How does Jay Wheeler maintain the edge to his artistry? The answer is simple: “I don’t over work. I have probably been more relaxed than ever with tattooing. I work as little hours as possible pretty much, and I don’t over work it.” Eternal Tattoos accommodates Wheeler on his schedule, which averages a genteel 30 hours a week instead of the usual red-eye hustle of so many other artists.

That credo may be simple, but there is nothing simplistic about it. It allows Wheeler to devote the attention to detail that makes the difference. The lines in his tattoos are straight, the points sharp, his colors opaque, his shading soft, and he takes no shortcuts.

Wheeler probably couldn’t shortcut his strategy even if he wanted to. His name is increasingly associated with tattoo portraiture. “I get a lot of reproduction stuff, which is cool because I like to work with real subtle grays and really fine detail,” said Wheeler, who works out of the Livonia branch of Eternal Tattoos’ five locations in Michigan. “It’s not necessarily an artistic style although I am able to reproduce something that they want, such as a portrait or real detailed type piece that somebody might not want to take on.”

Wheeler is a 12 year vet of the tattoo trade. He began his career with an apprenticeship at Eternal for owner Terry “Tramp” Welker, worked there for about three years traveled for a year and then returned to Eternal.

Reproduction tattoos can be dicey. Expectations run very high. Doing portraits of celebrities and monsters from the movies is one thing. But doesn’t doing “in memory of” works ratchet up the pressure? “Yeah, a little bit. The whole mood of the event is a little sad. It’s a little uneasy. But then at the end, people are really happy about it and then it turns into a joyous thing,” he explained.