Mark Mahoney, celeb tattoo artist to the stars (Picture: Getty)

Mark Mahoney, celebrity tattoo artist to the stars, has been tattooing for over 40 years after learning with his Greaser gang pals in Boston and then moving to Los Angeles where he forged friendships with the likes of Tupac Shakur and Johnny Depp.

But don’t let that tough exterior fool you, for Mark is at heart still the ‘nice Catholic boy’ he describes himself as, admitting that he even took One Direction under his wing when the lads were still young boys who first visited Los Angeles.

Harry Styles with Taylor Swift at Shamrock Tattoo (Picture: XPosure)

‘The guys from the band were great,’ Mark tells Metro.co.uk.

‘They came in on their first night in LA and it became their home away from home, they would come in two or three or four at a time, and it was fun.’


Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik in Shamrock in 2012 (Picture: FameFlyNet)

Mark has also tattooed the likes of Lady Gaga, Jared Leto, and has been described as Lana Del Rey’s ‘muse’ but he says his favourite clients are Johnny Depp and David Beckham, who he describes as the ‘ ideal clients’.



‘They like to get tattoos, they both like the process and that makes them the ideal clients,’ he says, admitting that his favourite tattoo of David’s is the incredibly detailed images of three cherubs surrounding Jesus, thought to represent his three sons taking care of Beckham when he’s older.

(It’s also a tattoo that David’s eldest son Brookyln has copied.)

David’s cherub tattoo is Mark’s favourite (Picture: Getty)

Mark inked his first tat when he was 15 and still in high school after he and his pals drove to Rhode Island.

‘The second I walked in to the tattoo shop I knew that was what I had to do, something about it, it was a cool old shop that hadn’t been changed since the 1940s. I always drew in those long winters in Boston, so I knew I was going to do something with my art, then when I saw there was a way to make a living without being in a snotty gallery setting, I dug it,’ he says.

Mark with Lady Gaga

Mark speaks with a slow drawl, and you can tell this is a man who has seen some things (‘when I first got to LA there were gunfights out the front of the shop, and for a nice Catholic boy from Boston that was a little shocking!’) but he’s also a man who has never let the celebrities he mingles with change him.

That first tattoo was inked on the leader of his gang – who he is still friends with – and is a profile of a tiger that Mark admits ‘doesn’t look too bad even to this day’.

But it was when he hit the West Coast that he discovered his style, the now famous black and grey fine line art.

Mark inking James Franco

‘It was much more like the way I liked to draw than the simple colour / sailor style and so I flipped my lid, and wanted to find out everything I could about it,’ he adds.

Five decades on, Mark is still working and at the end of September he will be the special guest judge for the daily tattoo competitions at the International London Tattoo Convention.

‘I think there’s so many good artists now that you have to look for originality, there is so much information that young tattooists can get really good, really fast and in my day there was no library books or magazines, so these kids are lucky,’ he says.

Mark Mahoney with Fearne Cotton (Picture: Fearne Cotton/Twitter)

A combination of ‘technical precision and people skills’ will make a good artist, believes Mark, suggesting that as ‘you’re up close and personal people for a few hours’ it’s important to have good chat.

And it’s Mark’s own people skills that have led to the likes of Depp calling him his ‘brother’ and Lana Del Rey asking him to star in two of her music videos, West Coast and Shades Of Cool.

‘I like people, I find them fascinating, I give a fuck about them so I think they respond to that. It will stay with me if someone has gone through a heartache, and I will share their pain,’ he says.



‘Last week I tattooed a father who was getting his first at 55 because he lost his son – his son passed away a few months before. I’ve had families coming when they’ve lost brothers or sons… it’s tough.’

Mark Mahoney gave Brooklyn Beckham his first tattoo (Picture: Brooklyn Beckham/Instagram)

He won’t discuss money – ‘when I get paid that’s a surprise, “oh cool and I get paid as well!”‘ – but he will admit that when clients ask for tattoos he doesn’t want to ink, he can ‘usually can schmooze them out of a bad decision and compromise on something else’.

‘They come in for a Hyundai and I can talk them into a Cadillac,’ he laughs.

Mark Mahoney with David Beckham (Picture: Shamrock Social Club)

Still, despite the worldwide fame and A-list pals, Mark does believe that tattooing has now lost its edge.

‘It’s kind of Squaresville now, all kinds of regular people get tattooed now, it’s not so much outlaws and rebels like it was before,’ he says, ‘now, I am afraid a rebel is the one without tattoos.’

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