Ben Yanok - Making Pretty Pictures

I'm fortunate to call Ben one of my very close friends, he's an incredible artist, tattoo artist, fisherman, Dad and all around good dude.Ben's done the majority of my tattoos and almost all of the ones you may have seen on here. I'm lucky in that he always seems to just get what I want, I know I'm certainly not giving him the best reference material to work with but it always comes out better than I could have imagined. In talking to Ben you'll find that his influences are pretty broad; ranging from comic books to renaissance masters to graffiti artists. He's also a traditionalist when it comes to a lot of his work, be it Americana, Japanese or Catholic imagery. Ben seems to have a great knowledge of and respect for the artists and styles before his time.

I asked him what he draws his inspiration to create from and his I love his answer so I'm going to quote him verbatim here: "My inspiration is kind of a letdown to people that ask. This is all that I'm good at. It's what i do when I'm stressed out, or can't sleep, it's what i daydream about when I'm driving.  I know a lot of different people that do all sorts of things, from people that build cool cars and bikes, to soldiers, to nurses, to mothers; and they are all filled with fascinating stories. What they all do is so interesting and unusual. I just make pictures i think are pretty."

I don't find it at all surprising that Ben is so humble about his work, or just making pretty pictures, usually the folks that do what they do well are not the guys out throwing it in everyone's face. They're usually the quiet guys in the corner just letting you talk. That's pretty much Ben. You may also recognize Ben as having had the honor of being our very first moustache of the month:

Anyways, enjoy the art and tattoo pictures below and if you want to get a hold of Ben for some ink you can reach him at:

Ink Factory Tattoos and Body Piercing
407 2nd Street
Hudson , WI 54016
715-381-2957
Ink Factory