Tanner Lytle Goes All-In on Tattoo Art

McCOOK Neb. — When Tanner Lytle turned 40, he gave himself a birthday present most people only daydream about: he decided to bet on his art full-time.

“Starting today, I will be a full-time tattoo artist at the shop,” he wrote in a recent Facebook announcement, sharing that he’s “jumping all-in” at The Clever Fox Tattoo & Body Piercing in McCook, specializing in black and grey realism.

It sounds sudden. It isn’t.

A long road back to art

Lytle has always been an artist. His grandmother and mother were both creatives, and he’s been told he was drawing by the time he was two years old.

As a teen, he gravitated toward animation and computer graphics. In high school, he haunted online forums, eventually landing in the very first cohort of an online animation school taught by working industry professionals.

“I got to learn animation from guys from Disney, Pixar, Industrial Light & Magic, DreamWorks,” he recalled. Those mentors animated characters like Yoda in the Star Wars remakes and creatures in films like Chicken Little.

He studied art at McCook Community College with instructor Rick Johnson, then life took a practical turn. In 2007, Lytle helped start the local game store Game On, and the business quickly became a full-time commitment. He spent a decade there before fully stepping away in 2019.

From there was a wide variety of jobs in technology, working for Greg Fyn at Honorbound IT in McCook, then remotely for other companies doing enterprise sales, technology recruiting, and leading growth for an AI startup.

A new creative outlet and a turning point

It was during the corporate years that Lytle realized how much he missed having a creative outlet. He explored podcasting and fantasy illustration and even traveled to an illustration masterclass in Massachusetts.

But it was tattooing, encouraged by shop owner and friend Adam Hajek, that finally gave him the spark he’d been missing.

“Adam has always been pushing me since we first met, ‘You should be tattooing. You should be tattooing,’” Lytle said.

Two years ago, he took that advice and started an apprenticeship at Clever Fox alongside fellow artist Devon Strunk. He tattooed part-time while still working at the startup, building skill and confidence session by session.

Then, just days before his 40th birthday, his position with the startup ended.

Rather than look for another corporate job, he made a decision:

It was time to go all-in on tattooing.

“High risk, high reward,” he said of both the startup world and the leap into full-time tattooing.

Becoming a tattoo artist

The transition from pencil and paint to needles and ink wasn’t automatic.

“With a pencil drawing, if you want a darker value, you just push harder,” Lytle explained. “With a needle, you absolutely don’t push harder!”

Instead, he had to master machine speed, needle depth, pigments, and timing, always mindful that there’s “no undo button, no eraser.”

He draws a distinction between people who simply apply tattoos and those who approach it as a fine art.

“I differentiate between the services available for tattoos. There are people who are tattooers, and then there are people who are tattoo artists,” he said. "To classify yourself tattoo artist, you should truly understand and continuously work at the fundamentals of art beyond just how to apply ink to the skin.  You should be pushing yourself to get better each day in your craft, regardless of the medium."

Lytle’s work leans heavily into composition, light, value, and anatomy.  Skills sharpened through years of life drawing, painting, and learning. His black-and-grey realism pieces, often larger in scale, are where he feels the strongest.

He admits it took nearly two years before the “insane amount of butterflies” in his stomach settled before each tattoo. With time, discipline, and repetition, the nerves shifted into confidence and preparation.

Meaning inked into skin

Some of Lytle’s favorite tattoos aren’t the biggest, but the most meaningful.

“I’ve been doing a lot of people’s first tattoos, especially those in their 40s or 50s,” he said. Many waited years due to judgment, uncertainty, or not finding the right artist to partner with for their tattoo.

He’s tattooed crosses and symbols of faith for churchgoers and pastors. Family tattoos remain some of the most personal; recently, a portrait of a wolf and cubs for a mother, symbolizing her and her children.

“People really, really do value and appreciate tattoos, especially if you do a good job, because they’re wearing it on their skin forever,” he said. “It has a lot more impact than something you hang on your wall and then forget about.”

A shop built on collaboration, not competition

Inside Clever Fox, Lytle works alongside Hajek and Strunk, and the three intentionally lean into their different strengths.

“If someone wants a realistic tattoo, immediately they’ll be like, ‘Yep, go to Tanner,’” Lytle said. “If they’re looking for more traditional bold line work, Devon’s your man. If they want illustrative color, flowers, or geometric designs, that’s Adam’s specialty.”

Walk-ins go to whoever is available at the time, but custom work goes to the artist best suited for the design.

“We’re not competitive,” he said. “It’s less about ego and more about supporting the customer and giving them the best tattoo possible.”

Lytle also remains active in the broader art community, teaching at the McCook Art Guild, participating in shows, judging events, and displaying tattoo artwork upstairs at the Art Guild each year.

At home, art is woven through family life as well. His wife Emily, known as “Emmy in Pink” online, travels to Comic Con-style events, and Lytle hopes to join tattoo conventions within driving distance in the coming year.

“Just do it. Don’t care what other people think.”

If he could talk to 12-year-old Tanner, the kid who thought he had to be first at everything or he was “too late”, he’d give simple advice:

“Just do it. Don’t care what other people think. It's never too late to start something.”

For years, he believed he had missed his chance at certain creative paths simply because others got there first. Tattooing proved him wrong.

Now, with his apprenticeship complete and a full-time chair at Clever Fox, the community gets to watch what happens when a lifelong artist finally lets his work live on skin instead of paper.

For Lytle, it’s more than ink.

It’s about putting “real art on your body”, art that means something when you see it in the mirror ten, twenty, or forty years from now.

How to connect

Tanner Lytle is now a full-time tattoo artist at The Clever Fox Tattoo & Body Piercing in McCook. He specializes in larger black-and-grey realism pieces but is also available for walk-ins and smaller designs.

If you’ve been thinking about your first, or fifty-first, tattoo, he invites you to visit his website www.tannerlytle.com, stop by the shop, or message him on social media to talk through

ideas.

Photo Credit, Adam Powers

https://adampowersimages.com/