Steamboat Tattoo Artist Milo Alfring Finds Freedom in His Work 

Milo Alfring, of Steamboat Springs, is quiet an artist.  While he spends time during the day tattooing, he spends his nights painting on canvas, wood and colorful paints. 

“It really never ends, in a way,” he said. 

According to SteamBoatToday.com, the 27-year-old works at 9^th Street Tattoo Studio.  In the studio, he has “ wall-sized oil and acrylic paintings illuminated the room with bright, expressionist colors while tattoo sketches were spread across a counter upstairs.”

Tattooing, sketching, painting, whatever the method may be, is Alfring’s job and he loves what he does. 

“It really doesn’t feel like work ever, you get to be free with it. It has a hard learning curve, but there’s really no limit to it.”  

This month, Alfring will be showing his artwork at Urbane, along with joint pieces he created with Garrett Brown and Jonathan. 

His real love was drawing and watercolors and that is what started him in as an artist. Although Alfring didn’t set out to be a tattoo artist, after he took an apprenticeship at a tattoo parlor six years ago he began to love the medium of skin and the dynamic nature of the possibilities in tattoo art, according to SteamBoatToday.com.  

“I came to the realization that tattooing and painting go hand in hand,” Alfring said. “That’s what made me want to go back and go to art school.” 

Alfring spent two years at the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design and then came back to Steamboat and opened the 9th Street Tattoo Studio with artist Sean Blake. 

Alfring is opening up his artistic abilities beyond paining and tattooing and he is in the process of making a series of 3-D wood reliefs of world maps with his artist buddy, Garrett Brown.  According to SteamBoatToday.com, the process involves layering, staining and painting sheets of plywood cut into shapes of continents and oceans. 

Although this process is not quiet developed, it is a new found freedom for Alfring trying to nail down the concept. 

“We’ve learned so much, and we’re in an experimental phase,” he said.

Source: steamboattoday.com