If you’re laying on Patrick Carmack’s tattoo table, the collection of traditional tattoo designs displayed against K Avenue’s signature brick walls and hipster vibes brings you to a welcoming conclusion: You’re meant to come in and let your tattooist get to know you, and you’ll definitely get to know them.
Legend Tattoo’s artists are not your typical tattooers. Free from the hard drugs and debauchery that pervade the alternative scene, Carmack has carefully curated a career that centers around the art itself. Even if that lifestyle is what originally drew him in as a teen and inspires many a story that you might hear while on his table.
His stories might start with the first tattoo he ever did, which took place in a former funeral home, where body refrigerators served as lockers for employees.
Growing up in the ‘80s and early ‘90s with two strict parents, Carmack was drawn to whatever felt rebellious. Punk rock. Skateboarding. Leather jackets. And, after seeing tatted-up fans at heavy metal shows, tattoos.
“They ignored the rules,” Carmack reflects. “That was appealing to me.”
After turning 18, Carmack got a job at a biker shop that tattooed in Atlanta, not far from where he grew up, which he says was chock-full of much sketchier crowds than today. When he was ready to leave, his contract required that he couldn’t tattoo within 500 miles of the shop.
However, long before tattoos adorned the bodies of over 1 ⁄ 3 of Americans (and nearly half of Millennials and of-age Gen Z, according to Pew Research Center), tattoo shops were relegated to the outskirts of town and backrooms of businesses.
“(My employer) had the old school electric toothbrush, guitar string sharpened and he’d be doing little f***ing ghetto tats on people,” Carmack says. “I was like ‘I could do that,’ even as a kid.”
As he moved around the country learning from tattoo artists of different styles and backgrounds, earning his keep wasn’t as structured as it is today. Some of his first jobs included doing grunt work in exchange for getting tattooed, rather than a traditional apprenticeship that young tattooers experience today.
“That’s what got me into it. For me, getting heavily tattooed back then was another ‘f*** you’ to society,” Carmack says. “Now, all the normies get it and it’s cool. I’m actually grateful for that.”
After developing a reputation from tattooing all over the world, he opened a shop in Austin. The city’s tattoo shops are a dime a dozen, and though business was never slow, he says, it was time to move to a less saturated market.
Coming into the Downtown Plano spot was a strategic move, looking to fill the lack of shops in the area. Opening didn’t come without pushback, however. Tattoo shops still carry a stigma from their ‘90s edge-of-society reputation for some.
A 2001 city ordinance prevented tattoo shops in Downtown Plano unless the tattoo services were in addition to a personal service shop like a store, beauty or piercing studio. After months of discussion, along with Carmack and his team going door to door to Downtown neighbors to spread the word of their desire to change the ordinance, City Council moved to allow two tattoo shops in the Downtown area by right in 2022.
Since the ordinance changed, Legend Tattoo isn’t the same as the studio that it replaced, Carmack says. The tattoo shop is “more of a destination,” with a come-as-you-are vibe that encourages patrons to sit and stay a while — after all, tattooing is not a quick art.
“What appealed to me is there is something to this day, after 27 years, this tattoo [is still looking the same],” Carmack says. “Something about the skin once I wipe it, boom, there it is. It triggers something on a very psychological level putting something there that wasn’t supposed to be there. It’s not like you were born with a tat. I get a little shot of dopamine every time.”
While Carmack’s designs typically lean traditional, his portfolio covers fine line tattoos, Japanese traditional and dot work.
“Traditional tattooing has so much weight to it. A lot of people think it’s cartoony,” Carmack says. “It’s like Levi’s 501s and a white Hanes T-shirt. It’s classic and never goes out of style.”
While some seasoned tattoo artists aim to continue the exclusivity and tough-guy environment, Carmack sees it as an evolution of the art.
“They get their hands tattooed and their neck and they take their shirt off and there’s nothing. It’s like they’re doing it all for attention … But then, if I’m realistic and I look back on it, that’s all I was doing it for as a kid,” Carmack says. “I used to have that elitist mindset and I know a lot of people who do … I’m a tattoo shop owner right? So I love it actually.”
Tattoos are so common now, he notes, that anyone can walk into a doctor’s office or talk to a lawyer and see parts of sleeves or other tattoos peeking out.
“Finally people are waking up and realizing it’s just a f***ing tattoo,” Carmack says.
Legend Tattoo is located at 1428 K Avenue in Downtown Plano next to McNeal’s Tavern & Eatery and 1418 Coffee. On top of tattoos, Legend Tattoo is also home to Crucio Piercings, a Slytherin-themed piercing studio with customizable surgical-grade jewelry, and Icedd Teeth, a teeth whitening and tooth gem service.
