A tattoo can take up to 40 days for award-winning artist Matt Jordan. He’s responsible for some of the most recognisable tattoos in New Zealand, including Millie Elder-Holmes’ famous leg portraits. Carolyne Meng-Yee reports on his upcoming retrospective.

Matt Jordan says he was born with ink in his veins.

The tattooist has his father’s heart literally inked on his sleeve, and a dinosaur on a BMX around his neck - a shout-out to his teenage son Locky.

And on his leg, a line from the Beatles: “Something in the way she woos me” — a nod to his wife Elise. He got it for their wedding day.

Millie Elder-Holmes' tattoo of her late father, the broadcaster Paul Holmes, was designed and executed by Matt Jordan.

Jordan, 39, is a multi-award-winning tattooist who works exclusively in black and grey.

In 2023 and 2024 he won first prize in black and grey at the “Olympics” of tattooing, the prestigious invitation-only Gods of Ink tattoo convention in Germany.

In New Zealand, some of his most recognisable works belong to Millie Elder-Holmes, a close friend.

A portrait of her father, the late broadcaster Sir Paul Holmes, is tattooed on one leg and a portrait of her late boyfriend Connor Morris, murdered in 2014, is on the other.

“My clients will be semi-naked”

It’s humming at Ship Shape, the realism tattoo studio in Dairy Flat that Jordan and his co-owners Ben Kaye and Jason Baker transformed from a derelict building seven years ago.

The steady buzz comes from tattoo machines: ten artists at work.

Over Jordan’s shoulder hangs a photo of his father Fats, smiling. He died from bowel cancer aged 36 when Jordan was just six. “It’s nice to have dad close to me, I owe him everything.” he told the Herald.

Mark "Fats" Jordan, was a tattoo artist from Christchurch. He died when his son Matt was 6 years-old. Matt learned to draw in his studio and is now a sought-after tattoo artist too. Photo / Supplied

Jordan is working on tattoos for his upcoming exhibition A Body Of Work which will open at 131 Queen st on October 13, featuring both larger-than-life photographs, and live models, displaying seven years of his work.

The artist said he’s taken a $150,000 mortgage on his home to bring the exhibition to life.

Today’s client, who will be part of the live exhibition, is face down and zoned out. She doesn’t flinch as Jordan works — steady hands — layering more ink onto the design across her back.

“She’s probably thinking of different ways to kill me or hurt me back. I often joke I’d be great at selling voodoo dolls of myself or have an OnlyFans page where I’m being tattooed.”

This back tattoo will be part of Matt Jordan's exhibition. It took around 40 days and celebrates overcoming addiction. Photo / Supplied

It’s taken around 40 days to complete this client’s back and legs. Jordan says the work is a celebration of her personal story overcoming addiction.

“We’re not f***ing around, we are creating fine art. My clients will be standing semi-naked [in the exhibition] so you can see their tattoos.

Matt Jordan said his clients will be semi-naked in his exhibition, and standing next to larger-than-life photos so people can see every detail. Photo / Carson Bluck

“They’ll be standing next to larger-than-life photos ... there’s a big difference between looking at a painting in the Louvre on your phone and going to the Louvre - I want people to go to the Louvre.

“I want [people to] see every little imperfection and see the wrinkles, the person, the blowouts, I want them to see it all.”

Matt Jordan's tattoo of Gericault's Raft of the Medusa for Lee Johnson, in front of he original painting in the Louvre. Photo / Supplied.

Jordan was born in Sydney to Mark (Fats) and Sue Donnelly — he was the youngest of their two children.

Fats was a well-known tattoo artist from Christchurch, “scruffy, and a bit rough. He was a likeable rogue” Jordan told the Herald. “Me and my sister meant the world to him. I think he’d be super proud of what I’ve done.”

