Bobcat Ink: Alums Celebrate 20 Years as Owners of Classic Tattoo in San Marcos
Morgan and Pat Egan stuck around San Marcos after graduation, drawn by their connections to the university, the community, and the city's river and green spaces.
Bzzz. At least two things come to mind when hearing that sound — the buzzing of bees as they seek out pollen and the hum of a tattoo machine as it inks the skin of a brave patron.
For Texas State University alums Morgan and Pat Egan, it’s the latter. The Egans just celebrated 20 years as owners of Classic Tattoo in San Marcos, a popular place in the tattoo community, including among TXST students, staff, and faculty.
As co-owners, Jacksonville-native Morgan (class of 2006) is a full-time tattoo artist at the shop, and Houston-native Pat (class of 2007) helps manage the business while working for the Watershed Association in Wimberley as assistant land and facilities manager. He also volunteers with the San Marcos Greenbelt Alliance to preserve green spaces and trails in the area.
Pat and Morgan Egan pose for a photo in her tattoo station.
The Egans stuck around San Marcos after graduating because they felt connected to the university, to the San Marcos community, and to the river — a place that’s special to their family. Their TXST clientele helps tighten their knot with campus, and they remain energized from the youthfulness of being in a college town full of Bobcats.
“We’ve seen people through so many events in their lives, and I feel so connected to this community because of that,” Morgan says. “We’ve seen people grow up. I have clients who I tattooed when they were 18, and now they’re 30. They have whole lives and careers, and that’s pretty amazing. Many of them are students, but a lot are also locals. We love them all.”
Morgan graduated with a degree in art and a minor in English, while Pat graduated with a degree in studio art. They met each other in a 3D design class in 2005, making sculptures by hand without power tools.
Pat and Morgan pose for a photo together during their time as students at TXST.
“There was just this cute girl who always had a cup of coffee on the other side of the room,” Pat recalls. “That’s where I started trying to impress her. We would meet under the big oak tree just south of the Quad, or I would camp out there and wait to see if she would walk by.”
Morgan noticed him, too, and they spent the summer getting to know each other before beginning to date on the first day of sculpture class in the fall.
“There were so many nights when we spent all night working on projects in the sculpture studio or the print-making studio,” Morgan says. “We would just talk all night while we worked and leave when the sun was coming up. Those times were really fun.”
Purchasing Classic Tattoo and Environmental Stewardship
Owning a tattoo shop wasn’t always in the cards for Morgan, though. She started as a tattooer at Classic Tattoo in 2003 as a 19-year-old TXST student. Two years later, the business went up for sale.
Morgan’s mom is a professor, which instilled in Morgan an interest in working in education since she loved college and learning. While Pat got certified to teach K-12, and did so for three years after graduating, tattooing stayed top of mind for Morgan.
“I come from a family where you went to college, and tattooing is not a job that requires a degree,” Morgan says. “I think I stuck with tattooing all these years because, honestly, it’s something that I really love to do every day. I’ve never disliked it one single day of doing it.”
The owner of Classic Tattoo decided to sell the shop to go on tour with his band in 2005, the same year Morgan and Pat began dating. Morgan didn’t necessarily want to buy the business or be a boss, but she also didn’t want to work anywhere else, partly because it’s only three blocks from the San Marcos River, a place she loves. So, she put in an offer and bought it from the owner just before he cleaned it out.
“I got lucky there,” she recalls. “I got lucky in a lot of ways that year.”
Morgan holds parts of a tattoo machine.The Classic Tattoo sign in the hallway of the shop.
The Egans married in 2012 and have two children together, a 13-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl, who are both artistic in their own right. They spend their free time drawing and crafting, especially Halloween costumes and props.
“We try to encourage that with a house full of art supplies,” Morgan says. “They’ve made some Halloween movies three years in a row and involve the rest of the neighborhood in them. One was called ‘Sasquatch in the Cul-de-sac,’ and it was really good. They’re creative, so we foster it and give them things to help them stay that way.”
Pat (left) performs volunteer work on a trail in San Marcos with a member of the San Marcos Greenbelt Alliance.
While helping manage the shop, Pat heard about the volunteer-based San Marcos Greenbelt Alliance in 2022 through one of the shop’s artists, Brandon Smith, who was active with the group. The Egan family had been using the trail system in San Marcos for more than a decade, often mountain-biking or hiking as a family.
“The group has been active for 25 years, encouraging the city and local people to preserve land and create parks and trails,” Pat explains. “I joined up with Brandon and go regularly on Saturday mornings to work on clearing trail paths. Their big vision is to have a trail that connects all the way around town, and they’re very close to completing that. It’s a great group of people.”
Through his job with the Watershed Association in Wimberley, Pat also maintains and preserves several hundred acres of land and completes restoration projects in the Cypress Creek watershed area of the Wimberley valley.
Looking Back on 20 Years
Even though she graduated in 2006, Morgan still finds time to come back to campus from time to time.
“I often walk through the big archway from work and go to the Starbucks in the LBJ Student Center just to see campus,” Morgan says. “All I wanted this last Mother’s Day was to go walk around campus as a family. We ended up going to the courtyard of Taylor-Murphy and hanging out for a while. It’s such a beautiful place still and so well taken care of. I have a lot of pride in it.
“Every time we drive by the art building, I tell my kids, ‘That’s where I met your dad,’ and they go, ‘We know.’”
After 20 years of ownership at Classic Tattoo, Morgan and Pat have seen lots of change in San Marcos while remaining friends with their business neighbors, like Root Cellar and Showdown.
Back in the early 2000s, the town ran on “river time.” Morgan remembers no one expecting businesses to keep regular hours and food taking longer to get to your table while being served by someone in a wet swimsuit.
Morgan points to a bobcat option on a flash tattoo sheet.
“It was very laid-back,” Morgan says. “It’s gotten much busier, there’s more money flowing through, and places are running a tighter ship, but there is still that San Marcos vibe. And the college still gives the town a sense of energy and progress.”
A considerable percentage of Classic Tattoo’s clientele includes TXST students, and an even larger percentage has expanded to include faculty and staff. That allows the Egans to remain connected to the university.
“I’m waiting on Kelly Damphousse to come get his bobcat tattoo,” Pat jokes.
We Met at TXST
Explore the heartfelt stories of connections that began at Texas State.
Lane Fortenberry is the internal communications manager for TXST's Division of Marketing and Communications. He writes stories for the TXST Newsroom, runs the Campus Communicators group, and drafts talking points for presidential events.
