Artist Spotlight: Zach "Zapmeister" Mueller
Who are you, and where are you currently tattooing?
My name is Zack Mueller, and I co-own and tattoo at Lonesome Town Tattoo in Cincinnati, Ohio.
How did tattooing first enter your life? What pulled you in?
My grandpa had a tattoo of an eagle that I first saw when I was five or six. My grandma is religious and didn’t like him showing it off, but he proudly let it fly when we were out on his boat. I thought it was so cool that he wore this hidden expression of a secret side of himself, right beneath his shirtsleeves. I immediately knew I would wear tattoos someday too.
I started getting tattooed as soon as I turned 18, and from the first time I stepped into a shop, the wheels in my head were already turning. I remember being so impressed by the vibrant, tidy Sailor Jerry flash on the walls and thinking how much I wanted to learn to paint like that.
But before tattooing, I spent more than a decade working as a graphic designer and illustrator, all while continuing to get tattooed. Eventually I started trading freelance design services for tattoos with a shop owner, and when he offered to teach me to tattoo, I leapt at the chance.
How would you describe your style in your own words?
I hope the first thing people notice when they look at my work is my deep respect for the history of the craft. I’ll always have one foot firmly in tradition, especially early 20th-century American tattooing from 1904 through the 1960s.
I make tattoos that are bold, bright, and built to last.
To me, style is about setting constraints. I work with a limited number of pigments, a few choice needle groupings, and a core set of repeatable techniques. From there, I experiment. I push and pull on different levers. I smash things together, cut them up, or multiply them.
I really enjoy taking one design and exploding it — then seeing how many ways I can put it back together.
If someone asked what your tattoos feel like, what would you say?
I hope my tattoos feel like they were meant to be there — like they were always there.
Like they belong in the skin they’re in.
And I hope they feel like a fond souvenir from a pleasant human interaction, where your skin was cared for and you felt safe and welcome.
What do you enjoy most about tattooing?
My favorite part of tattooing is the people.
Hanging out at the shop. Talking about tattoos. Talking about everything else under the sun.
You get to spend a few hours with someone from a completely different walk of life and learn about their worldview. Over time, you end up with hundreds of these little two-hour friendships all over the city.
Some relationships grow deeper, and the line between client and friend starts to blur. That’s what makes tattooing special.
What does a good tattoo day look like for you?
I love busy guest spots and flash days from time to time, but I’m getting older.
My favorite days are when I get to focus on making one or two great tattoos, and still have time to walk around the shop, look at everyone’s work, and chat with clients.
What influences your work outside of tattooing?
Because of my background in graphic design, I’ve always been drawn to early 20th-century commercial art.
I collect antiques and printed ephemera from the same eras as the tattoo flash I love. I enjoy digging up the kinds of visual references a tattooer in the early 1900s might have had access to, then using those ideas to inspire new designs that still feel authentic.
I’m also a big fan of cartoons, especially early rubber-hose animation, MAD Magazine, comics, and artists like R. Crumb. Anything zany and counter-cultural — that’s the stuff for me.
You have a background in branding and design. How does that influence your tattooing?
In many ways, I’ve had to unlearn a lot of things from graphic design to become a good tattooer.
I had to surrender control, loosen up, and get off the iPad. Tattooing forced me to trust my hands more. It’s art with a lower-case “a,” and once I embraced that, I really loved where it took my work.
At the same time, there are many similarities between the two worlds. The things drilled into me in design school — color theory, negative space, composition, figure-ground relationships — are the same principles that apply to good tattoo design.
Graphic design is about abstraction, simplification of form, and maximizing impact and legibility. Those are exactly the same rules for designing a good traditional tattoo — you just apply them to the limitations of skin.
That’s what first drew me to traditional tattoos.
You recently designed our first-ever Zubi Supply collab tee. What was your approach to the design?
I wanted to create a big, bold design that would wear like a full back piece and be strong enough to be seen from across the street.
I focused on a singular central image and surrounded it with lush textures that activate the entire composition from edge to edge.
What does this piece represent to you?
The design comes from Korean Minhwa folklore, specifically the classic tale of the tiger and the magpie.
It’s a story about a tiger who gets stuck in a swamp and is ultimately fooled by a clever magpie.
When you told me that Zubi means “bridge,” I had the idea to use the letterforms to create a massive stone bridge beneath the tiger — helping lift him out of the muck.
This artwork is featured on the Zubi Supply Artist Series tee — Vol. 1.
Where can people follow your work?
Shop
Is there anything about you or your work that doesn’t usually get asked — but should?
One question I really enjoy is:
“What are you currently working on or struggling with in your journey?”
Especially when it comes from another tattooer who knows more than me.
I’m far from a master of tattooing, even though I feel comfortable with the fundamentals. I’m always trying to deepen my understanding of the craft.
Recently I’ve been focusing on machines and tuning, and in the future I’d love to learn how to mix my own powder pigments.
There’s always something new to improve — and that’s part of what keeps tattooing interesting.
