Dan Henk
Dan’s early career included a year and a half stint drawing
political cartoons for Madcap Magazine and
illustrating underground projects such as Maximum Rock and Roll. In 1997, after struggling through a violent car crash and a
knife fight with a crackhead that severed the tendon on his left thumb, he
attended art school. Receiving some commercial and local gallery acclaim for
his artwork, he moved to New York City in an attempt to kick start an art career.
Heavily immersing himself in the local hardcore scene, he produced artwork for
the bands Shai Hulud, Indecision, Koshari, Unsound, Coalesce, Most Precious Blood, Locked in a Vacancy, Beyond Reason, and Zombie Apocalypse, not
to mention various local record labels and venues.
In 2000, he started tattooing, initially
working on many musician friends. A year later, in September 2001, he was
stricken with brain cancer and underwent surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. Three months
after the surgery, he married fellow tattoo artist Monica Castillo.
His work started appearing in both a
growing number of tattoo magazines and more fine art influenced tomes. Tattoo related books such as No Regrets, Tattoo Prodigies, and Inside the Tattoo Circus took notice and
included features.
Tragedy struck again in 2007, as his wife of 6 years, Monica
Henk, was killed on a motorcycle by a hit and run driver. Despite extensive
coverage in the local media and vigorous campaigns by both the tattoo and
motorcycle community, the culprit was never found.
He moved to Austin, Texas for three
years, and started doing a regular comic strip entitled “Rollo & Me” for
Tattoo Artist Magazine. Illustrations for Black Static, Litro Magazine, The
Horror Zine, and This is Horror followed suit.
His first novel, The Black Seas of Infinity, was published by
Anarchy Books in 2011, and he started an illustrated calendar featuring a
variety of artists. Deadite Press released the first book with a cover by Dan,
a novel entitled “The Sopaths” by Piers Anthony.
A limited edition chapbook “Christmas Is Cancelled” came out courtesy of
Splatterpunk in 2013, and in 2014 he started columns for TAM, Tattoo Revue and
Skin Art magazines.
A reissue of his debut novel was released by Permuted Press in April 2015, as
well as a collection of his short stories entitled “Down Highways In The
Dark…By Demons Driven” in August of the same year.
He continued his work for independent magazines, doing art for Red Door
Magazine, a slew of books by the imprint Out Of Step, and every issue so far of
the British horror zine Splatterpunk. The books “Not Dead”, “Fighting Back”,
“Past Indiscretions”, “Insatiable”, “The Red Death” and “The Flood” all
featured his work and his third book, “The End of the World” debuted in March
of this year. He’s currently writing
short stories, the latest of which, “Watching the World Burn”, is available on
Amazon.