Thomas Pendelton
Thomas Pendelton (born April 28, 1971) is a tattoo artist and television personality. Biography. Early years. Thomas Pendelton was born in Anaheim, California and grew up in Torrance, California. As a child, Pendelton grew up poor. He recalls moving around from place to place, living off of welfare, and continuously being evicted. “We lived in Reno for awhile, in this shithole town called Fernley,” Pendelton says. “We had these dirty junkyard dogs and a go-cart with no motor. So in the morning the dogs would pull us to school in the go-cart and my brother would  tie them to the bike rack. You can’t get more white trash than that.” Career. Thomas started doing artwork for a living at 16, and started tattooing when he was 21. Apprenticed under Rick "Papa" Walters at Bert Grimm's Tattoo in Long Beach, CA. In 2005, Thomas was a featured tattoo artist on the television show Inked filmed in Las Vegas. Before leaving Las Vegas to head back to California, Thomas married Monica Rizzolo. Thomas has twin girls and a boy (with Monica), and another son from an earlier relationship. He currently has completed filming for a new  drama/reality based show titled "Tattoo Highway" to be aired on A&E Network late -May, 2009. As of a December 4, 2009 post on Pendelton's blog, it appears that Tattoo Highway is over. Thomas founded a clothing line in 2005, called Ministry of Ink and has recently started focusing his individualistic art pieces to his self-titled web site. He made a short appearance as a judge in an episode of "Face Off," an original series on the Sci-Fi channel. He now has a shop in Silverdale, WA called Peninsula Rose. Ministry of Ink. The inspiration behind his  clothing line’s name, “Ministry of Ink” comes from Pendelton’s ordainment as a minister. He describes the style of clothing to be one that puts creativity as a higher power, and feels that with all the negativity in the world, those who are creative offset the balance. “You see guys that have all that negative shit on them; they’re probably really negative people. You look at mine, and you’ll see they’re all positive,” Pendelton says. The word “Disciple” is displayed clearly on his fingers, as well as the words “True Love.” The space on his right  hand displays a Tibetan prayer, and a portrait of Jesus takes up the space on the left side of his neck. “Ministry of Ink” shirts have many obscure designs including angels holding guns. Pendelton says it’s because there is so much death in mainstream religion that they decided to put it out in the open. “People might get offended, but it’s what’s really going on in the world,” Pendelton says. “It may seem dark but it’s really light-hearted. It sends positive messages in almost a sarcastic tone. If you look through it all you’ll  see the positivity.”