Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

While other tattoo artists offered a rigid set of images and styles, he designed one-of-a-kind tattoos, blending high art, primitivism, Japanese designs and classic Americana. But getting a DeVita tattoo was always a gamble: What you saw on the wall wasn’t necessarily what showed up on your arm. “I don’t tattoo like a stamp, each one exactly the same,” Mr. DeVita said in a 1991 interview for the magazine Tattootime.

Source: Thom DeVita, 85, Dies; Revolutionized the Art of Tattooing - The New York Times