Arshaun Wilson: The Future is Now

The tattoo scene in Northeast Ohio is growing rapidly, with artists like Arshaun Wilson taking center stage.

Wilson has been tattooing for three years and currently works at Supremacy Ink. He specializes in black and grey realism, color realism, and anime. 

Creativity has always been at the core of his life—he started by making comic books and customizing shoes before transitioning to tattooing. When he needed a more stable financial future for his children, he decided to pursue tattooing as a career.

Wilson is especially proud of two pieces: a Joker portrait and a Malcolm X portrait. His Malcolm X tattoo earned him third place in the black and grey category at the 2024 Cincinnati Tattoo Festival, where he competed against over 150 artists.

A self-taught artist, Wilson began practicing by tattooing fruit before moving on to friends and family. He chose fruit because, like human skin, no two pieces are alike, making it an ideal medium for developing his skills.

Despite his early success, Wilson remains committed to learning and evolving as an artist. One of his goals is to travel the world tattooing and gain international recognition. He also hopes to participate in the Black Tattoo Experience (BTE) as a guest speaker.

For Wilson, tattooing is more than just an art form—it’s a powerful, transformative experience. He explains, "That's what inspires me right there, the fact that it's life-changing and I try to tell people that too… …the slogan in my brand is called permanent fashion… cuz that's what it is, it's like how you dress reflects your personality or reflects you know some things that you've been through etc. I feel that tattoos have a similar concept if not a greater concept than you know clothing in my opinion."

He describes permanent fashion as a way to tell one's life story through ink, whether through deeply meaningful imagery or playful designs that reflect personality.

Wilson also emphasizes the unifying power of tattooing, highlighting its deep history from Native American traditions to modern-day culture. He believes tattoos connect people rather than divide them. A tattoo is much more than ink on the skin; it's a deep positive force left behind.

Beyond the artwork itself, Wilson aims to make getting a tattoo a luxury experience for his clients. He shares his ultimate vision: "My dream with tattooing is to make my clients feel as if they're a celebrity… from the hospitality, to the tattoo, to the conversation, and then to the finished product of the video… every time I create a video I send it to that client that way you know they can have the original copy of the edited video with music and all that as much as I can anyway… That's like my ultimate goal is to make my clients feel as if they're a celebrity and the next step towards that would be of course getting my own shop eventually."

Wilson wants to inspire others to embrace limitless creativity in tattooing. He explains, "The impact I wanna leave behind is to truly express to the people a tattoo is kinda like a dream, I’ll say a lucid dream anyway… I want people to understand that with tattoos you can literally do whatever you want. There's no right or wrong. You know there's no specific procedure you have to follow or anything like that… I want people to know that there are no limits. The only limit you have is between you and the artist when it comes to imagination, creativity, and actually getting the tattoo done."

Reflecting on the Cleveland tattoo scene, Wilson acknowledges the city's talent while noting there’s room for growth. "I would say that the tattoo scene in Northeast Ohio, Cleveland specifically, we got a long way to go when it comes to just bein’ more of a community but can we compete 100%. I just think that a lotta the dope artists, a lotta the great artists in Cleveland are undervalued, underpaid and kinda swept under the rug…"Wilson said. 

With his talent, vision, and passion, Arshaun Wilson is carving out a name for himself in the tattoo world, proving that the future of tattooing is now.

Follow Wilson:

• Instagram: @justimagineink

Book with Wilson:

• www.imagineink.squarespace.com