In the minds of most people that have tattoos, or aspire to, tattooing is an art form, the skin is a canvas, the mind a sketchbook; the tattoo artist can be compared to the likes of Van Gogh and Warhol. In the here and now, many artists have such a long waiting list that they are booked up for years in advance; or a person will want a tattoo done by a certain artist so they go to enormous lengths, even traveling across the  country. some of these prized, and prize winning artists are, Olivia de Berardinis, Tommy Montoya, Kat Von D, Joe Capobianco, and Ami James. These artists are scattered all over the U.S. and each have a specialty category. Olivia de Berardinis specializes in pin up, or cheesecake art; her pin ups are so sought after that her waiting list stretches almost three years down the line. Tommy Montoya is tattooing in Southern California, or SoCal, and specializes in portrait tattoos. Portraits are a very hard line of work to accomplish because the artist must successfully draw and tattoo an image of a person on the the wearers’ skin that closely resembles the picture. There is no room for errors here. Kat Von D and Ami James are both television stars, as the hosts of L.A. Ink and N.Y. Ink respectively. Joe Capobianco has a more surreal, cartoonish, almost caricature style to his tattoos. Most of his tattoos are pin up girls with exaggerated features and bright, vibrant colors.