Inner-War Tattoos and Piercings Brings Their High-quality Brand of Artwork to Moose Jaw
You don’t have to chat with James Foster from Inner-War Tattoos and Piercings very long to get a feel for his passion for the business and love of the artform. And since they first opened shop at 20 River Street East last July, that devotion has translated into an impressive array of clientele, many of whom have become repeat customers after the whole experience. COVID-19 might have put a damper on business during the spring months, but things are expected to pick up where they left off once things are fully open again, just like they did when their doors first opened.
James Foster is the manager of the Moose Jaw location of Inner-War Tattoos.
“It’s actually been really good; my boss immediately started getting clients in and we’ve been booked up pretty much constantly,” Foster said. “I’ve only been working here for a few months as the manager, but in the time I’ve been here at Inner-War it’s been extremely, extremely busy.” It certainly doesn’t hurt to have the kind of reputation Inner-War has built over the last two decades – to the point that they’ve become one of the only franchise tattoo outlets in the country, with their main shop in Regina and another in Fort Qu’Appelle. And that’s all thanks to the brilliant work of Armand ‘Woody’ Pelletier, who for 29 years has been plying
his trade as an artist and developing a sterling reputation. “We have people coming from different provinces getting tattoos from him; people sometimes will even come up from the States,” Foster said with a tone of admiration. “He’s been in magazines, he has been offered to teach in school and things like that. He’s just a phenomenal artist himself and he has a pretty amazing following… it’s just incredible the skill he has and the work he does.” With so many people coming through his doors to be worked on, expansion seemed like a natural fit. “I know he wanted to own multiple different shops and tattooing was his thing,” Foster said. “He loves it and the more he put into it, it was just more of a ‘success’ feeling for him. He’s been through some stuff in his life, so this is kind of way for him to do something positive and just gain a footing in life for himself. “I know he’d lost a family member when he was just trying to start to build Inner-War here in Moose Jaw, and so a lot of the pain and emotion he was feeling from the family loss was put into the shop.” Foster himself has spent more than a year working with Woody to hone his craft, carrying on from his days in visual arts classes in high school and the wide variety of courses and classes he’s taken to further develop his skills. “It was online courses and courses I could take in shops with hyperrealism, abstract painting, colouring, all kinds of different kinds of artwork and styles,” Foster said, adding that he also dabbles in music and music production. “So art is just my thing.” One aspect of tattoo artwork InnerWar takes pride in is literally that – their artwork. Unless the customer specifically requests a per-
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fect reproduction, they’ll add their own flourishes to enhance the final piece. And they’re more than willing to pull something together out of the ether if their client has little idea of what they want.
A sampling of James Foster’s recent artwork.
“One thing [Woody] taught me and I learned even before I came here is there’s a difference between a tattooist and a tattoo artist,” Foster explained. “A tattooist that someone will take a picture someone comes in with and will make the tattoo look identical to that, with few differences. With a tattoo artist, it comes from our own imagination and our own ideas. We’ve had lots of people come in here with ideas and say ‘I don’t know what I want,’ and we just immediately start throwing ideas out them, and most people say ‘sounds great, you’re the artist, let’s do this… We prefer it that way, it keeps us artists and that’s what we enjoy the most.” Take that idea, combine with an absolute love of what you do, and that’s what Inner-War Tattoos is all about. “That’s one reason I got into tattooing, I just love being able to draw on people all day and create beautiful things that they walk around with and are proud of,” Foster said.
