Just like his tattoos, Jason Lawyer’s past as a traditional tattoo artist is full of color.  

From opening a massive shop with Zac Brown from the Zac Brown Band in Georgia to competing on the TV show “Ink Master” to making a name for himself in Hawaii, he has a breadth of experience in tattooing.  

Known as the “Sketchy Lawyer,” a tribute to his passion for drawing and his last name, Lawyer’s skills have taken him worldwide. His latest endeavor is as a Kalispell resident and owner of the newly created Fair Trade Tattoo Shop in the Devonshire building downtown. 

“When you’re doing something just because you love it, like for me tattooing, it's a different feeling than doing it for somebody because they’re paying you ... what I fall in love with every day is the fact that I can make money doing something I love,” Lawyer said.  

On a weekday afternoon just after Christmas Day, two locals walked into Lawyer’s shop for unscheduled tattoos, the simple mission of a shop that embraces walk-in appointments. Within 40 minutes, both people had new, quality tattoos of each other’s names.  

Juuso Rodriguez, the other face of Fair Trade Tattoo, completed the pieces: a heart with the man’s name on the woman’s collarbone and a pair of lips with a woman’s name on the man’s neck. According to the couple, another tattoo shop referred them to Fair Trade and they left ecstatic about their newly curated ink. 

“I wanted to build something where people could just come in and get a quality tattoo,” Lawyer said about taking walk-ins.  

Lawyer, 43, grew up in Virigina Beach, Virgina and has moved around opening various shops throughout his life. As a single father, a lot of that time was spent on the East Coast, where his daughter grew up.  

During his most recent endeavor, Lawyer met his girlfriend in Hawaii, Colleen, who had once worked seasonally in Montana and longed for it ever since, he said. So, the pair made it happen.  

Once they moved here in April, Lawyer stepped in to work at a couple tattoo shops. While in Hawaii, Lawyer was booked out for months. This month marks Lawyer’s 19th year of tattooing.  

“If you just sit around and wait for somebody to come in nothing is going to happen, but if you’re producing art and putting it on the internet, people are going to be like ‘that’s dope, I’d get that tattoo,’ and next thing you know you’re doing a big fat custom tattoo and getting the money that you want,” Lawyer said. 

The business opened on Oct. 1 after Lawyer and Rodriguez prepared the space themselves from painting the walls to redoing the bathroom to hanging personal art pieces to completely cover the walls.  

This is Lawyer’s fifth tattoo shop. The first was outside of Atlanta, Georgia in 2012, called Cornerstone Tattoo Gallery, which remains open and is run by Lawyer’s former assistant. 

While working at another shop, Lawyer tattooed and befriended Zac Brown. Together they opened an event space and tattoo shop called the Southern Ground Social Club, which Lawyer left to move back to Virginia to be closer to family.  

More shops in Virgina and Georgia and years later, Lawyer opened Black Rainbow in 2022 on Oahu, Hawaii, before making the move to Kalispell. 

“You’re putting yourself out there, hoping that someone sees your [stuff],” Lawyer said. “And they were.” 

From watching cartoons to drawing figures, Lawyer had an interest in art growing up and still draws every day. He apprenticed under the same guy who tattooed him in the early 2000s and launched his tattooing career from there. 

A brief stint on the tattoo competition TV show “Ink Master” season eight brought Lawyer to the limelight. 

Lawyer specializes in mainly traditional tattoos with a neotraditional and illustrative style. 

“It just holds and looks good forever,” he said. “It’s traditional tattooing and that tattoo is going to look like a tattoo in five, 10, 20 years, and I know that because I’ve been doing it that long.” 

For Rodriguez, the shop has become a safe space where both artists can work side by side as independent artists. They met in a Kalispell tattoo shop, and in a tattoo shop they remain, this time are the main artists. 

A goal remains to expand the shop to accommodate more clients. 

“It’s like we got our own little clubhouse that we get to hang out with your homie,” said Rodeiguez. “... it feels like magic again.” 

Fair Trade Tattoo is located at 37 5th Street E., Suite 106 in downtown Kalispell. 

See Lawyer’s work at thesketchylawyer.com and Rodriguez's at juussofingers.com.  

Walk-ins are welcome and the shop is open Tuesday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. 

Reporter Kate Heston may be reached at 758-4459 or [email protected].