By Ruth Ann Ruiz
The Post Newspaper Features Editor
Patience lies very still while Ricky Tucker begins his work piercing the cartilage of her inner ear. She has asked for a rook piercing. Meanwhile, her grandmother, mother, little sister and I let out quiet winces of pain as we stand nearby.
When the piercing is finished, Patience sits up and says, “It wasn’t too bad.” She was happy with her new ear jewelry and in good spirits.
Before Patience, Cy who is a surfer, had leaned back very still while Ricky tattooed a surfer encircled in a dream catcher on his upper ankle. Cy said it was pretty much painless, and he loved the finished tattoo.
It was a typical Monday evening for tattoo artist Ricky Tucker. But nothing about Ricky’s life or his current shop is typical. For starters, Ricky operates his business out of what was once a small school bus.
“I got a good deal on the bus. It runs on propane and everything works,” said Ricky. “I guess the school district was getting rid of all their propane-run buses.”
After paying $4,000 for the bus, he dragged out most of the seats and converted it into his mobile tattoo business.
Tucker points to the floor of the bus and talks about the future when he plans to put in a white laminate floor. “For now, the original bus floor works well,” he said.
On the Monday night that I met Tucker, his tattoo studio was parked behind Shykatz in Galveston with whom he partners on Monday evenings as a draw for customers for both his business and the restaurant. He has been working from his mobile shop since July and plans to expand his partnerships.
As Tucker moves about, I notice he has a limp. Then I see a walking cane among the other items on the bus. Tucker explains his limp is from back surgery, and he is grateful to be walking.
Just a couple years back, Tucker and his girlfriend were living a good life in Galveston. Tucker had a tattoo business in a permanent building on the island. Then both he and his girlfriend came down with the flu. Tragedy struck when she got sicker, and the flu led to pneumonia, which took her life.
Tucker lived but life changed.
He had to move out of the house they shared and due to three bulging discs was now confined to a wheelchair. He had always had physical problems, residual effects of being born with spina bifida but he had enjoyed a life of being able to walk and stay fit, the wheelchair was an unexpected change.
Spina bifida is a rare birth disorder that happens when the infant spine does not fully close during pregnancy. In Tucker’s case, it was so severe that he required surgery at just two weeks old to close the opening.
Due to spina bifida, young Tucker could not relieve his bladder without a catheter. As a toddler his family inserted the catheter for him. By the time he was three years old, Tucker was inserting his own catheter. When he started school, he had to use the nurse’s restroom because it was more sterile then the boys restroom.
The catheter limited his options; for instance, he wasn’t an athlete. “I’m not really a sports fan,” said Tucker.
But he could draw.
“I was the kid who sat in the back of the class drawing,” said Tucker.
At 55, Tucker still uses a catheter, and he still sits in the back and draws. His mobile studio is arranged with the tables and tools for tattoo work at the rear of the bus.
He credits his current success to God, his dog, and a very skilled surgeon.
Though his life story is filled with tragedy, there are no violins playing a sad song. The only reason tissue paper is needed while Tucker and I spend time together in his studio is to dab a client’s skin. Tucker is lighthearted — he smiles often and grabs his cane without any fuss as he heads off for a restroom break.
In 2025, after his girlfriend had died, while he was unable to walk and going through numerous expensive medical tests, God sent an answer.
Tucker explained that as he was speaking on speakerphone with his doctor about test results, it all seemed hopeless. Then he remembered saying, “Well, I was a spina bifida baby.” As it happened, a surgeon who specializes in adults born with spina bifida overheard the conversation.
All the nerves in his spine had gotten tangled up in a bundle and needed to be separated. This specialist, without promising success, was willing to operate. Since he was already unable to walk, he elected to go through with the surgery hoping and praying he would be able to once again walk.
The surgery was a success, and Tucker began relearning how to walk and rebuilding his tattoo business.
Tucker has been a tattoo artist for 25 years. After 12 years in his first career as a metalworker, it became obvious that welding wasn’t compatible with his condition, so he began training in his brother’s tattoo business in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
One of Tucker’s specialties is cover-up tattoos.
“People get tattoos they later regret, and I always ask them, ‘What do you really want, so it’s not just a cover-up?’” said Tucker.
He transforms their regretted tattoos into new works of art that he hopes they’ll enjoy for the rest of their lives.
Tucker prefers doing what he calls premeditated tattoos, which are tattoos that people have thought about and consulted with him before he begins the ink on the skin process. Most of his clients are by appointment, but he does take walk-ins.
For Tucker, being a tattoo artist is the best career in the world. “I love it, I love drawing on people,” said Tucker. “I get to hang out with really cool people and change their lives with tattoos,”
You can view his work and find his schedule on Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/ricky.tucker.207563
