ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Sunday, September 15, 1996             TAG: 9609160008
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 9    EDITION: METRO 
                                             TYPE: WHAT IS ART?
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER 

CREATIVITY COMES FROM THE HEART

Randy ``Hooter'' Horton hates to be called a tattoo artist.

Tattooist is better. He prefers just plain artist.

``I'm an artist and tattooing is my medium that I use to make a living,'' he said.

Horton, 30, has been a professional tattooist for seven years. He now manages the Skin Thrills Tattoo Studio on Williamson Road in Roanoke.

He said art has always come naturally. As a sophomore at Salem High School, he enrolled in a sophomore art class and within two weeks the teacher moved him into the senior class.

``But I never saw a means of making a living,'' he said.

So, he became a carpenter. Then a motorcycle accident put him in a wheelchair for more than two years and a friend got him started on tattooing. He was sold. ``Tattooing to me is the best way for an artist to sell his work,'' he said. ``I mean, it's got it hands down over trying to sell a painting.''

Horton charges $65 to $75 for a typical small tattoo.

For larger pieces, he charges by the hour. He said that a tattoo covering someone's entire back would run between $2,500 and $3,500.

He will tattoo any kind of design or drawing a client wants, but he prefers it when clients ask him to create something original. He said those clients are always his most satisfied customers:

``Because they've got something nobody can re-create.''

To him, that is the essence of art. ``It's anything that a person creates with what's in here,'' he said, pointing to his heart. ``And good art is when the person creates with all of their heart.''

LENGTH: Short :   41 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  Tattoo artist Randy Horton manages Skin Thrills Tattoo 
          Studio in Roanoke. color.