Master Matthew Ellis came from the stock of good, solid working folk; his father toiling with the aeronautical crews spawned from the work of the Wrights and followed by Pearson, and his mother holding positions from the serving of some of the area’s finest roasted fowl, to the overseeing of electro-mechanized systems based on the difference engines of the Babbage line. Matthew seemed designated to become the same.

Yet it wasn’t hard to see that he longed for more. After attendance and graduation (Magna Cum Laude) at the Pavilion of arts at the Academy of York, Matt Ellis, then a young man, harrowed and haunted the local alehouses of York’s elected epicenter, Toronto.

It was in these later years of the last century that our hero stumbled upon the mystical art of the tattoo.
Having dabbled in the art of electrical tattooing during his time at York, he temporarily tucked the diversion away in order to conclude his scholarly pursuits. Now, after much perambulation and carousing on Queen Street, he found himself at the stately Stainless Studios, where under the tutelage of nouveau Fakir and germaphobe Thomas Brazda, Matthew became utterly fascinated and enthralled with the numinous art form. After a brief stint honing his craft with the electrical oscillating flesh perforators of Edison, O’Reilly and Waters at Stainless, Matthew moved on to a more enticing position in the northern sector of the city.

The crews that flourished under this shop umbrella helped drive and inspire Matthew further toward the beckoning of tattooing’s siren call; the art encompassed him, and slowly crept its ink-black tentacles not only into his mind, but to the very depths of his heart. It was here that Mr. Matthew Ellis met one Mr. George Brown III, who intrigued him with his seemingly photographic memory and similar lust for the Tesla-like machinations of perforation and permanent pigmentation. Further, both of these (cool) gentlemen had the alma-matter of York in common, as well as having been initiated into organizations such as “Ingestors of the 50” and “Sons of the Absinthe”.

Now armed with the implements of this electric age, and after a decade of experience and study, Matthew, along with the enigmatic Mr. Brown, bring to you “The Society of the Seven Crowns”. A place where mastery in the amalgamation of fine art, mechanized fabrications, the unabashed attention to the mystifying and awe-inspiring art of the tattoo can be experienced. The Rev Matt Ellis has found that his forays into the larger and grandiose compositions brought to the Western world via the orient bring him much pleasure…not that any art that fits finely and exquisitely on the body doesn’t stir the humors within this practitioner of the varied and colourful world of fleshly animations.