Born in 1969, Robert Atkinson is a native of Los Angeles who started his career air brushing t-shirts. In 1992 some friends chipped in and bought him his first tattoo kit. After practicing for a few years, Robert started working at Melrose Tattoo. In 1996 he was invited to work at Royal Tattoo in Denmark. After a few years of doing mostly tribal tattoos, he left Denmark and moved to Holland to work at Dragon Tattoo in Eindhoven. There he laid the roots of what would become his signature western oriental style of tattooing.
Robert settled back in Los Angeles in 2001. He and his partner Jojo Ackermann decided to join forces and open 10,000 WAVES TATTOO GALLERY in 2014.
Robert collaborates with his clients on the subject matter and composition of his tattoos. His greatest demand is Japanese inspired, large scale work, but he does like to mix it up and do different things. The main focus is making the design fit the body in a way that it looks as if the person wearing the tattoo was born with it.
In addition to tattooing, Robert started his shoe project in the fall of 2006. Each pair is handmade, one of a kind, special order. To date, he has made over 350 pairs. They can be seen worn by only the koolest people on earth!
