Lansing resident and tattoo artist Nate Kraus does a tree tattoo on Dimondale, Mich. resident Brianna Schafer Nov. 7, 2013, at Splash of Color. Kraus has done an average of at least 3,000 tattoos over the span of his 8 year career. Margaux Forster/The State News
—As he delicately dips the needles into the vibrant ink, Nate Kraus exudes quiet peace. With determined precision, he shades a tree on a girl’s calf with splashes of greens, pinks and browns.
Kraus, a tattoo artist at Splash of Color Tattoo & Piercing Studio, cannot pinpoint how many tattoos he has completed in his eight years as a professional tattoo artist.
“I don’t know,” Kraus said, laughing. “Two to four (tattoos) a day, I work four days a week.”
Kraus, a lifelong Lansing resident, always has been an artist.
“I’ve drawn as early as I can remember,” Kraus, 32, said. “I think art is all around us every single day whether we realize it or not.”
Kraus took college-level art classes sporadically throughout high school. After graduating from Eaton Rapids High School, he worked a number of odd jobs such as mixing paint in a factory and working in a warehouse.
Tattoos always had intrigued him and after he got his first one — the heavy-metal band Slipknot’s tribal ‘S’ logo — Kraus was sucked into the world of permanent ink. He began his apprenticeship at Liquid Tattoo in Lansing at 24 years old. He started by practicing on grapefruits, honeydew melons and pig ears.
“A lot of it was really nerve-wracking,” he said. “Some people were a little hard on me, but that’s a lot of going through an apprenticeship. … You’re putting something permanent on someone’s body — You’re getting in their bubble.”
The first tattoo he ever inked was of a camel on his mentor’s toe.
“So he had camel toe,” Kraus said, laughing at the pun.
And so began his career.
After his time at Liquid Tattoo, Kraus went on to work at Eclectic Art Tattoo Gallery in Lansing. Nearly a year ago, he joined Splash of Color as a tattoo artist.
“I’ve grown tremendously (as an artist),” Kraus said. “It’s so drastic.”
Kraus attributes his success to his drawing skills and ability to identify that not every tattoo can fit on any contour of the body.
“I’m a painter too, so I kind of understand how paint reacts,” said Kraus, whose artwork hangs in Splash of Color’s interior. “To put that in a tattoo is kind of fun.”
Kraus said his favorite type of tattoo is constantly changing, and he currently prefers watercolors, portraits and biomechanical styles, which use mechanics in the artwork.
“Think about your tattoos a lot,” he advises. “Consider how many other people have the same kind of tattoo. Everyone has script, everyone has birds … Think outside the box a little bit.”
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