As you walk through the door of Event Horizon Custom Tattoo in downtown Burlington, the smell of rubbing alcohol permeates the air, and the bright green walls are merely a backdrop to the many oil paintings that cover them.  The paintings range from a rather ancient looking ‘war turtle’, to portraits, to a realistic looking siren with long black horns sitting naked atop a rock in a raging sea.

Before the door can close behind you it’s likely you’ll be cheerfully greeted by a rather tall and very friendly man.  His short, light brown hair is typically disheveled, and you’ll hardly see him without a big smile.  Large black plugs hang from his stretched ears and frame the sides of his scruffy, unshaven face. The colorful tattoo of a red-winged blackbird on his neck, with its wings spread, is framed by a tattoo machine on one side and a multi-purpose tool on the other.

Various other pieces of art cover a good portion of his arms and legs.  And although the vision of someone towering over you covered in tattoos may seem like a threatening one, his ever-present smile and outgoing, friendly personality immediately put you at ease.  This man is Brant Newton, tattoo artist and owner of Event Horizon.

At the age of 14, Newton developed an interest in tattoos when his older brother came home with some tribal work on his arms. Tribal tattoos generally consist of designs created with thick black lines and shapes. At the time, it was the coolest thing. So at 16, he got his first tattoo, a small piece that’s now part of a larger bio-mechanical (tattoos that combine biological and mechanical elements) piece on his left forearm.  From then on, he knew that he wanted to tattoo.

“It was awesome, it was mesmerizing, you know,” Newton says, as he sits at his tattoo station in the shop.

The counter behind him is fairly empty, containing only a glass container full of small plastic ink cups and a couple of smaller metal containers.  A large mirror hangs above the counter.

“The first time you watch that needle drag in the skin and it leaves that perfectly clean, perfect, crisp, the blackest black line, like that was satisfying, even when I got the first one,” says Newton.  “I just wanted to do that, and it’s still satisfying today.  When you lay it in there and it’s … just going in like exactly how you want it, and you can tell that you are barely damaging the skin and you know that thick black line is going to heal within a week,” he said. “That’s the greatest feeling in the world.”

It’s obvious as you talk to Newton that he’s passionate about what he does.

With this passion comes a need to constantly learn something new. When choosing an artist for himself, he looks for someone who does amazing work and someone who has a certain style or technique that he’s interested in learning. Through observing another artist he can learn something new while getting a new tattoo.  One of those artists is Jason Tooth, who works at another shop in Burlington. He and Newton met previously while working at another shop together and have both done work on each other.

“I liked his artistic approach. It’s different than normal tattoo studio atmosphere,” says Tooth.   “It’s a little more artsy, which for this town is different and cool at the same time,” he adds, talking over the distinct buzzing of the tattoo machine he’s using to work on a bio-mechanical piece on Newton’s right calf.

Newton believes that tattoo artists, as with any artist, should always be pushing themselves to learn something new.  The tattoo world is a competitive one and to stay in the game, you have to constantly push yourself to learn new techniques and improve on your skills.  “Well that’s why you get into artwork. You don’t get into artwork to be the best,” says Newton.  “The best, especially conceptually, makes no sense. Nobody can be the best at art because it’s interpretive, you know, the best to me and the best to you are different things. You can only continue to get better.  So there’s always an avenue for you to improve and to learn.”

In addition to tattooing, he also spends a good deal of time drawing apart from the drawing he does for clients.

If you go into the shop, he is more than willing to let you look through any of his numerous sketchpads, including the one in which he’s working.  These sketchbooks are filled with random sketches of things he’s practicing, such as portraits or figures of the human body and practice sketches for upcoming tattoo appointments.

Recently he has been turning some of these sketches into some custom flash, which people can chose to get tattooed if they find a design they like.  This is a little different from typical tattoo shop flash, found in the big books or posters hanging on the walls of tattoo shops with different designs people can choose from if they don’t have an idea of their own.  These remain on the wall or in the book even after it has been tattooed on numerous people.

