10+ Best Tattoo Artists in San Antonio: Meet the Ink Pros — InkMatch (2024)

Mattia Bretti — Best in Black & Grey Realism

Danny Smith has been tattooing since 1992. During this time he has tried many styles, as you can see from his portfolio, but is now working and developing further in the cover-up, watercolor, black & grey, and color styles. With over 30 years of tattoo machine experience, he has won many tattoo awards and continues to delight his clients with beautiful works.

Samantha Menchaca — The Best Portrait Tattoo Artist In San Antonio

Samantha Menchaca began painting as a child before she began writing. Her mother inspired her love of painting, and she became involved in the tattoo industry thanks to her cosmetology teacher, who was a tattoo artist (mostly performing permanent makeup) and advised Samantha to learn something new.

Samantha has been creating tattoos in the neo-traditional style for six years now, and she especially enjoys working with portraits. She considers it an honor to create a portrait of someone you care about and wish to preserve the memory alive for a long time.

Eddie Ayala — The Best in Custom Lettering Tattoos

Eddie Ayala has been a tattoo artist for almost seven years. His style is influenced by traditional Japanese tattooing, however, he currently mostly focuses on custom lettering and black & grey styles. Apart from tattoos, Eddie enjoys enormous canvas paintings and graffiti art. According to his words, he simply adores all forms of art.

Augie Stakes — The Best Black and Gray Tattoo Artist in San Antonio

Augie Stacks is a tattoo artist who specializes in black and grey realism and color realism, among other things. All thanks to the fact that he’s been perfecting his skills in the art since he was a kid. It started with observing and drawing people on paper, and then, around 2004, he began working as an apprentice at a tattoo studio. Apprenticing with other artists and starting his career as a tattoo artist, Augie quickly learned everything he needed to know about working in the industry.

Now, with so much experience, he’s doing incredible sketches, and he will be especially pleased if you have large-scale ideas that he can do in black & grey or color styles.

Veks Rene Martinez — The Most Versatile Tattoo Artist

Veks Renee Martinez has been tattooing for more than ten years. His portfolio is truly impressive due to the wide variety of his works, which includes traditional style, black & grey, lettering, blackwork tattoos, and others.

Veks can also paint your sneakers and show you a collection of his cool stickers and paintings in addition to body art. He is one of those people who live and breathe art. Currently, he is open four days a week, so make an appointment with him in advance.

Rooster Robinson — The Most Impressive Realistic Works

Rooster Robinson has been in the tattoo world for almost three decades and in that time has mastered the realism style to perfection. You can find both Coloured and Black & Grey tattoos in his portfolio. He is a master of his craft and the best realistic tattoo artist in San Antonio. We can claim this because, for example, if you are a woman after a mastectomy, Rooster will bring back the beauty of your breasts with the help of ink and a tattoo machine (he does realistic nipples after they have been removed after surgery). In his spare time from tattooing, he paints, draws, and designs photo shoots as a body painter.

Gary Graves — The Maestro of Color Realism

Gary Graves is not only a tattoo artist, but also the owner of a tattoo studio. He has been in the industry for over three decades and during that time he has learned to listen to clients, pay attention to detail, and create tattoos that his clients have described to him. Visitors comment that his place is very clean and cozy, and his uncompromising attitude and professionalism keep them coming back for more tattoos. The portfolio mostly features tattoos in color and realistic styles, and they are simply stunning.

Travis Wilkerson — The Most Expressive Watercolor Works

Travis Wilkerson was born in Richmond, Virginia, but has lived in Texas for the past seven years. He has always liked art, and it has brought him happiness throughout his entire life. He plays the drums and has been professionally tattooing since 2018. “Tattoos,” Travis claims, “are another form of self-expression, and not just because society says so or thinks it’s cool.” His work is as colorful as he is, and he is proficient in watercolor, colored realism, and abstract styles.

Jason M Jensen — The Most Diverse Tattoo Designs

Jason M Jensen was born in 1980 in California and relocated to San Antonio in 2006. He attended Cal State Stanislaus and received a Bachelor’s degree in Art, which he is now applying to the field of tattooing. He began tattooing in 2004 and has since developed a specialty in a few techniques. He enjoys working in color, black & grey, dark themes, fantasy themes, comic art, anime, and realism.

Jason grew up in the 80s and loves everything about his childhood, from Transformers to He-Man and Predator to Godzilla. Jason wants to provide a tattoo experience that is safe, comfortable, and personalized, and each client deserves and receives his 110% attention.

Sonia Maria Mendez-Anderson — The Best Flower Tattoo Artist

Sonia Anderson’s career in the tattoo industry began when she was 18 years old. Drawn to the world of tattooing by her father, a tattoo artist, Sonia began working in his tattoo studio. She had intended to use this chance to support her college education, but her thoughts altered during the next three years.

Sonia has honed her abilities, maintained a varied portfolio, and developed a devoted clientele since 1997. She has been painting in watercolor, black & grey, and covering up old tattoos with lovely flowers for almost 25 years, and you can consider her as the best flower tattoo artist in San Antonio. Little fact: she’s been working side-by-side with our next artist all this time.

Steve Owen — The Best Artist in Japanese Style

Steve Owen specializes in black & grey, portrait styles, but he’s known as the best Japanese tattoo artist in San Antonio. He opened his studio in 1997 and has been running the business and honing his skills with ink and needles ever since.

He has always had a passion for art and drawing, but it all started in 1990 when he gave a friend a tattoo for fun. After that he started to realize that he enjoyed it, so he invested in the best equipment he could get in ’91, then quit his job and never looked back. In addition to his experience as a tattoo artist, he has also been doing piercings for over 19 years. Adrenaline Tattoo and Piercing, Steve’s tattoo shop, has weekends in the middle of the work week, so be prepared for this when booking.