"A master tattooist and mentor and who has worked in the Radcliff/Fort Knox area for more than 50 years has died.
Ron Higdon died Monday morning in his sleep three days after he was admitted into hospice care.
Brado Revell, a local tattoo artist and the owner of Love and Devotion Tattoo in Radcliff, has known and mentored under Higdon since the late 1990s.
“Ron was really important to the tattoo community,” he said.
Revell said Higdon seemed to be doing well for about six months, but then his liver and kidneys began giving up, which led to more trips to the hospital, and then he was put into hospice care.
Higdon started to learn tattooing in 1969. He and his late friend Charlie Wheeler, the owner of Tattoo Charlie’s in Louisville, learned from a man named Sailor Bill Rodgers in Cave City.
Higdon served in the United States Air Force. He then came to Fort Knox and founded Derby City Tattoo with Wheeler.
He then founded General Lee’s Tattoo in Radcliff in 1973 after Wheeler moved on, which he had operated and worked in up to his illness. It moved a few times, but the shop located on N. Dixie Blvd. has been in operation there for about 18 years.
Higdon traveled all over the country, connecting with, working and teaching up-and-coming tattoo artists. He also lived in and worked in Arizona for a bit. However, Revell said he always came back to Radcliff. He said Higdon would regularly give to local charities.
“He’s taught and mentored some of the best tattooers in Kentucky,” Revell said.
Hal “Baldy” Carder, owner and artist of Baldy’s Tattoo and Piercing Parlor in Radcliff who knew and mentored since the 1990s, and Keith Merriman, a tattoo artist in Radcliff that worked with him for five years, were supposed to visit Higdon the day after he died.
He said Higdon was adept with traditional technique and style and passing that down. However, he was also traditional in his attitude as a tattoo artist that came to in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.
“It was very eye opening to work with him because I experienced things that I don’t think anybody else around here could teach me,” Merriman said.
When Higdon began, there were no other shops in the area. Now, Carder said there are more than 20 tattoo shops in Hardin County.
Stu Pfost is tattoo artist originally from Vine Grove who currently works in Lexington.
Pfost apprenticed under Higdon in the late 1990s. Pfost served in the Air Force, and then moved back to Radcliff after his service. He said he used to draw quite a bit, and that Higdon noticed his talents. He signed on to a contract with Higdon to be his apprentice.
Pfost said that Higdon was a tough teacher, but would make sure that his students were on the right track, and that he was giving and kind.
He said Higdon was especially knowledgeable of tattoo equipment and machines, and was able to answer any question that Pfost might have about them.
“He definitely gave me something … I can feed my kids for the rest of my life,” he said.
While as an apprentice, Pfost said he was making about $200 a week, and owed about $5,000 to Higdon for his apprenticeship. At the time, he had a step daughter that had a liver transplant, but medicine that she was taking while recovering wasn’t working anymore.
Pfost was going back and forth to Dallas where his step daughter was seeing a specialist. He borrowed some money from family to pay off the last of the debt owed to Higdon. When he gave Higdon the money, he gave it right back to Pfost, and told him to take care of his step daughter.
“He never batted an eye. He gave that money right back to me,” he said.-The News Enterprise