Originally from The Mississippi Gulf Coast, James began his professional career in tattooing after attending Indiana University, in Bloomington, IN. While studying Fine Arts and Anthropology, two lifelong interests, James was presented with the opportunity to learn the art of tattooing. After all, what better way to practice two of his favorite interests?

In the summer of 1995 James was offered a position at Jack and Diane’s Tattoo in Biloxi, MS. Working for two years in a busy street shop atmosphere with a heavy military clientel, James honed the skills and values needed to succeed in such a fast paced environment.

In 1997, with a daughter on the way, James took a position at Artistic Skin Designs on the southside of Indianapolis. While Artistic was essentially a street shop offering a wide variety of flash designs, James and the crew began to push one another to produce some of the finest custom tattooing in the capital region.

After several visits to Ithaca, and a desire to raise a family in a smaller, more free-thinking community, James made the move to Ithaca in the summer of 1999 and began tattooing at Stiehl’s Body Modification. After getting a feel for the area, it became apparent that something else was needed in order for James
to provide his clients with the best possible custom work in a friendly, no-pressure environment.

In 2001 James teamed up with John Criscitello and opened a new locaton for Sfumato Tattoo. Working with John helped James to get back to his roots as a visual artist, and to begin to break away from some of the concrete “rules” he had learned about the “proper” way to tattoo. Constant experimentation within the
medium opened a whole new world of possibilities for James to explore and grow in.

After nearly five years at Sfumato, and a new son added to the family, James opened Model Citizen in 2005. Model Citizen gave James the opportunity to control the pace and setting for his custom tattooing, thereby giving more time and care to every piece of art created for the client, custom or otherwise. This work ethic has earned James numerous awards at a multitude of conventions over the years, including several first place trophies. More importantly it has earned him the trust and respect of people from around the region and around the world.