Today we’d like to introduce you to Dean Harden.
Hi Dean, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, you could tell our readers some of your backstory.
I moved to Duluth in 2013 specifically for a proper tattoo apprenticeship opportunity. I had been searching for a respectable shop to pursue the venture and found an opportunity with Anchors End Tattoo Co. in 2012. It took me a few months to figure out how to move to Duluth, with hardly any money and no guarantee of success as with any apprenticeship. There is an expectation of four years to complete an apprenticeship with graces. It used to be a hard-fought battle to break the tattoo industry; it’s much softer now than ever. People come and go; they skate through half their apprenticeship and open their shop. Those shops are a dime-a-dozen, especially in Duluth. I came here determined to do things as rightly as possible by loyalty standards in tattooing. My four years went by quickly, although it was every bit as difficult as I expected it to be. I completed my apprenticeship with Anchors End. I continued working with my mentor and founder of Anchors End, Joseph John, for the following decade. I was official with Anchors End for over 10 years as a resident artist and spent the majority of the last 6 or so as what we referred to as a ‘Senior’ artist. I had a very traditional apprenticeship there, for which I am grateful. We were taught everything the conventional way, from learning the tools inside-out to mixing our inks and building needles from scratch. It was priceless knowledge that only the very fortunate receive these days in tattooing. Not to say that you are less-than for not having had these privileges, but the ones that don’t wouldn’t be able to tattoo if their newfangled rotary machines break or if, for some reason, supply chains break down from needle and ink suppliers. I was given all the tools to build a successful career in tattooing, even after a potential SHTF scenario where nobody could obtain supplies! For these privileged gifts, I am grateful.
After tattooing for over a decade, I eventually hit bottom, and I am grateful to be here still to share my story. I greatly respect and appreciate Anchors End; that shop will always be a massive part of my story. I have built lasting relationships with clients for over 10 years. I have realized this since leaving Anchors in September 2023; I have a lot of clients waiting for me to get back to work. That said, last year, it was time for a significant change. I took some time off from tattooing. I got some much-needed self-care time and decided it was time to make the tough decision of going off on my own.
This past March 2024, I signed a lease to open a shop. It was the type of decision that felt impossible to make; until it was made, everything became more accessible. Things started falling into place right where they should be. All the signs that I was making the right move were and continue to show up. I have a fantastic location in downtown Duluth to join and support the growing and thriving market of businesses and the consumers who support them. It is a small and humble beginning, but my goal is to continue to pursue the highest level of tattooing possible.
It wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Is it ever a smooth road? If somebody found one, you know the adage, “It’s too good to be true.” There were countless struggles on so many levels. Among the most difficult were the beginning and the end of my career with Anchors End Tattoo.
Starting an apprenticeship is challenging, as it should be. If your apprenticeship was ever a breeze, you did it wrong. It’s meant to be hard to weed out the interlopers and to keep tattooing sacred to protect it. As an apprentice, you don’t get paid. You are expected to be at the shop every day. You learn the workflow tasks seasoned tattooers want to avoid concerning themselves with. The menial, tedious, everyday shop maintenance, the answering phones, talking to clients who walk in, scrubbing tubes (which isn’t a thing for most shops anymore), scrubbing toilets, dusting, sweeping and mopping the floor, setting up and breaking down artist workbenches, the list goes on that type of responsibility is not for the faint of heart, it’s not meant to be. It is intended to ensure that the future purveyors of tattooing are serious about what they are learning and bear a certain level of respect for those who came before them. The difficulty of success in a proper apprenticeship is meant to instill that respect in newcomers. It gives them an escalating level of responsibility, and eventually, it becomes second nature to move through the tattoo process from start to finish. If you want to do this job correctly, you learn how to do it from the bottom, or you need to be taught the right way. Period. You put your time in where you were taught, leave on good graces after your four years are up, or stay around and grind. I am fortunate to have been offered this opportunity and took it very seriously. I put every ounce of my heart into it, which was a struggle.
I moved my family to Duluth with no guarantees of success. I worked 6 days a week, and the compensation was the knowledge I expected to absorb. That concept is complex for some newcomers, and some working tattooers never get it. At first, you don’t get paid anything but tips from some artists sometimes, and school is always in session. If you need help understanding something, ask. If you don’t ask, you’ll never know, and nobody is going to put on a fucking seminar for you every day.
I’ve always been a hustler. My father gave me some great tools; he taught me to be my best, show up first, leave last, be as observant as possible, and ask many questions, soak it all. These were essential tools for a successful career, instilled in me by my dad and re-invigorated by my mentor in tattooing. I took the hustle very seriously for a long time and saw a lot of success. However, over the years, I have also been involved in some of the most dangerous places in the counterculture. For a long time, that made me feel most alive when I was in danger. I worked in tattooing and involved myself in other things where I walked the line; it kept life fresh for me, and I was good at it. That hustle always paid me back in aces in anything I did. But I only appreciated something for what it indeed was. That was a significant shortcoming that eventually led to things spiraling downward. There were some dark times ahead of me that I never saw coming.
