HOOK, LINE AND INKER

Drew Wilson makes a name for himself nationwide
as the go-to guy for fishing tattoos.

By Kody Ford

Every fisherman has a story, or many, they like to tell. But tattoo artist and fly-fisherman Drew Wilson has a different kind of fishing story.

At the ripe old age of 4 years old, Wilson’s father would drop his three children and wife off at Jacksonville’s Paradise Park when he went to work. If young Drew caught a bass or a catfish, his mother had to help him get it off the hook; however, she was no fan of touching the fish. One day, Drew was sitting there with a bass dangling from his line until, in the distance, a police cruiser approached. Drew flagged the officer down and begged him to unhook the fish. The officer assessed the situation, congratulated Drew on his catch and tossed the bass back into the pond. Just before the officer drove away, he turned and said, “If you catch another one, you’d better call 911.”

Thirty-three years later, Wilson still laughs about the situation. He said, “It’s one of my earliest childhood memories … And he was nice and he was funny. It was like, that’s a good thing to want to be.”

Kindness is something that Wilson has always tried to keep at the forefront of his career, whether he’s helping local kids in Russellville get an affordable skateboard or picking a fan from Instagram to be on his “Fishing for Tattoos” YouTube show.

Through connections in the skating community, Wilson began his career as a tattoo artist by working the front desk and doing piercings at a shop in Little Rock. He credits tattooing for teaching him to draw.

“Tattooing is application-based,” he said. “I was just learning how to do it because you’re working on someone’s skin, and so they have a very large say … Back then it was like you just had to do a good job of what came in and, eventually, you might be able to do something of your own. [N]ow it has changed because of social media. You can kind of go into tattooing and just do your art and find your clients and find your fanatics.”

Over the years, Wilson’s career has evolved from a journeyman inker to a highly sought-after artist. Wilson found his tattooing niche by looking to another lifelong love,  fishing. But this story has a few bumps in the road. Wilson was traveling across the country tattooing and getting tattooed by artists he looked up to so he could learn and grow in his craft. He knew the late tattoo artist Mike Fite was also a fisherman so Wilson booked an appointment at his shop in Phoenix to get a fishing lure tattoo. Once Wilson arrived, Fite gruffly informed him that he didn’t fish with spinning gear so he didn’t know any lures; he only fly-fished, something Wilson had never done. Wilson had heard the stereotype about fly-fishermen being judgmental, but had never experienced it firsthand. Wilson told Fite to pick whatever he wanted then.

One positive benefit to the poor experience of getting his new ink was that Wilson had a new challenge. “So I leave the shop with my new fly tattoo … [and] go straight to Bass Pro Shop and buy a fly rod because I’m going to learn because I need to be better than this guy since he was such a jerk.”

At the time, Wilson lived in downtown Little Rock. He began practicing casting in his yard, often to jeering passersby, but he didn’t let that stop him. The first time he went to the pond at War Memorial Park he practiced stripping the fly using a Woolly Bugger, unaware the pond had recently been stocked with trout. He got a bite and pulled in a trout with a pink tag attached. He cut the tag loose and sent it into the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. The tag won him a new and improved fly-fishing rod.

“And after that I got really interested because it is hard to learn to fly-fish,” he said. “Mike Fite, who was such a jerk to me, put me on a path that I fell in love with and got obsessed with, and after a few years I’d started doing fishing tattoos and trying to integrate it.”

During this time, his work schedule involved doing 25-30 tattoos from appointments and walk-ins each week. At home, Wilson drew and painted numerous fishing designs, hoping that maybe he could eventually do one fish tattoo a week. At the time, only a couple of artists were doing fishing tattoos so there was an open market. Wilson’s book filled up quickly as fishermen from around Arkansas and the nation began booking appointments to get trout, bluegill, bass and more tattooed on their bodies. After 10 years of using social media smartly, Wilson can go to any city in the United States and fill up appointments for fishing tattoos. Clients also fly in from around the country to get a tattoo. Often, he takes these clients on a free fishing trip while they are in town. Wilson’s philosophy for his work goes beyond a paycheck. He said, “You’re not just selling the tattoo, you’re selling the experience. You got to put on your charisma – you’re on stage. It’s how it works – you’ve got to make sure everyone leaves there stoked and has nice things to say about you.”