Tattoos by Sunshine is a private, one-on-one, appointment-only tattoo studio run by owner/artist Sunshine and her Husba-ssistant™ Rob. Conveniently located on Northwest Highway (Rte. 14) in Crystal Lake, we offer a judgment-free, body-positive, welcoming experience in a calm, quiet, and relaxing environment.
Sunshine
Hey all! So, a little about me: I’ve lived in Crystal Lake for 20+ years, and have the most amazing husband, and two incredible daughters. My older daughter is a Thespian who loves running sound for CLS Theater, reading, drawing, and trains in both Muay Thai and BJJ (watch out!). My younger daughter is my mini-me. She LOVES baking, reading, creating w/ Lego, and also trains in BJJ. In my (very limited) free time, I enjoy gaming (Nintendo life!), working out, spending time with my girls, and snuggling with my hubby.
I have been tattooing for 22 years, all of which has been in Crystal Lake or Woodstock. I began tattooing at the age of 17 during my senior year of high school. Unlike many artists, it was never my dream job, or even something I thought about doing. I wanted to become a videogame designer. So what happened? While working as a server at the Woodstock VFW, I would routinely deliver food to the tattoo shop in the unit above. After several months of chatting with the owner and showing him some of my artwork, he offered me an apprenticeship. And the rest is history.
I spent the next 20+ years being a general, jack-of-all-trades artist, working on whatever projects clients brought to me. It was not uncommon to do solid black tribal, color-packed new school, and tiny fine-line pieces all in the same day. I did whatever came through the door. It was both challenging and rewarding, and it allowed me to refine both my artistic eye and my technique. During that time, I developed a love for both bigger projects and delicate-looking black-and-grey floral pieces, and began to slowly shift gears away from general work.
My focus is now almost exclusively on larger floral projects in my signature wispy style, often incorporating nerdy, witchy, and/or fantasy elements – basically, everything I love. It’s been an incredible journey to get here, but I finally feel like I’m where I’m meant to be.
Rob
The Original Husba-ssistant™. Hey everyone! I’m who you’ll be dealing with when booking or emailing, so I apologize in advance.
Some info about me: I was born at a very young age, but am currently much older. I have an unhealthy love of cheese, and would eat pizza three times a day, every day, for the rest of my life if I could. Which would probably be only, like, 3 months if I did that, but still.
Due to years of being a stay-at-home dad and only having small children to interact with, I will now talk to just about everybody, and am on a first-name basis with retail workers, servers, and managers all over town, from Home Depot and Menards to Nick’s and Benedict’s. I also have a beyond-normal-dad-level obsession with puns, and won’t consider my life complete until I make one of my daughters either cry or violently lash out with one of my jokes.
In between doing laundry, I spend my time doing more laundry, answering emails, even more laundry, browsing Reddit, gaming, still more laundry, and training in Muay Thai and BJJ with our daughters (Seriously, how is there this much laundry?). Phineas and Ferb is the greatest show ever made, with The Kids in the Hall, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and Metalocalypse all being tied for a close second. I will die on this hill. My favorite author is J.R.R. Tolkein, I love the band Clutch, and I’m one of those people who “doesn’t like genres, but artists/games/authors, etc.” If this is starting to read like a wacky Tinder profile, it’s probably because it feels like I’m writing one.
Sincerely, though: Despite my bio, I take what I do very seriously, so please don’t hesitate to contact us. I am always willing to answer your questions and/or address your concerns, and strive to be prompt and courteous with all of my responses. Which I write when I’m not doing laundry.
How I Met Your Artist
I (Rob) was previously married, and on the day of my divorce hearing, my very-soon-to-be-ex wife came by my place beforehand. We were young, broke, and married less than a year, so we did everything ourselves – no lawyers. We decided to go to the courthouse together, I think to make things as easy as possible for both of us. Skip ahead to after the hearing, and my now ex-wife asked if we could swing by a tattoo shop nearby so she could talk to the owner about finishing her back. Not sure why, but I agreed, and a few minutes later we were there.
As soon as we walked in, my ex made a beeline to the owner, so I hung back. I wasn’t particularly interested in getting anything new, nor at this shop. I noticed a girl in flares and flip-flops with hair practically down to the floor hunched over drawing at a desk to the right. I didn’t think much of it, but then she lifted her face, and I caught a lump in my throat. Not even an hour after my divorce, and I was, well, let’s say smitten. So I did what any normal person would do in this situation:
I proceeded to come in week after week, getting a full sleeve by some tattoo artist I had no reason nor desire to go to, interspersed with just hanging out at the shop, just so I could talk to her. And I guess it worked, because when I got home after a session one day, I noticed a slip of paper in my backpack with a phone number on it and the name Sunshine. And we’ve been together ever since.
TL;DR: My ex-wife inadvertently introduced me to my soul mate.