‘A lot of people looked up to him.’ Well-loved NoDa tattoo artist dies
From an early age, it was clear Logan McAdams was going to be an artist. Art ran in the family, graphic artist father Mel McAdams said.
But even in a talented family, Logan was different: “He took off,” McAdams said about his son’s art. “He was better than I ever was.”
McAdams, a tattoo artist at NoDa’s 510 Expert Tattoo & Body Piercing, died unexpectedly at age 30 on April 30.
McAdams’ mother, Kelly Kennedy, was shocked when he first told her he was going to take a tattoo apprenticeship more than seven years ago. He was an art student at UNC Charlotte at the time. McAdams, who grew up in Lexington, North Carolina, moved to Charlotte in 2012 for college.
“My teeth about fell out of my head,” she said. “After putting him through college.”
But Kennedy was so proud of her son.
“I was very proud of him for remaining true to himself and not doing what mainstream thought he should do,” she said. “… He was very successful and I’m just so proud of him.”
McAdams was a “calm, gentle spirit,” Kennedy said. He was well-loved by friends and family and by just about everyone he met, father Mel said.
He was sometimes quiet at first — but once he got started he was always joking and always had a nickname for his friends, Kennedy said.
Logan’s start in tattooing
Mel was less surprised when his son began tattooing, he said. The skateboarding scene got McAdams into the tattoo world. And McAdams had always been an artist, Mel said, starting from his youngest years when Mel and his son would sit “head to head drawing on the same picture.”
McAdams had been working at Absolute Tattoo at the counter before getting an apprenticeship.
“He was such a good artist,” McAdams’ tattoo mentor Chris Lopp told The Charlotte Observer. “I took him under my wing.”
McAdams specialized in American traditional tattoos. And he knew everyone in the tattoo scene, Lopp said.
“He’s kind of like some people with music — they can listen to music and they know who’s the lead singer, the singer’s family and all of that,” Lopp said.
McAdams was like that with tattoos. He knew apprentices from all over the state, and tattoo artists from all over the country.
“You don’t meet a lot of people that are real genuine and nice,” Lopp said. “He wasn’t trying to get something from people — he was just nice to people. A lot of people looked up to him.”
Even on his days off, he would go around to other tattoo shops and hang out. McAdams would do guest spots at tattoo shops in other towns and was able to make connections with just about anyone, Lopp said.
“I look up to that,” he said.
Logan’s signature look
The day he died, coincidentally, was an unofficial “Logan Day” at his tattoo shop.
The other tattoo artists and employees had dressed up like him, with his signature Vans and glasses, Lopp said.
McAdams never showed up to work that day. But it was a moment of levity on a hard day for Kennedy, showing up to a shop full of Logans.
On Sunday, many of McAdams’ friends in the tattoo shop got a tattoo of his signature glasses, Lopp said.
Mel doesn’t have any tattoos. He was always reluctant to get one before his son became a tattoo artist, he said. After that, Mel was on the search for the perfect image — he just ran out of time, he said.
Now, Mel is thinking about getting one in honor of Logan. When he does, he’ll turn to McAdams’ mentor Lopp, he said.
And Kennedy says she is definitely going to get a tattoo of Logan’s glasses in honor of her son.
It won’t be her first tattoo though. It’ll join a rose on her left arm — a tattoo Logan gave her in 2017.
A rose for his mom
Kennedy never expected to get a tattoo, she said.
But McAdams didn’t have to do any convincing — she wanted to get a design from her son, Kennedy said.
McAdams had been drawing her roses for years, she said. Once, he called her the “rose of my heart.”
So when she asked him for a tattoo, he drew her another rose, this time with an added rosebud, to represent him.
“I am so thankful I have it,” Kennedy said.
He was so nervous to be tattooing his mom, she said. But he was such a professional, even in those moments.
And before his death, the very last thing McAdams ever painted was a rose, Lopp said.
A celebration of life will be held for McAdams on Sunday from 3 to 5 p.m. at Powles Staton Funeral Home at 913 W. Main Street in Rockwell, North Carolina.
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