From the very beginning, Jo Ann always involved in art. At the Berkeley campus of the University of California, she became more certain than ever that she wanted to pursue fine arts as a career.

After earning her B.F.A., Jo moved to New York in 1995, just before tattooing was legalized in New York City in 1997. During her apprenticeship with Lesley Allen at the now-defunct Lady Luck studio in Brooklyn, Jo Ann worked hard and cultivated respect for the history and craft of tattooing. Like many of the new wave of tattoo artists, she had been to art school. But she also learned to do things the old-fashioned way, using hand-drawn stencils and making her own needles. "I'm glad to know how to do those things even though I don't need to anymore."

Jo Ann's formal arts education is a major influence on her work. "I thrive on pieces that draw from my fine arts background—figures, pin-ups, color theory. It informs my work in a way that would be very different if I hadn't gone to art school."

After working in Brooklyn for a few years, first at Lady Luck and later at Third Eye in Park Slope, Jo Ann moved to Edmonton, Alberta in 2002. She currently works at Urge2 Tattoos in Edmonton.

(This bio is an excerpt from a profile about Jo Ann that appeared in the premiere issue of Urban Ink Magazine.)