<p>&quot;If I can shake hands with an 87 year-old man who said he doesn&rsquo;t have any tattoos but he was moved when he saw mine on TV; if I can come across a 10 year-old and they can say that they are excited by my stuff to create art, then I&#39;ve done it,&quot; says<em> Ink Master</em> winner Anthony Michaels. With the great power of being able to show your tattoos to the masses through televison, comes great responsiblity to the tattoo community to be creative and technical. Though Mr. Michaels has only been legitimately tattooing for six years and was up against tattoo veterans with decades in the chair, he rightly deserved the crown. His tattoos were perfect and dynamic. He&#39;s not only a talent, he really cares about the craft. As you&#39;ll read in this interview he states, &quot;There is more to tattooing than turning the purple to black.&quot;</p>

- Kasey Michaels

How did you go from semi-pro basketball to embarking on a tattoo career?

Easy, I just made a choice. Growing up I wanted to be influential, I wanted to be a leader. A lot of my friends and peers were all athletes—we were all pretty talented—we played all the sports you can think of and basketball was my calling. I pursued it, was able to make some money, play a little college ball, play a little professional, but tattooing was always in the back of my mind. I was an artist before I was an athlete. In seventh grade I told myself that one day I wanted to be a tattoo artist while everybody was saying they wanted to be NBA stars and NFL stars and doctors and all this other crap. I wanted to go against the grain and do something that was taboo and unheard of. I always kept my artistic ability sharp, I was drawing and painting a lot. I did a lot of drawing for tattoo companies and tattoo clients, one being Enchanted Dragon here in town. And I just got tired, I needed change and decided to just make the jump. I had a long list of people waiting for me to tattoo. I had been drawing all of their artwork and sending them to reputable shops in town. It was my time. I didn’t like doing the odd jobs in the basketball offseason so it was time and I dove in.

Where did you get the interest in portrait tattoos?

I think my interest in portraits stems from my childhood. I had a speech impediment and drawing seemed to really take me a place where I didn’t pay attention to my nerves; I didn’t pay attention to m

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