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James
was born in St. Louis, Mo and attended high school at
Central Visual and Performing Arts High School. After
graduating in 1990, he attended both the Center for
Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan and the University
of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri before settling at
the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. After three
years at SAIC he graduated with a Bachelors degree in
Fine Art in 1995. James started tattooing while at the
Art Institute in 1994. Self-taught, he worked on friends
in his spare time while working coloring comic books.
In 1996, answering an ad in the paper, James was hired
at Milios Salon as a tattoo artist. While at Milios,
he worked with Jason Leisge (now at Infinity Tattoo
in Portland, Oregon) and then his brother Tim Kern.
While at Milios James expanded his knowledge of the
art of tattoo by talking with and observing other talented
tattoo artists in the area such as Guy Aitchison (to
who he owes a great debt to for his openness and encouragement),
Jason Leisge, Kim Saigh, Ben Wahhh, later Jon Clue,
and also his brother Tim who was apprenticing at Dreamcatchers
in Columbia, Missouri. In 1999, he participated in a
tattoo demonstration at University of Illionois-Chicago
as part of a lecture series celebrating body art. After
approximately three years at Milios, it was time for
a change and James and Tim moved to No Hope No Fear
(formerly owned and operated by David Kotker) in the
Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago. His work has won
numerous awards at tattoo conventions and has been published
in many tattoo magazines, as well as feature articles
in Tattoo Magazine (August 1998) and Skin Art #70, and
also magazines in Germany and Japan.After moving to
Portland, Oregon in 2004, he worked with Nate Hudson,
Tracy Faraca, Pedro Dorsey and Tim Jordan at OPtic Nerve
Arts. James is currently tattooing in Portland, Oregon
at No Hope No Fear and working tattoo conventions as
well as guest tattooing at shops around the country.
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