Custom flash, however, is removed from the portfolio once one of these pieces is tattooed on someone so no one else can get the same design. This maintains the custom aspect of the shop and ensures no two people will ever walk out of Event Horizon with the same tattoo unless, of course, that was their intention.

Another artistic venture of Newton’s is oil painting, which is fairly apparent as you look around the shop at the walls decorated with many of his pieces. This has also been beneficial to his tattooing. Newton says that painting has influenced his tattoo work in a variety of ways.  “Painting, especially since I paint with the primary colors, I think that’s helped my tattoo work in my ability to mix colors,” Newton says.  “In my head, I can say I want to have a red, but I want it to be a little bit of a different red and I can already think of a couple colors to mix in with that red to give me something that’s a little different and distinctive.”

He also finds that this has made tattooing realistic pieces easier. Pieces that require softer lines and contrast are now easier to translate into tattoo form.

All of this artistic experimenting comes out in Newton’s style, which leans away from what a lot of people expect in tattoos but is also always changing and growing.

He uses a lot of bright colors and does a lot of new school work which tends to be more bold and brighter than old school work, which has more thick, black outlines and more restrained use of color.

This is not to say that he only does this kind of work; pieces he’s done range from a new school Rubik’s cube to realistic pieces like trees, skulls, and animals, as well as more abstract pieces.

Brant also paints in a wide variety of styles using various subjects. One painting is a portrait of his grandfather. Next, he might work on a surreal heart with tree branches growing out of the top of it, and after that he will challenge himself further and paint a horseshoe crab entirely with his right hand, even though he is left handed.

When meeting new clients, Newton tries to give them the best picture of what he does and pitches them a handful of ideas. He’s looking to give them an experience that they won’t get at another shop. And when it comes to tattoo virgins, he will keep the ideas a little less extravagant, keep it simple, and try to do a piece that can be done in one session.

Raven, now a regular client, got her first tattoo from Newton.  “I was really scared and he walked me through it,” she said.  “I wanted to keep the same artist so all the art fits together.  I think it’s the fact that he’s straightforward about things.  Plus, he’s super nice.”

Once a client becomes a repeat customer, more elaborate ideas will be presented.  “Someone who comes back to me at least once or twice, I’ll throw out every ridiculous idea I have and see what they bite onto,” he says.

At this point, it’s more likely that he will pitch an idea that may take three or more sessions to complete.  “You’ve got to establish that trust before someone’s willing to let you do a tattoo that for two sessions is not going to look like much and is only going to start coming together in the third one,” says Newton. “That takes a lot of trust.”

Newton feels that clients are drawn to him for a variety of reasons including the quality of work and his attitude.  “I like to think it’s the work, you know, people see something with my work that they don’t see with anyone else around here. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that I try to treat all of my clientèle nicely, try to treat everybody with respect,” he says.  “Try to give them a good time when they come in so it’s not just like this sterile, hollow experience, [but] it’s something that, you know, you’ll look back on 30 years from now, and besides having a cool tattoo, you’ll say, ‘Holy shit, I had a great time getting it!’”

“Freedom.  I get to look how I want, I get to wear the clothes I want, I get to be tattooed and pierced as I feel like,” says Newton.  “I can shave my head and put it into giant a red, white, and blue Mohawk and nobody is going to give a shit.  If anything, it might actually help my business.  Being weird and extravagant and different is a good thing, and that is awesome.”  That is his favorite thing about what he does.

As far as the actual tattoo process, he loves the second consultation with clients.

The first time they come in to see him is when they will tell him what they are looking to get and he will give them some ideas.  When they come in the second time, they get to see what he has drawn and when they love it and start to get excited for the tattoo it becomes more exciting for him.

His final thoughts seem to sum up what it’s all about, “And you can kind of tell, too …when it’s the right person for me to tattoo, and I’m the right artist for them, you just know.”