artist
Johnny Pantera
My life as an artist started solely with the tutelage of the late Ron Kunda, Franklinville art teacher and talented artist himself. He pushed the few students that didn't take art class as a throw away credit, to further their knowledge of the craft and really helped generate my belief that I could make a living doing what I loved. However, he never really cared for tattoos, my interest in that field of study didn't come until much later.
I began my tattoo career in Las Vegas, Nevada at Wildside Tattoo around 2002, where I endured an ol' school apprenticeship and eventually gained the right to call myself a professional tattoo artist. After fulfilling my required indentured servitude in return for the privilege of apprenticing for the trade I now perform I moved on to manage a shop called Absolute Ink Tattoos also located on 'the strip' in Vegas. The owner Dan Jackson not only owned the brick and mortar shop, but a mobile tattoo rig which we used to travel up and down the west coast as well as working Sturgis motorcycle rally on two occasions. On the second bout I was afforded the privilege of inviting my life long friend Eric Farrington along for the journey. It as around this time we'd started discussing working together, however life wasn't ready for us to partner up at that time.
After finishing working for Absolute, I'd decided that my knowledge of basics of the trade had eclipsed the level of teaching that the traditionalists could offer and began work for Tatlantis, under the tutelage of Fred Giovanni. Fred taught me to look beyond flash designs that street shops offered and look in the the spectrum of custom artwork for my inspiration for tattoo design. I learned a great deal about expanding my horizons using my own natural abilities as an artist to create original tattoo for my clientele.
With Vegas' hot dry climate starting to weigh heavily on our hearts, my wife and I decided to move back to New York. We bought a house in Rochester and I began work at Amazing Grace Tattoos in Geneva New York. It was here I met Dan Ross and upon him opening his own shop back in Rochester I took a position at Art to Zen Tattoos.
After 5 years of working separately though, Eric and my own schedules finally found it advantageous to work together. I have been working for Diversity Design ever since.
