Nick Baxter was born in 1981 in New Haven Connecticut and remained in the New Haven area until 2008, when he relocated to Austin, Texas. Following a lifelong passion for creative self-expression, as a high school senior he was granted placement in the Visual Arts Department at the Educational Center for the Arts, a magnet school in New Haven CT. He then attended the Paier College of Art in Hamden CT (Dean’s List) where he learned the basics of sharp-focus still life painting in the classical trompe l'śil style. Nick then began a career in tattooing, while continuing to develop and pursue his interest in other fine art mediums such as painting, mixed media collage, and photography. Now tattooing over 8 years, Nick has gained international acclaim in the body art community for his thought-provoking, innovative motifs and has become widely recognized by others in the tattoo industry for his combination of fine art and technical tattooing skills. He has been featured in every major tattoo art magazine as well as other publications and books. In 2008 Nick and several other accomplished fine artists from the tattoo community painted alongside renowned contemporary artist Alex Grey at a live painting performance called “Visionary Primitive.” Nick has shown fine art works in several group exhibitions a year since 2003, and held his first solo exhibition entitled “Surfacing” in Easthampton, MA in 2007. This body of thematically-unified work featured photography and 10 oil paintings which, when arranged correctly, combined to form one large image. Viewers were invited to piece the symbolism of the works together on their own with the help of a written statement and a drawing reminiscent of a map legend, which were provided at the opening.