Matt Jordan tattoo artist with his sister Bonnie. When their parents separated, Matt lived with their mother and Bonnie with their father. Photo / Supplied

Jordan’s parents separated after the family moved to Christchurch when he was three. Jordan stayed with his Mum, while his sister Bonnie stayed with their Dad. When he visited his father in the weekends he learnt to draw in his studio.

In the classroom, he says he felt like “the weirdo.”

“I was always being pulled out of class, like they were trying to figure out what was wrong with me. Reading recovery, speech therapy for my lisp… I’m very dyslexic. Maybe on the spectrum. But no one picked up on that back then.

Tattoo artist Matt Jordan with his baby brother Bob. Jordan says he was made to feel like a "weirdo" at school. Photo / Supplied

“It was rough. I got bullied a lot because I was a big kid ... it’s like ‘you are trouble, you are a nuisance.”

He left school at school at 14 to work on a dairy farm. At night he practised drawing and tattooing on himself.

 
Tattoo artist Matt Jordan said his mother Sue Donnelly has never doubted his ability and always encouraged his art. Photo / Supplied

He is thankful his mother never doubted his ability, and encouraged his art.

Sue is covered in ink too - and his own body is a living canvas.

“I started winning awards”

Over time, Jordan found his style: black and grey tattooing that emerged from Los Angeles gangs and prison culture.

“It developed into this beautiful, super-polished style and then started merging with the work of the Renaissance idols I loved - Caravaggio and Peter Paul Rubens.

Matt Jordan found his style in black and grey tattooing, and turned his attention to fine art and composition. Photo / supplied

Jordan turned his focus to composition, and learned how to paint.

“I sucked at first but I was stubborn and didn’t quit. I stuck with it, there were times we couldn’t make the rent and my wife put up with it, then the scale tipped and I started to win awards, get the recognition - and the appointments came.”

For his first portrait, a rendition of Caravaggio’s The Entombment of Christ, his wife and son posed for him.

“I started posing and composing people to create these big, multi-figure compositions. With the recreation of the Rubens Wolf Hunt, we photographed stunt riders on horses and dogs attacking people.

“It felt like I was creating something new - even though really I was standing on the shoulders of giants, you know the tattooists and the painters - but they merged into this special thing for me.”

 
Matt Jordan photographed attacking dogs (pictured) and stunt riders in order to create his dramatic multi-figure compositions. Photo / Supplied

Jordan approached Mitch Shea - a sculptor and the Director of Sculpture at the Florence Academy of Art - and asked him to critique his work.

“He gave me a scathing review, but I applied that to my art. If I wanted to come close to the masters and their work, who better to go to than somebody who has lived and breathed it, you know. Mitch and I are friends now.”

Home is up north with Elise — Jordan’s teenage sweetheart and wife of twenty years — their 15-year-old son Locky, four dogs, and a cat.

“We were teens when we met. Matt didn’t look sweet — big, bald, tattooed — but he was a marshmallow. I’m immensely proud of him. When we were young, we were delinquents. We never thought we’d end up here,” Elise said.

Tattoo artist Matt Jordan and his wife Elise. They met as teenagers at a house party. Photo / Supplied.

The pair met at a house party after their high school exams. She is the one who keeps him grounded, he says.

Elise admires her husband’s creativity and his relentless pursuit of perfection.

“He is doing this for his art. Financially it’s a risky move, these pieces take time and cost lots of money, we still have bills to pay.”

Jordan says he doesn’t mind if he doesn’t sell anything, he just wants people to come and see it. “Once it’s gone, it’s gone”

A Body Of Work, Level 7, 131 Queen St October 13th- November 29th, admission free.

Carolyne Meng-Yee is an Auckland-based investigative journalist who won Best Documentary at the Voyager Media Awards. Recently she was runner-up for Best Editorial Campaign and part of a team that won Best Coverage of a Major News Event: Philip Polkinghorne Murder Trial. She worked for the Herald on Sunday then rejoined the Herald in 2016 after working as an award-winning current affairs producer at TVNZ’s 60 Minutes,20/20andSunday.