure to have Nate in the studio whether it's sharing stories or giving tattoo advice.
Gina's Journey
From spectacles to spectacular mountain views Gina's interest spread far and wide but her love for body art has been with her for the longest time. When she finally got the opportunity to get involved it was grabbed with both hands and there's been no looking back yet. Her journey in body modification started in piercing as the studio was in need of a piercer and well the rest is history. We we are sure there is still much more growth to come from her both in the studio and alongside Nate as they tackle, what some may call insane, mountain missions.