From Head to Toe
Bowling Green native Mike Woods has been a tattoo apprentice at The Crawling Panther Tattoo Company for two years. He considers himself a non-traditional student and as of April 16 has completed 38 tattoos.
Woods, right, watches his primary mentor Cody Smith tattoo a client on Thursday, March 28, 2024. Smith and the other tattoo artists at The Crawling Panther Tattoo Company have mentored Woods since he began his apprenticeship. "
Mike Woods looks at a tattoo in confusion on Friday, April 5, 2024. It was Woods’ first time tattooing an elbow and tattooing something without a stencil. "I want everybody to have a good tattoo," Woods said. "Because I mean, I know how important this s--- is. And so I was basically just kind of just a nervous wreck the whole time."
Woods fist bumps his client and friend Nicholas Hadden after tattooing his elbow on Friday, April 5, 2024. Hadden asked Woods for a spider web tattoo on his elbow. It was the second tattoo Hadden received from Woods. "It's a grind, Woods said. "It feels never ending. Because it's something that you truly are always learning. I felt like I could tattoo for 20 years and still have somebody show me a new trick that I didn't know, or a new way to do things. But it's something I just put a lot of effort into it and just respect it. At the end of the day, and because I love having tattoos, and if somebody else wants one, I want iy to be the best that I can give them.
Mike Woods plays and streams the video game “Fortnite” on Twitch in his room on Sunday, April 7, 2024. In his free time Woods enjoys streaming on Twitch while playing video games with his friends.
