Check Out Ian White’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ian White. 

Hi Ian, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself
I started tattooing in 2003 in Dayton, OH. Moving then to Nashville in July of 2009. I opened Safe House Tattoo in 2012. My move from Dayton to Nashville was sparked partially by wanting to try a new city. Then I got the opportunity to tattoo on a couple concert tours, touring along with the bands. Most of the folks I met had some connection to Nashville, so it seemed like a good choice. I was fortunate to be hired on by Black 13 Tattoo which finalized my moving here. Two and a half years later, I branched out on my own. I’ve had different artists come and go over the years. But the overall goal for my shop has been to be a safe place for both artist and client to enjoy the world of tattoo art. We’ve had a very solid crew over the last 5 years or so. Not that my crew before that wasn’t solid, but this is my largest and closest crew. 

Outside of tattooing, I also oil paint and teach oil painting. It’s a major passion of mine. As I round the corner into my 19th year of tattooing, I see myself tattooing a bit less and painting a lot more. 

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It’s been a road dotted with smooth patches and some bigger rough patches. The growth of Nashville as a whole is pretty hard. The first building we started in was sold, and almost every tenant was asked to leave. We moved to another location and thought that the amount of recognizable “makers” in the building would be great for our creative community. Then pretty quickly the tourism in the building ramped up, those makers all left, and their vacated spots were filled with brands we didn’t really associate ourselves with. Then we tried moving to a new build. Worked through that for two years. Right when we were about to move in, the whole building was taken in lien due to the developer not paying the contractors for months. So, we were almost without a home. Then I luckily found a space for sale in Inglewood through a client of mine. My wife and I were able to purchase a space on Gallatin and now never have to worry about landlords again. Plus, it’s very close to my home. So, it’s now directly in the community I reside. I love it. 

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
In tattooing, I specialize in large-scale black and grey illustrative work. I like doing full sleeves, full legs, full back pieces. Subject-wise, I really love skulls. I love looking at them with hope as opposed to darkness. Although I do my fair share of dark imagery. Combining a skull with something like flowers create a great life/death cycle sentiment. And you can spin that off into a vast array of images. I do similarly with my oil paintings. Mostly skulls. 

Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
Nashville is two sides of the same coin for me. I love how much people embrace the arts here and support it. While at the same time it becomes harder and harder for galleries to afford rent or artists’ spaces to be close enough to their community. All around though, I do love this city. I feel like it inspires a good load of creativity. 

Contact Info:

• Website: Safehousetattoo.com
• Instagram: @artbyianwhite

Image Credits
Jonathan Wright