From the first moment that I saw one of Jeff Ensminger’s tattoos, I was immediately drawn to his work. The tattoo in question was colourful and odd and pulsed with so much of a life of its own that it practically threatened to walk right off the flesh it was inked on to. In short, it was very fine work that left no doubt in my mind that I needed to see more of his stuff.
Once I started to work my way through Jeff’s portfolio, I came across another beauty and this one spoke right to my demented, Evil Dead loving heart. A tattoo of Ash, the main character from the cult classic Evil Dead film series, wielding his chainsaw for a hand while grinning maniacally. As if that wasn’t perfect enough, the caption that Ensminger had written below the photo of the tattoo was “If you don’t know what this is…then I don’t want to know who you are.” The icing on the cake. As far as I’m concerned, Jeff Ensminger is officially awesome.
Not surprisingly, Ensminger keeps good company. He lives and works in Austin, Texas and pals around with the likes of fellow tattooing legend Nick Baxter. Baxter actually sports one of Ensminger’s tattoos on his neck, a smooth flowing and just plain phenomenal pomegranate blossom. I think that maybe the craziest thing about Jeff is that he’s only been tattooing since 2002. I don’t know what else I can say about the guy. I actually had to stop myself from looking at anymore of Jeff’s tattoos. When I see the work of an artist who blows me away like this, the more of the work I see, the more desperate I am to be tattooed by them. Eventually I just can’t take it anymore. Jeff Ensminger makes me want to catch the next flight to Austin and get tattooed.