Dallas tattoo legend Oliver Peck removed from national television in the wake of blackface photos

Dallas tattoo artist Oliver Peck has been a fixture for years on the television show Ink Master, however no extra — he’s gone after pictures of Peck in blackface surfaced and launched a cyber storm on the web.

“The producers and I’ve determined it’s finest to half methods,” Peck mentioned in a press release, which was quoted by USA Today. “The offensive pictures of me which just lately surfaced from a few years in the past can solely be a distraction to the superb present I’ve cherished being part of and its many gifted artists.”

Peck had served as a decide on Ink Grasp alongside musician Dave Navarro and tattoo artist Chris Nunez for the reason that present launched in 2012. However in his hometown of Dallas, Peck is finest recognized for Elm Road Tattoo, the favored store he’s anchored in Deep Ellum since 1996.

The blackface photos, which rapidly went viral, surprised not solely the web but additionally Dallas’ tattoo subculture. The one that answered a name to Elm Road Tattoo mentioned they would supply a press release at a later time.

The web site popculture.com describes the pictures as follows:

“The pictures, which apparently had been taken from his previous MySpace account, present [Peck] carrying darkish make-up throughout his face and physique whereas dressed as a basketball participant and a superhero with a racist brand for Halloween. TMZ additionally reported Peck dressed as a Playboy bunny whereas carrying blackface.”

After the explosion on social media, TMZ upped the ante, noting that Peck donned blackface on a number of events for varied Halloween costumes. In a single, notes the article in USA Today, Peck “seems to put on darkish face paint, a wig and the letter ‘N’ on his chest.”

Peck apologized on Instagram.

“I wish to profusely apologize for my utterly inappropriate, insensitive, and immature habits. I take a look at these pictures and it’s exhausting for me to consider that I might have been so clueless, insensitive and dumb. I hope that I’ve matured an important deal since then and I’m deeply sorry for everybody I’ve offended.”

He continued, “I used to be 100% incorrect to depict myself this manner and I take full duty for my immature, misguided perspective, whole lapse of judgment and sensitivity.”

He concluded by thanking his supporters.

“These of you that know my coronary heart, I’m grateful to my mates, household, colleagues, purchasers and followers who’ve allowed me to apologize and study from this error,” he wrote. “I can solely hope that these of you that I don’t know, and anybody I’ve offended, may also discover it in your hearts to simply accept my honest apology.”

It’s unclear when the pictures had been taken.

The website for Elm Street Tattoo describes Peck as “an artist whose life revolves round tattooing.” He started tattooing when he was an adolescent in his hometown of Dallas and has, in response to USA At this time, “perfected his exact and conventional tattooing model making him top-of-the-line and well-known ‘old fashioned’ American model artists.”

In 2008, Peck tattooed his approach into the Guinness Ebook of World Data when he accomplished 415 tattoos of the quantity 13 in a consecutive 24-hour interval. He has taken his tattooing skills to England, Eire, Italy, Germany, Sweden and Norway and within the Far East, together with Japan and Thailand.

A 2013 story in The Dallas Morning News learn, “Within the colourful world of tattooing, he’s a revered determine.” Peck oversaw a music and tattoo pageant that introduced 50 tattoo artists from world wide to Deep Ellum, “all handpicked by a man who’s come a great distance since he began inking himself and his mates in his storage at age 17.”

As a teenager rising up within the punk-rock scene, he all the time wished tattoos. And he received them, to the purpose that components of his physique turned so thick with ink, it was exhausting to make out the designs. It began with a moon and anchor that he did himself at age 17.

In a quote that seems as a part of a video posted by the present, Peck says: “I really feel like I’ve all the time been an overwhelmingly optimistic individual. I used to be like that as a child, however as an grownup, I’ve adopted it as a philosophy, whether or not it’s been jail, medicine, automotive crashes, father dying. Optimistic psychological perspective has received me by the whole lot.”