After tattooing for several years, I’ll be the first to admit that I started letting my ego get the best of me today. I was spending too much time on things that were ultimately insignificant and inhibiting a lackluster mentality toward what I was doing. It was rubbing off everywhere: at home, at work, in social circles, and with family. Although I was doing my best to tattoo to the best of my technical ability, in those moments, I was unhappy, and I couldn’t figure out why. Eventually, things started crashing down. My family life was suffering, my relationships with friends and at home were a struggle. It became hard to show up on time. I let a lot of clients down. I put too much extra responsibility on our newcomers and others at the shop. I started to realize this and didn’t know the road I was on anymore. I felt lost in my own life. I had so many things I had always wanted: a career, my beautiful woman, our three beautiful children, a house, a car, and a motorcycle, yet I somehow could not feel a sense of purpose, no matter what I did. I never felt good enough. We lived comfortably, but I was stuck in a dark place, and I think many men are afraid to speak up about it. I sure as shit didn’t for a very long time. Male depression is often covert, and it has taken the lives of many. I couldn’t find Joy in much of anything I was doing. I let a lot of people down. I created some wreckage in some of my personal and professional relationships. There was loss over the years, relationships, deaths. Multiple close friends passed close succession of each other during Covid, and they had been close enough to me that grief was a dark issue for me for a while. There was drug and alcohol abuse. There was depression. There was impossible anxiety. There became factors at play during my career that were having a covert impact on my thinking, and I was not present enough to realize it then. I was projecting my fears and my anxiety as anger and resentment toward everyone in my life. I didn’t know where to turn. Every day became life or death, nothing felt real. Eventually, in 2023, I had a full-blown nervous breakdown and stopped showing up to work. I was in the darkest depths of any day at that point. I couldn’t even explain the place I felt like I was in. It was so surreal; nothing seemed to matter. I became fearful of where my mind was taking me, and I had no control over it.
I became willing to ask for some help. I went to establish a primary care doctor; I told him what I was struggling with. That is where my story starts to change. I left Anchors End very abruptly, and it is my humble admission that some amends will be made. Some of the things I had worked hard for had to get lost before I was willing to decide to find a different way to live. I had to feel the pain of darkness before I could turn my thinking toward the light. I am incredibly grateful today to be lucky enough to make it out of the hell I was living in and not end up incarcerated or six feet deep.
At 36, I finally hit that point in my tattoo career and life where something significant needed to change. I was burnt out and everybody around me was suffering from it, most importantly myself. I took about six months off from tattooing. I turned inward to figure out what was happening and found something remarkable. I didn’t believe in God anymore, but I desperately prayed. I prayed to an unfamiliar universal force for help and guidance. Very shortly after that, I became overwhelmed with acceptance that I had some significant problems, and what became of it was a brand new, unbridled willingness to take action about it. I am very fortunate to have sustained the support of the mother of my children, who experienced the worst of it all. I am also lucky I had my family’s support when I decided to make some changes.
I began seeing doctors and combined that with seeing therapists for months and months. I committed to abstain from any mind-altering substances. I sought testing for neurodivergent interferences, ADHD, OCD, ODD, BPD, and BP1&2, among others. I got put on a 127-person long waiting list through Essentia Health. The wait period was a year and a half! I found this unacceptable and was determined to push in a different direction. I sought out a rehabilitation facility in Arizona called The Meadows Behavioral Health, where they do dual-diagnosis treatment and rehabilitation services. It was costly, and I had a lot of help and support, and we made it happen.
I checked in on my birthday. It felt like a rebirth at that point. That marked the beginnings of the remarkable discoveries I was about to make within myself, about myself, and for myself at that facility. Upon my arrival, I was promptly tested for all sorts of neurodivergent disorders, from Bipolar I & II to Borderline Personality Disorder to OCD to Paranoid Schizophrenia. I was diagnosed at 36 with Over-focused ADHD at measurably high levels. I began taking a mild-stimulant regiment of medication that has helped me tremendously to maintain the disorderly levels of quantum thought I experience every day. I learned how drug and alcohol use does severe damage to our pre-frontal cortex. This area contains our limbic system, which controls our ability to regulate our emotional response and its associated behaviors. I also worked closely with a specified psychotherapist to fit my ailment profile. We did four hours of group therapy a day for 45 days. It is said to be the equivalent of four-and-a-half years of psychotherapy. This is where I uncovered some of the mysteries of my thinking and learned tools to recover from them. I wished they’d taught this stuff in school! It starts very simply, “How to process and regulate one’s emotions healthily.”
