Don Nolan

World-renowned Master Tattoo Artist Don Nolan was born in Connecticut. Showing his uncanny art skill and interpertation at an early age. Painting the backdrop to his elementary school's play was his first commissioned work & experience with an art critic. Having been instructed to paint Jesus Christ & The Three Wise Men, Nolan put sunglasses over Christ’s eyes, reasoning that “if there were sunglasses back then, Christ would have worn them because the sun was pretty hot.” The school was not pleased with this progressively independent thought. Fortunately, this did not deter him but rather fueled him as he went on to create his own legacy.

Since 1955 Nolan has operated his tattoo shops in San Jose & Long Beach, California; Springfield, Oregon; Chicago, Illinois; Honolulu, Hawaii; Bremerton, Washington & 3 locations in Anchorage, Alaska before opening ACME Tattoo in‪ St. Paul, Minnesota in 1988‬.

During these decades of tattooing, his clients have traveled from around the globe in search of the combination of his gentle approach to skin & his in artistic execution. His reputation and volume of work as a tattooist, painter, wood and bone carver can be marveled as the feat of an artistic Leviathon.

Nolan was inspired by history’s master artists so of course he painted in oils & watercolors. He also carved in wood & built model ships and compelling dioramas. He used to carefully examine his colorful tattoos through black & white photography; explaining that in doing so he could see without the distraction of seeing color. He was a stimulating conversationalist till the very end, leaving no one unchanged by his presence. Nolan developed his vast knowledge of tattooing through years of working and corresponding with the long established old guards of the times. He learned from and worked with innovators and masters and devised better or entirely new tweeks, inventions and new ideas to explore.

He felt a heavy sense of his responsibility to educate the next generation of artists, clients, & acquaintances. Of the countless Nolan-created oil paintings, only 100 occupy shop space at ACME Tattoo. The lessons he taught and the innovations he made will live on.