Matthew Ricci was born and raised in Orange County, California in the early 1970's. He had all of his schooling there and later found himself desiring to be a professional tattoo artist. His parents wanted something else for him, but as teens do, they rebel!!!
Matthew began "tacking" with one of those needle & thread contraptions. He was even suspended from school in 1986 for tattooing on a classmate's hand using a "hand-poking" method. Word got around why Matthew was suspended and upon his return, neighborhood gangsters and hard-asses were coming to Matt wanting to get "home-jobs" tacked on them. As the story usually goes, Matthew "advanced" up to a "jail-house gun" which he made under the tuition of a friend. "I do NOT recommend using this type of garbage instrument on anyone!" Matthew exclaims.As parents sometimes get over things, on Matthew's 17th birthday, his Mother bought him an original "Jim Dandy" tattoo machine from a friend of a friend of hers. Matthew learned machine control with this instrument and had gained some good experience for himself by practicing on his friends. "Sorry guys!" Matthew sympathetically exclaims. He also learned the working components and parts of a tattoo machine as well.
In high school, Matthew had more elected art classes than normal academic. Nevertheless, he focused more on the fine arts. Matthew can and does work with various types of mediums, his favorite being charcoals. He used to be a big fan of "spray can" art. Yes, he was one of those crazy-ass kids in Cali "writing" all over the freeways and "heavens". Matthew is also getting into web page design, coding, and computer graphics. He is currently designing his own custom tattoo flash designs called Ricci Flash. Feel free to check out and purchase some of his designs.
As time moved on, Matthew got a push start from a high school friend and professional tattoo artist named Jason. At the time, Jason worked at Sharky's Tattoo in Sunset Beach, CA. Jason helped Matthew obtain higher quality tattoo equipment, some minor apprenticship skills, and gave Matt some well needed guidance on how to get started in the professional tattoo industry. In 1994, Matthew studied and apprenticed under a nameless artist in Venice Beach, CA. That is where he gained some tricks of the trade and of course learned the "fun stuff"... to clean the shop. In mid-1996, Matthew moved to the Washington D.C. area, the land where nobody knows how to drive. He worked as a tattoo artist/body piercer at the Arlington, VA Skyline Tattoo & Body Piercing location, for the following 5 years. Matthew was featured on the front cover of The Journal and The Freelance Star (AP) newspapers on June 23 of 2000, as well as in the artist recognition section of the August 2001 issue of Tattoo Magazine. Matthew's tattoo work, in the two photos above, were featured in Tattoo Gallery Magazine, issue #5 in late 2001. Matthew has also tattooed on various musicians, actors/actresses, models, a few of the San Francisco 49ers, some of the Washington Redskins (and Redskin cheerleaders :D), and many of the club scene DJ's ranging from Los Angeles to Washington D.C. and all the way to the U.K..
Matthew's knowledge of the trade (other than great tattoo work), also includes proper healing and sterilization methods. Matthew had his informal training in sterilization from a M.D. friend of his, out of UC Berkeley in Berkeley, California. He also continues to stay current in the ever-changing techniques, as well as the equipment used in the sterilization, disinfecting, and sanitation process. All the sanitation standards Matthew uses are of the utmost strictness practiced in the state of California. The regulations that are used are condoned as well as required by OSHA, the U.S. Health Department, and the Center for Disease Control (CDC).
TATTOO Magazine - August 2001 / The Journal newspaper (cover) - 06/23/2000
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