Downtown Wilmington tattoo artist to compete for $100,000 on TV's 'Ink Master'

Oba Jackson isn't landing on national television next week. It's landing on him.

Jackson was at his downtown Wilmington tattoo shop in February minding his own business when the show's casting agents came a-calling.

Within months, he found himself in New Jersey as one of 22 contestants for the 11th season of "Ink Master," the tattoo-themed reality TV competition show on Paramount Network.

Starting Aug. 28 at 10 p.m., the owner of PUSH Tattoo (231 N. Market St., Wilmington) with his distinctive shaved head, puffy beard and stylish outfits, will bring his splashy look to living rooms across the country.

When he agreed to do the show, there was a catch. He couldn't tell anyone other than his husband, Brandon Wilson, a hair stylist at blo in Greenville.

That meant other family and friends to whom he is close were served a batch of lies to explain why he was away for more than a month.

"It sucked because I had to lie to my team here. I had to lie to my kid and lie to my mom," says Jackson, 35, of Newark. "It was terrible. It was so hard to do because I'm not somebody who lies, ever. I'm 35. I'm too old to be out here lying."

When the online trailer for the new season dropped on YouTube late last month, Jackson was able to tell everyone the truth, including the woman named Jacqueah he refers to as his kid. She is his 21-year-old niece, whom he has been raising ever since his sister's 2015 death from a brain tumor.

In fact, if he wins the "Ink Master" $100,000 grand prize, it's already earmarked to go toward the cost of law school for the Wilmington University senior.

Jackson, who uses his middle name professionally, going by the name Oba Moori, is not the first Delaware contestant on the program.

In fact, if he wins, he'll be following in some First State footsteps.

Middletown's Shane O'Neill won the debut season of the show in 2012 when it was on the now-defunct Spike network. The well-known owner of Shane O'Neill's Infamous Tattoo on Main Street, who has customers fly from across the country and Canada to be tattooed by him, took home the $100,000 prize.

Two years later in the show's fourth season, tattoo artist Keith Diffenderfer made the cut to be a contestant. At the time, he was working at the former Honor and Iron tattoo parlor. He was axed in an early episode.

Before Jackson ever picked up a needle, he was an artist in just about every way.

A painter who does watercolors, oil and acrylic, he also is a sculptor, pottery-maker and printmaker.

"The only thing I can't do is spray-paint," he said. "If it's visual, I'm usually pretty good at it."

Before jumping into the world of tattooing and opening his 600-square-foot LOMA shop, he worked for six years as a visual stylist for Nordstrom. He designed their visual displays, window displays, floor layouts and more at the Christiana Mall and King of Prussia stores.

Jackson did an apprenticeship at The G Spot Tattoos in Newport while juggling his other jobs and eventually decided he was drawn to the freedom of the profession.

"It's a great way to be an entrepreneur. I can let my talent speak for itself and not depend on anybody else liking me at work, even though I had a really successful career before this," Jackson says. A Christiana High School graduate, he grew up in Bear.

Nearly all of his business comes from customers who seek him out because of his past artistic output, drawing overwhelmingly from both the black and LGBTQ communities.

"I opened the shop to reach out to members of our community who feel they don't have a place to get tattoos," he says. "Some tattoo shops are really exclusionary and don't welcome most people, so I wanted to make sure that people knew this place is for them."

With Jackson about to get a heavy dose of national exposure among tattoo enthusiasts, his regulars may soon have to wait a little longer for an appointment.

"It's like an hour commercial for your business," he notes.

Jackson said the show's producers never told him to do anything he didn't feel comfortable doing or to act a certain way, but he would sometimes be put in "forced situations."

"It's like, 'Oh, you don't like these other guys? Let's put you in a room with them and see how that goes,'" he reveals.

Jackson's eyes widened when a News Journal reporter read the description of him that the show's producers sent to local media.

"Oba Jackson is who he is without apology. He is loud, arrogant and totally petty," it read.

After spending only a few minutes with Jackson, you get the opposite impression of the fun-loving tattooist.

"I'm not loud or arrogant. That's not true," Jackson says at his stylish shop, decorated with an eclectic mix of colorful artwork, including a pink neon light that reads, "Girls, Girls, Girls."

 "I'm usually a smart-ass about funny stuff. I'm not a mean guy at all," he says.

"That's the reality TV version of me." 

Contact Ryan Cormier of The News Journal at rcormier@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2863. Follow him on Facebook (@ryancormier), Twitter (@ryancormier) and Instagram (@ryancormier).

IF YOU WATCH

What: Season 11 premiere of "Ink Master" featuring Wilmington tattoo artist Oba Jackson, owner of PUSH Tattoo

When: Aug. 28, 10 p.m.

Where: Paramount Network