Written by: Matt Bunk
Young Entrepreneurs
This story is part of a series by the Great Plains Examiner that highlights young entrepreneurs in North Dakota. Each of the business owners profiled in this series is younger than 40.
A lot of people tell Jon Larson that he doesn?t seem like a tattoo artist. His body isn?t covered with ink and piercings. Photographs of his family hang in his workspace. And he would rather talk with customers about their children or their jobs than motorcycle rallies or getting tanked at the bar.
?I always call tattooing a therapy session,? Larson said. ?Tattoo artists, bartenders and counselors are all on the same level. I like hearing people?s stories and getting to know them. I actually enjoy that stuff more than I do the art.?
(Photo by Matt Bunk) Jon Larson poses for a photo with his customized jeep outside his tattoo shop in downtown Mandan.
But, for the 36-year-old Larson, art was definitely a big reason he decided to start Larson?s Creative Concepts in downtown Mandan. And it?s not just ink and needles; Larson is an expert with an airbrush and customizes vehicles in the garage adjacent to his tattoo shop. He works with wood, metal, fiberglass, plastics and a host of other material to fabricate custom parts for everything from Harleys to BMWs.
It?s difficult to determine which of Larson?s obsessions has a stronger hold on him: art or vehicles. Luckily for him, he learned at an early age that he could have the best of both worlds.
While attending WyoTech, a well-known automotive training center, Larson was chosen as one of 16 students across the country to participate in BMW?s Service Technician Training Program in South Carolina. It wasn?t long before the BMW executives recognized his gift for airbrushing.
?I did a bunch of murals on this X5 (BMW?s off-road vehicle), and it ended up in BMW?s museum in Greenville,? he said. ?And they are really well-known for their art cars ? Andy Warhol did one for them ? and that?s when the light went on that, hey, maybe I can do something with this.?
After earning his BMW certification, Larson moved back to Minot to start a 4X4 shop with his father. He later attended Bismarck State College?s automotive mechanic program and worked in various jobs to save money for the equipment he?d need to start his own business.
?It was brutal,? he said. ?I was working on no sleep, seven days a week. Just working day and night for two years straight.?
When he first opened his own shop, Larson spent most of his time designing custom vehicles. He reconstructed body parts, created entirely new interior features and topped off the exteriors with award-winning airbrushed designs. One of his first major projects was to customize a 1951 Mercury that won first place at the Western Grand Canadian Nationals.
?With that car, wow, I really had to figure out so much stuff on my own,? he said. ?It wasn?t like I could just make a phone call and ask somebody what I needed to do. At that time, nobody was doing any really wild custom interiors, or anything like that. So I had to figure it out.?
Nowadays, Larson is trying to focus most of his time on airbrushing and tattoos. Custom fabrication has become strictly a labor of love ? he can be talked into doing full vehicle customization for friends and family, but a lot of customers who want fabrication work are unwilling to pay the price for Larson?s skills and heightened attention to detail.
?If I could get paid for every hour spent on these things, I would be a millionaire,? Larson said. ?They?re so labor intensive that there?s no way to charge for all of it. On some of these projects, I had to eat so much labor that it made me wonder if it was even worth it.?
Even when it comes to tattooing, Larson is a perfectionist who demands more of himself than his customers do, according to people who are familiar with his work.
?Everything Jon does is completely different, but the one universal thing about him is that he?s obsessive about the details,? said Darrell Olsen, who has known Larson since high school.
Olsen doesn?t have any tattoos, but he has sworn an oath that, if he ever decides to get one, Larson will be the one holding the needle.
?He?s been on me about that for years,? Olsen said. ?He said we?d never speak again unless my first tattoo is done by him.?
Unlike many tattoo artists, Larson doesn?t display a bunch of pre-made designs in his shop. He encourages his customers to dig deeper and then works with them to come up with unique images that have personal meaning.
?In three years, I haven?t sold a single piece of flash,? he said. ?It?s always custom artwork. It?s talking with customers about a design that fits them 100 percent, whether it?s something to help them through a tough personal situation or something that reminds them of family members. It should have meaning.?
Those self-imposed high standards made it difficult for Larson to work for other people. While he was an apprentice at someone else?s tattoo shop, he was told often to stop spending so much time drafting designs for customers and just put ink in the skin. And Larson wasn?t comfortable with that.
?I?ll never do a tattoo just to crank it out and make a few bucks,? he said. ?I?ve always believed the more thought you put into something, the better the result will be. So I try to go a step beyond.?
-Matt Bunk is publisher of the Great Plains Examiner.
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