Thomas Hooper was born in Hastings in East Sussex (UK) and started tattooing in 2001 whilst studying Drawing at the London Institute of Art and Design. After a short period of tattooing at Frith Street Tattoo, Hooper moved from London to New York to further pursue art and tattooing. He went from Saved Tattoo in NYC to Rock of Ages in Austin, Texas and has now returned to East Sussex (UK) to live full time, continuing Tattooing and Art.
Hooper's style is deeply influenced by Tibetan iconography, nature and ornamental art from around the world, alchemical and early scientific illustrations, traditional woodcuts and mystic cosmology. He has has always been interested in exploring themes and imagery connected with death, the cosmos and our natural surroundings, often his work will just take a ornamental path with no literal meaning except to create something beautiful to look at.
"I am a tattooer, an artist, a husband, and a father. My sensibilities as an artist are defined by how I may incorporate and blend these identities into my tattooing," Hooper says.
Today Hooper's work draws its influences from many things, the sanctum of nature and natural forms, the unconscious, mathematical and geometric patterns, cosmology, and eastern religious images. He tries to incorporate these ideas into intricate patterns and symbolism using complex pointillism, repetition, and detailed line-work with the hopes of creating a visual language that is both meditative and pure in form. It is his belief that a tattooist should always be striving to improve his or her skill and to be conscious of how their tattoos may relate and ultimately contribute to the surrounding world of tattooing. Hooper is constantly exploring new ways to improve the skills and options available to him, and finding new ways to develop techniques and tools beyond what is already necessary. Given that the skin is his primary material, the path forward for his craft to expand and improve is to find new ways to illustrate and decorate the people he is fortunate enough to tattoo.
