LARS JOHANSSON
Click here to go to Lars’ Facebook
Allow me to introduce myself and give you a brief history of the past fifteen or so years. My name is Lars, I hail originally from Westchester New York. After high school, I came out here to Columbus Ohio to attend the Columbus College of Art and Design (CCAD). I had already become fascinated with body art and illustration, I think because my brother had a couple of tattoos… although I remember as a kid my dad had a buddy who was missing a finger and I thought that was pretty cool too… Anyway, I began tattooing around 1990. I opened my tattoo shop, Viking Studios, while in my sophomore year at CCAD. It was the first tattoo shop on the campus of the Ohio State University. Viking Studios and our band of misfits thrived, growing into a successful and demanding business, and eventually requiring that I stop going to school. I gave the studio my full attention and saw it grow to multiple locations and a bunch of employees and was eventually so busy that I was barely tattooing at all. Not good. So, after about a decade of running shops on the OSU campus, I sold the shops, finished my BFA degree in Design at CCAD, bought a big old house to renovate, became a Realtor, started up a design/build construction company, picked up some rental property and wandered the countryside. I currently tattoo in Columbus a couple days a week, and travel with Evolved to conventions on occasion. I have a dog, Mika, who looks scary, but will just lick you a whole bunch. That’s it. If I missed something, or if you would like to put some art on you, fire me off an email or myspace [vikinglars] or call Evolved or write me a postcard. Or send cash, that works best.