I was born in Brampton, Ontario, Canada... just outside of Toronto.
As a kid I wanted to draw comic books and my two favourite toys were a pencil and a paper. I'll probably be remembered in my high school as that guy who drew doodles in his classes all day long. Although my father had always hoped one of his kids would show interest in the medical field (none of us did), I decided to follow the path of an artist. I didn't really know what direction to take and breaking into comic books seemed like something unreachable to me for some reason.

Tattoos found me, intrigued me... I saw what was around at the time and figured I could do better. I took a tattoo apprenticeship in February of 1994 that lasted all of 8 months. I wanted to learn tattooing without having to be involved in the drama of someone else's personal life and problems. I decided to go on my own and took what little I learned with me. To this day, I wish I had chosen to find a more suitable teacher... I just didn't think such a person existed out here in those days. It's not like Toronto really had a legendary tattooer.

My actual tattoo shop experience began in January of 1998 in a shop in Brampton called Art Addictions where I met Rick Kemp. I only knew him for a year, but during that time I was influenced by his work which helped me develop as a tattooer. Rick left and went to Way Cool Queen; I stayed on for another two years until I left due to a conflict of "artistic interest". I have no idea what happened to him since Rick left there. In January of 2002, I made my move to Toronto's east end, Scarborough. I started to work for Stu Kay at Lower East Side Tattoo. John Moniz of Rhode Island has also made a major impact in how I do shading in tattoos. My black and gray work has developed in leaps and bounds and I'm now pursuing a portfolio in colour. I credit Chuck Whitlock of Toronto for expanding my knowledge of Japanese, Tibetan and Indian art. In a recent trip to Vancouver, I've picked up on Haida and West Coast Indian art.
After leaving Lower Eastside Tattoo in July 2006, I worked a short stint at a downtown toronto shop on Queen Street West called Electric Tattoo. Due to complications with the shop's owner, the artists that were there had left and I was the last man standing. I decided that it would be best to persue my work independently and start working for myself. Electric Tattoo closed it's doors soon afterwards. I'm now working on my own in Toronto near Victoria Park and Danforth which is located at the border of East York and Scarborough.

I'm fairly new to the Tattoo Convention experience. I've worked Toronto's Northern Ink Xposure in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006. I've worked Vancouver's first convention, Vantat in 2004. I've worked Calgary's tattoo conventions in 2004, 2006 and 2007.
CHRIS MONIZ
I've have a number of artists I credit as influences and those who have given me advise or that I've learned something just from observation. They would include tattooers like Leo Zulueta, Paul Booth, Guy Aitchison, Steve Peace, Dave Martinez, Kurt Wiscombe, Dave Fox, Joe Capobianco and Robert Hernandez. There is so many more tattoo artists I like and will look into more as I bring myself forward into the world of colour tattooing. I like fantasy artists and have been working my portfolio towards the influences of Simon Bisley, Julie Bell, Boris, Chris Achilleos, Ken Kelly and Frank Frazetta. I'm used to using pencils, inks, and prismacolors. I have been playing with oils lately along with metal carving and I'm looking to get into watercolours. I feel that experimenting with other art forms in colour will effect theories of tattooing that I already have in my head. It's always good to take a look back at what I've been doing a couple of years ago to assess where I'm at and how I've developed today. If you're not going forward, you're not going anywhere.