Logan McAdams, Charlotte tattoo artist, dies at 30

From an early age, it was clear Logan McAdams was going to be an artist. Artwork ran within the household, graphic artist father Mel McAdams mentioned.

However even in a gifted household, Logan was totally different: “He took off,” McAdams mentioned about his son’s artwork. “He was higher than I ever was.”

McAdams, a tattoo artist at NoDa’s 510 Skilled Tattoo & Physique Piercing, died unexpectedly at age 30 on April 30.

McAdams’ mom, Kelly Kennedy, was shocked when he first advised her he was going to take a tattoo apprenticeship greater than seven years in the past. He was an artwork scholar at UNC Charlotte on the time. McAdams, who grew up in Lexington, North Carolina, moved to Charlotte in 2012 for school.

“My tooth about fell out of my head,” she mentioned. “After placing him by way of faculty.”

However Kennedy was so happy with her son.

“I used to be very happy with him for remaining true to himself and never doing what mainstream thought he ought to do,” she mentioned. “… He was very profitable and I’m simply so happy with him.”

McAdams was a “calm, mild spirit,” Kennedy mentioned. He was well-loved by family and friends and by nearly everybody he met, father Mel mentioned.

He was generally quiet at first — however as soon as he obtained began he was at all times joking and at all times had a nickname for his buddies, Kennedy mentioned.

Logan’s begin in tattooing

Mel was much less stunned when his son started tattooing, he mentioned. The skateboarding scene obtained McAdams into the tattoo world. And McAdams had at all times been an artist, Mel mentioned, ranging from his youngest years when Mel and his son would sit “face to face drawing on the identical image.”

McAdams had been working at Absolute Tattoo on the counter earlier than getting an apprenticeship.

“He was such a very good artist,” McAdams’ tattoo mentor Chris Lopp advised The Charlotte Observer. “I took him beneath my wing.”

McAdams specialised in American conventional tattoos. And he knew everybody within the tattoo scene, Lopp mentioned.

“He’s form of like some folks with music — they’ll take heed to music and so they know who’s the lead singer, the singer’s household and all of that,” Lopp mentioned.

McAdams was like that with tattoos. He knew apprentices from all around the state, and tattoo artists from all around the nation.

“You don’t meet lots of people which might be actual real and good,” Lopp mentioned. “He wasn’t making an attempt to get one thing from folks — he was simply good to folks. Lots of people regarded as much as him.”

Even on his days off, he would go round to different tattoo retailers and hang around. McAdams would do visitor spots at tattoo retailers in different cities and was in a position to make connections with nearly anybody, Lopp mentioned.

“I look as much as that,” he mentioned.

Logan’s signature look

The day he died, coincidentally, was an unofficial “Logan Day” at his tattoo store.

The opposite tattoo artists and staff had dressed up like him, together with his signature Vans and glasses, Lopp mentioned.

McAdams by no means confirmed as much as work that day. But it surely was a second of levity on a tough day for Kennedy, displaying as much as a store stuffed with Logans.

On Sunday, a lot of McAdams’ buddies within the tattoo store obtained a tattoo of his signature glasses, Lopp mentioned.

Mel doesn’t have any tattoos. He was at all times reluctant to get one earlier than his son turned a tattoo artist, he mentioned. After that, Mel was on the seek for the right picture — he simply ran out of time, he mentioned.

Now, Mel is considering getting one in honor of Logan. When he does, he’ll flip to McAdams’ mentor Lopp, he mentioned.

And Kennedy says she is certainly going to get a tattoo of Logan’s glasses in honor of her son.

It gained’t be her first tattoo although. It’ll be a part of a rose on her left arm — a tattoo Logan gave her in 2017.

A rose for his mother

Kennedy by no means anticipated to get a tattoo, she mentioned.

However McAdams didn’t must do any convincing — she needed to get a design from her son, Kennedy mentioned.

McAdams had been drawing her roses for years, she mentioned. As soon as, he referred to as her the “rose of my coronary heart.”

So when she requested him for a tattoo, he drew her one other rose, this time with an added rosebud, to characterize him.

“I’m so grateful I’ve it,” Kennedy mentioned.

He was so nervous to be tattooing his mother, she mentioned. However he was such knowledgeable, even in these moments.

And earlier than his loss of life, the very very last thing McAdams ever painted was a rose, Lopp mentioned.

A celebration of life will probably be held for McAdams on Sunday from 3 to five p.m. at Powles Staton Funeral House at 913 W. Principal Avenue in Rockwell, North Carolina.

Hannah Smoot covers enterprise in Charlotte, specializing in well being care and transportation. She has been protecting COVID-19 in North Carolina since March 2020. She beforehand coated cash and energy at The Rock Hill Herald in South Carolina and is a graduate of the College of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.