Remembering Don Nolan
TATTOO TREASURES WITH DANA BRUNSON
Remembering Don Nolan
Nolan. To the tattooist in the know, this one name is enough. To those who don’t know, quick, do your tattoo history homework. Nolan, Raven and Hardy were the Big Three in my early tattoo years. Man, no one could tattoo like those guys. They were so far ahead of everything else going on in the tattoo world that, without living through those years, it is almost impossible to put their importance in context. Visiting Cliff Raven’s shop trip for the first time to in the early seventies, my idea of what I thought tattooing was all about changed. Until then, I had only been exposed to traditional and military tattooing. The limits were about to expanded. The first tattoo to really zap me, however, was not by Cliff but on his shoulder. It was a large red Hanya in whirlwinds, different than anything I had ever seen. Years later, I discovered it had been done by Cliff’s friend Nolan. Nolan , yep that’s Don Nolan, to the uninformed. The Von Dutch of tattooing. Nolan’s not only a tattoo artist, but a painter, sculptor, motorcyclist, hot rodder and all-around hep cat.
“Where’s Nolan now?: is all you’d hear at the conventions. The elusive tattooist with a large client base traveled the country creating bodysuits, but his whereabouts was always in question. Photos of his work would continue to appear in periodicals, but from so many locations that I didn’t have a clue where this guy was. The National Tattoo New Orleans convention in the mid eighties changed all that. Peggy Schwartz( Hurley) won best tattooed female, with koi fish running down one side of her body. The artist was Don Nolan. Yet another piece of the puzzle. A then friend of mine, Dan Merino, asked if I would like to meet Don Nolan. The mystery was about to be solved―or about to begin. When you meet Nolan you can figure out why he has such a dedicated client base. He is, by far one, of the most interesting guys I have met in the business. He’s been everywhere ( merchant marines), knew everyone ( Sailor Jerry, Bert Grimm, Danny Danzel, to name just a few ) and did everything. If you are into old tattoo stories as much as I am, Nolan was the guy. At the time I met him, he was living on a sailboat in Florida, traveling across the country a few times a year and working on his large-scale works in progress. Some of his travels brought him close to Cincinnati, so the timing was perfect.
I had been wanting a backpiece. Cliff had done much of the tattoo work on my arms, and had often spoken of Don’s work and the Japanese influence for which he was so well known. Who better to do my backpiece than the artist who was working on Cliff’s back. Nolan. As my backpiece progressed, so did our friendship. One of the highlights was a collaborative effort, a set of flash that Nolan and I did under the names of Uncle Meat and Skullhead. We sold them all and, as friends do. we exchanged lots of gifts along the way. The first gift Don gave me was a handmade tattoo machine. The most adjustable machine in my collection, it’s something I cherish and will pass down to my son, Jason. Then there is the extremely rare “Black Pig” machine. Only two exist in the world, mine and Nolan’s. Later, Nolan gave me two more machines, similar to the first machine, that he had designed and made on a C&C machine. The cool part is, you can’t buy a machine from Nolan. He only gives them to friends. The Black Pig is camera shy and, consequently, was not photographed for this article. I suggest everyone Google Don Nolan or Acme Tattoo to read about this low-profile trendsetter. Acme Tattoo is located in St.Paul ,Minnesota,where Don and his wife, T, along with their handpicked crew, run a very busy shop. Don has never pursued the spotlight. He is a true artist in every sense of the word. My advise is to check him out before he starts wandering again, or rides off into the sunset in search of the perfect cheeseburger. Inside joke.
See ya in the funny papers and keep your hat on, so I’ll know ya.
—Dana
