Ben Shaw

Owner | Custom Tattoo Artist | 26+ Years Experience

Ben Shaw is the owner of Archetype Tattoo in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he has tattooed for more than 26 years.

His work runs to black and grey realism, religious and symbolic imagery, memorial pieces, and large-scale custom work built to hold up over a lifetime, not just look good the day it heals.

The chair, for Ben, is as much a place for honest conversation as it is for ink. People come in for a tattoo and often leave having talked through the thing that brought them there in the first place. That is the part of the work he cares about most.

Ben has worn a lot of hats over the years. He served six years as chairman of the New Mexico Board of Body Art Practitioners and as public relations officer for the Alliance of Professional Tattooists, pushing for safer standards across the trade.

That season shaped him. These days his focus is simpler: the people in his chair, and the artists coming up behind him.

He still tattoos because it is the work he was made for, and because it puts him exactly where he believes he is supposed to be.