Since I have been back for over six months, I am thriving today. I feel better than ever in my life. I feel like the luckiest man alive. Today, I happily abstain from all mind-altering substances, and I work a program. I found a better way to live. I have since signed a lease on a beautiful storefront for a tattoo shop. I also signed a new lease on life. I see it from a changed perspective. I feel a lot more, but I can now process these things differently and respond according to my value system. I learned to establish a value system through deep introspection and analysis between experiences since I was a child and my thinking and behaviors as an adult. I could identify where I stand on my views of the world and our universe. My virtues can now be aligned with the universal order of things. I can listen to that today and truly hear it. I can trust the consciousness of my inner dialogue today. These are things I did not have before. With a new understanding of myself internally, I have a new respect and appreciation for the tiniest miracles of life. I don’t easily trust anybody, but I can trust myself. These are the gifts of a new way of life.
In some ways, I owe tattooing for some of these gifts. I owe where I am today to all of my previous experiences. I owe my life to my father, Lee, for helping me climb out of the grave I was digging for myself as much as he possibly could. He advocated for my willingness to find the right help, and together, we raised the support of my tribal community to provide an opportunity for me to find a place to make these discoveries. I owe my life to my mother, Karen, for being such a potent source of wisdom, strength, and inspiration. To my brother, Mark, for never judging me when I was runnin’ n’ gunnin’ the way I did for so many years when he knew I was bound for a federal indictment, or an institution, or death. I owe so much to my partner in life, Carissa, who has stuck by me through the hardest of times and still showed me enough love to still be here with me after all the madness. I had to suffer a lot in the way I was living to decide that I was going to do something about it. So, I set out with blind faith to find a new way under the virtues of the universal nature of things. I fell so hard, it was humbling to have to face things and pick my shit back up, but it has begun. I feel like an entirely different version of myself. That’s just it; I looked inward. I found myself, my truth. My tattoo shop is called Resurrection Tattoo and is an ode to self-discovery. To the Gifts of universal truths and the miracles within that can be discovered if we look to find them with gratitude. Thank you for letting me share.
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am a professional electric tattooer, trained traditionally to be as versatile of a craftsman as possible, stylistically, and as a technician. I specialize in focusing on details and using my marks to fit the model of a strong tattoo, no matter what style I am working in. My tattoos have always been clean, even when I wasn’t. That is something I always held in the highest regard. No matter how badly I was struggling. It meant a lot to me that the clients had the highest technical craftsmanship possible, which still holds utmost importance. I’m proud of that. I learned to tattoo efficiently and cleanly.
Tight down to the grey lines. I work in a way that I can say yes to any style of tattooing a client would like, from bright & bold traditional, to color-bombs, to new school, neo-traditional, to fine line black and grey, to portraits and realism, to freehand lettering. That sets me apart from the crowd of tattooers out there these days. Not many tattooers can say yes to every walk-in, hit a home run, and stand on it. Guarantee it. I wouldn’t say I like to boast; the results speak for themselves. So when you walk through the door and I say I can do something well, I’m standin’ on business when I say that. I look forward to breaking the thresholds I still need to explore. Big work. More big back pieces and cohesive bodywork. I wish to work with my clients in the future and encourage them to let me help them tell their stories through my work. I am opening my shop quietly on June 1, 2024. I will not have signage for the time being. I will be working by appointment only, and if you are a new potential client, I’d be happy to share my contact info.
What matters most to you?
For me, what matters most is the ability to see and appreciate the magic that exists in our everyday lives. It’s in the smallest moments, in the trust we build and rebuild through honesty, faith, hope, open-mindedness, and willingness. This magic is within us, and preserving it is my top priority. When I have it, I can share it with my family and the world in ways that are unique to me. The magic is everywhere, I just had to open my eyes to it.
Professionally? The solidarity of the craftsperson-to-client relationship is most important to me today. I want to grow the relationships I have already made with my clients professionally. Also, to build fresh ones, where time spent with the client and their ideas are more engaging. I want to create a more enriched experience and a comfortable environment.
I want my clients to feel heard. I want the tattoo process to be a more involved experience for them. Not just talking to an apprentice on the phone about their idea and showing up the day of their appointment hoping they get what they came for. I want the client to be engaged in the process as much as possible, building a narrative. So we can share the story they want to tell together. Spending more time with them on turning ideas into works of art that become a tapestry of rich and royal hue. These rare virtues are the most crucial part for me professionally, and they will be the standard when you come to Resurrection Tattoo. Thank you all for letting me share.
Pricing:
- Two hours of tattooing: $500
- Flat-rate half-day: $800
- Flat-rate full-day: $1500
- Special rates for hands, face, neck.
- Knuckles: $600 both hands
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @laserproof218
Image Credits
Nia Sayler
