Tim Biedron shows one of the tools with which he creates tattoos Monday, Jan. 9, 2023, at his new tattoo shop, Medowlark, in Joseph.

JOSEPH — Interested in skin art? That’s what Tim Biedron is offering at Meadowlark Studio, a one-man tattoo shop that has opened in Joseph.

In fact, Biedron will be featuring his offerings during a brown bag presentation from noon to 1 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 17, at the Josephy Center for Arts and Culture.

“I will cover aspects of my two favorite media, tattooing and pen and ink drawing,” Biedron said in a preview of the Brown Bag. “I’ll go through my process, from start to finish, for both. I’ll discuss how each medium has influenced the other and show the ways in which the two connect, both in application and in theory. I’ll also cover some details of my newest venture into tattooing with the opening of Meadowlark, my one-person tattoo studio in downtown Joseph. I’ll cover a few of the ins and outs of how the shop operates.”

New to JosephBiedron opened the shop in mid-September, after he and his wife, Jenny Dalton, moved to the area. Dalton is the acting district biologist for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The couple came from Chicago via Fort Collins, Colorado. Biedron said he attended high school and art school in Chicago, where he grew up in the suburbs.

He had always known he wanted to do something related to art.

“I was a teenager and didn’t really have a career in mind,” he said, adding that a friend was interested in tattooing. “I just knew I wanted to do something with art. I ended up going to school with him — and another guy who was into tattooing — and I found it fascinating; a really interesting form of art. This was at a time when there weren’t a ton of custom shops and the kind of work that I ended up doing. Just through knowing those guys and going to art school, it overlapped. During my second and third years of art school, I was also learning tattooing. So when I graduated from art school, I pretty much already had a job at a shop.”

After art school, he did an apprenticeship and by 1996, he was earning money as a tattoo artist.

He spent several years in the early 1990s tattooing at shops in the Chicago area.

COVID strikes“In the beginning, in Chicago, I got shut down by COVID,” he said.

Since tattoo shops were among those not deemed “essential services” during the pandemic, Biedron was out of work. But he had his love of pen-and-ink to fall back on.

“Then, I did illustration work as we were making the transition to Colorado,” he said. “I just thought I’d be safe and stay home and work on pen-and-ink illustrations.”

Setting up shop

After several years working for others, he opened and co-owned a private studio in 2010. In 2021, he and Jenny moved west to Colorado. It was there, he said, where he went on hiatus from tattooing in favor of pen-and-ink.

Now, he’s got his own shop in Joseph, across from the post office.

There, he not only does tattoos, he does his drawings, which can be made into tattoos.

Unlike some, Biedron does not do colors in his tattoos. Although he once did colors, he finds black and gray more relaxing.

“Honestly, it just became more and more stressful,” he said. “With color, there’s so much to think about with all the color theory, etc. I just decided that I wanted to enjoy tattooing as much as I possibly could because I love doing it and to me that eventually led to just doing black and gray. I found it more relaxing.”

In fact, he further relaxes by doing his favorite subjects, animals and other nature-related subjects and some from a “darker” side, he said.

“I’m an old metalhead guy,” he said. “I like doing skulls and things.”

Risks?Tattooing does come with its risks, Biedron said.

“There are risks — there’s the risk of infection, but it’s very low,” he said.

He emphasized that everything he uses in tattooing is single-use and disposed of after it’s used.

“In Oregon, you need to get licensed,” he said. “There’s a whole test you take; you go down to Salem and take a test and you need to take a blood-borne pathogens training class.”

He said the class teaches how to avoid cross-contamination, how to put on and take off gloves, cleaning up working surfaces and other items.

“There’s a controlled level of risk,” he said. “Up until when the person leaves, that’s when you tell them how to do good after-care. You can have as sterile an environment as possible in the shop and then they enter the world outside the shop.”

But, Biedron said, the risk is alleviated largely with common sense.

“Essentially, it’s just being hygienic,” he said. “Especially in the summertime, you want to avoid swimming, the sun, any kind of soaking, things like that. These are all basics that I go over with people. I send them home with an instruction sheet so they have all the bullet points on the dos and don’ts to avoid infection. You’re breaking the skin, so it’s susceptible to those types of risks, but it’s very controllable if you’re doing it right and you’re being hygienic.”

What: Tattoo studio

Who: Tim Biedron

Where: 100 W. McCully St., Joseph

Email: tim@timbiedron.com

Online: www.meadowlarktattoos.com

Hours: Monday-Friday by appointment