John Millhouse - A Tribute
We received some sad news this week about an icon in the Tattoo world. His name was John Millhouse. John was 52, originally of Appleton, Wisconsin and more recently from Scottsdale, Arizona. He passed unexpectedly on May 17, 2008, in Sedona, Arizona.
We met John at the Laughlin River Run Tattoo Convention where he chatted with us about his amazing “body of work”.
John was internationally known for his picture perfect ink, a full body suit tattooed by Rick Harnowski taking John 5-1/2 years to complete and 413 hours of ink time. Tattoo admirers photographed him throughout his travels, including photos in over 50 national magazines, and a cover for Tattoo Art Australia. A 2004 photo of John won the Best of Photojournalism award for “Sturgis Tattooed Biker” and was featured at a show for Harley Davidson at the Milwaukee Art Center.
Speed and agility were a passion for John who personally owned over 50 new cars, motorcycles and boats. He enjoyed making custom designed sound systems, and accessories for them as well as maintaining and polishing their steel and chrome.
John was a Vietnam era veteran in the Army from 1974-76 in where he worked as a vehicle mechanic. He was an expert in grenades, a M-16 sharpshooter and awarded a national defense service medal before being honorably discharged due to a medical disability, which caused chronic migraine, partial loss of vision lasting from 2 hours to 2 days. John then returned to his hometown of Appleton to work for Behm Motors, Lappin-Hickey Steel and Kimberly-Clark Corporation.
Thanks John, for too few but precious minutes of joy and friendship. We would have liked to get to know you better.
Images and text in this post were provided by Rick Harnowski at Skin Illustrations, Tattoos by Rick and are © copyright Rick Harnowski. Used by permission.
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