If ever you felt like you were made for something, I feel like I was made for Tattooing. From the start to the end, the process and development of a project for a client, is just the start of a tattoo relationship. Tattoos are made with intention and that intention will give power to you. through traveling the world and learning my craft since 2007. I am able to create your Identity through art, and as the collector/collaborator, I give you your very own permanent personal armor. It is a very powerful thing to have your own Identity that no one can shake, rock, or take from you. Something society can not take from you or change for you is a big deal, and deserves respect and understanding that it is a process. A tattoo is much deeper than the top 3-4 layers of skin. And I take on each project with deep intention – even if we just scratch the surface of who you want to project to the world.
I am compelled to create. From my earliest memories, I would spend hours drawing, coloring and painting. Mostly in the car with a pencil and printer paper on a wooden clipboard. As a child, it was a way to quietly pass the time, it was entertainment and expression. As I grew and matured it became a coping mechanism to deal with environments that proved challenging and confusing. Creating images, objects, furniture, clay and metal sculptures, wooden carvings and canvas and multimedia paintings are at the fundamental core of my personality.
Growing up in Northern California was great. However, life in a small Gold Mining town near a ski resort, where the majority of outside income came from illegal Marijuana, lent small minds for tattoo culture. The only jobs to speak of were manual labor during the hot season. I saw my mom get a tattoo when I was 6, and I have been obsessed with them ever since. I collected tattoo magazines, and books on cultural tattooing – Including one on Ernesto Kalum, who I eventually met and became friends with in Borneo, Malaysia where he tattooed me. I have also dog sat for him while he was at the Paris tattoo convention in 2016 and have been to visit 4 times to the island over the years.
My older sister moved to Portland for college, and a few years after, I visited and enjoyed the freedom of the tattoo culture this city offered. A lot more access to knowledge, community and entertainment was fantastic and eye opening. I began a Traditional Tattoo Apprenticeship in Grass Valley, CA in Spring 2007, at a small Walk-in shop. After much Small-town drama and mismanagement, the shop closed and I moved to Portland in the Fall off 2009.
After getting licensed to Tattoo in Oregon, I found my way to the wonderful, "The Little Tattoo Shoppe" in NE Portland. I worked alongside black and grey portrait artist, Matthew Mattison. During my 6 year stay at his shop, I afforded the ability to travel. China, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Mexico – I picked up Scuba Diving, and researched nature in the world. From jungles, caves and oceans, I went to some of the oldest places to find the tattoo cultures to get firsthand knowledge.
I even was blessed to have a hand tattoo made in Kalinga by the one and only Fang-Od, on that trip I turned 28, she was 98, now she is over 107 years old and still tattooing. One in a lifetime experiences became annual.
In 2018, I moved to Historic Portland "Tigerlily Tattoo". In 2020 I opened my Private Studio "Silver Rabbit Tattoo" And had found the perfect space for my practice to flourish for 6 years.
Spring of 2026, I closed Silver Rabbit to get back into the Tattoo Community. I joined my friends Tim Jordan, Pedro Dorsey, and Thom Grayson at "Optic Nerve Arts" in St Johns. ONA has been a premier shop in Portland since 2003, and I have had friends there and have worked there throughout the years. It was a great match. ONA is a great home in Beautiful St Johns!
Today, tattooing is my gift. It is the product of the accumulation of skills required to perfect a craft. Designing and making tattoos brings me outstanding joy and I appreciate every one of you who have shown interest and pursued getting work from me. It's truly an Honor to make people's Identities, for them.
I am blessed to tattoo generations of families. Grandparents, Parents, Kids & their Partners, and now the grandkids are turning 18-20 and are coming to me for their tattoos. The majority of my business is word of mouth over the last 20 years. I appreciate all POC, Religions, Sexual Preferences, and Free Thinkers as equals. Male/Female/They/Them – all are welcomed graciously in my chair or on my table for hours, months, years, and now 2 decades of collaboration.
Thank you,
- Toby E. Good "Rabbit"