PEDRO DORSEY

Hi, my name is Pedro Dorsey. I've been tattooing since 1992, and have loved it from the start. The shop I started in — Steve's Tattoo in Madison, WI — was one of the best in the mid-west. I felt I was very lucky to get into it at the age of 20 and to actually have found the thing I wanted to do for the rest of my life without all the searching most people have to do (especially artists). My apprenticeship was hard, but probably one of the best you could have gotten around that time. The shop philosophy was definitely all about pushing the quality of the work to a level that would keep it ahead of the curve. That resulted in a client base that spanned all the neighboring states.

I wound up working at Steve's for eight years, and I have great memories of my time there. The people I worked with are ridiculously talented and helped me develop professionally and socially in a way that years of personal determination hadn't. I developed my abilities immensely at that shop, concentrating on comic-book style and realistic work. I did a ton of portraits and animal images, but, because of the wide range of clients, I had a huge variety of subject matter. That, in the end, left me with a love for variety. I don't feel like a specialist now, and I'm glad; there's too many artists out there that seem to be focused on only one style, and some of the most successful ones have been known to resent it like a typecast actor resents playing the same character every time.

During the last two years of my time there, I traveled along both coasts and some of the inland states to find a place that fit me better psychologically and professionally. It was worth the time and effort to finally settle here in Portland. Everything, from the weather to the surroundings and people, made it easy to pick this town as my new home. I moved here and started working at Pussycat Tattoo in Milwaukie in 2000. It's a great shop, and I found some of my most faithful clients there. I enjoyed my co-workers there immensely, especially the owner Saad Sweilem. He's very, VERY metal, and ridiculously funny. That guy can make color explode. I worked with him for four years, and had been living in north east most of that time, so I eventually realized that I needed to work where I live, since I hate commuting. That's when I found Optic Nerve Arts.

I started working at Optic in 2004; mainly because I had worked with one of the two owners before at Pussycat. He and his wife Tracy Faraca had opened this shop after he left Pussycat Tattoo. Tracy is one of the warmest people I know, and is an amazing piercer (and happens to have one of the cutest kids around). Nate and I seemed to have a similar interest in improving our rendering abilities, and had enjoyed trading ideas in that area immensely. His name was Nate Hudson, and I got to work with him much less time than I would have liked. He died less than two years after I started working with him, and I'll always miss that skinny bum. Oh, and besides skinny bumness he was one of the best tattooers I ever met.

Although the transition from Pussycat to Optic was tough, eventually I was rewarded with a large number of clients who appreciated my work. In the process, Tim Jordan came on to the roster and eventually became a partner with Tracy and I. The shop has gone through some changes, including a move to street level in the past few years. We have recently taken on D'lacie McBride, a very talented artist whose work is already gathering a faithful following, and we are very happy to have her here with us.

The bottom line is, I love what I get to do for a living, and I hope that you enjoy my work. Thank you, Pedro

Click here to see samples of tattoos I've done.

To talk to Pedro just give us a call at 503.287.0339 or stop by.