Master Tattoo Artist, Mark Prata was born in 1983 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He grew up drawing cartoons and graffiti. For fun, he tagged friends binders and school lockers with band graphics and basketball players’ names.

Mark’s love for art transformed at the age of 16 — he walked into a street tattoo shop and asked if he could learn. Cleaning floors, painting walls and making needles was his daily grind that slowly transitioned into an apprenticeship.

This is when tattooing found Mark.

After a short year of tattooing, Mark pushed his passion for art while completing a few full-colour new school pieces that were bold and bright —these changed his career forever. At that time, they were much different from what was circulating in the Toronto tattoo scene. With an awesome mix of graffiti and cartoons, Mark’s style gained a lot of attention. He quickly became popular in the skate, punk and BMX scene. With Mark’s attention to detail and passion for learning, he enrolled in life drawing, realism, colour renderings and pen drawing courses at George Brown College and Ontario College of Art & Design University (OCAD), Toronto.

These new skills and expertise’s opened new opportunities, and before he knew it, Mark became a world-ranked tattoo artist with a diverse skillset.

Mark’s public popularity grew; he was featured on numerous TV shows, music videos and movies such as I hate my tattoo (slice network), MTV Live, breakout kings, total recall, Honda rebel exclusive mutual funds commercial, Sum 41 music video, Youngstown music video. He also had many news presses on City TV, the Mike Bullard Show, CP24, the Toronto Star, Wave Magazine and the Toronto Sun. Mark’s TV appearances drew attention from celebrities and athletes who soon reached out. Before Mark knew it, he was tattooing professional athletes in the NHL, NBA and even Olympic athletes.

Right in the midst of his career, Mark ventured off and established Toronto Ink Tattoo studio in 2007. “I noticed that many of my clients are travelling far distances, some being from all over the world,” Mark says, “I want my clients to feel special and to know that I appreciate them being here.”

Today, Mark has over 20 years of experience and diversity in various styles from black, grey and colour. He is extremely humbled by the love and support of his clients, friends and family. Mark being a lifelong learner spends time with those he can grow with and continue to flourish. Mark spends his life dedicated to tattooing, art, being centred and grounded. He has a deep spiritual connection to meditation and yoga but most importantly spending time with his wife and their two sons.