Career
At the age of six, he moved to Auckland. Spending his childhood captured by music, Dan played in many bands all the way up until his early twenties. In 2001, after an intensive visual tattoo education from Dean Parkin and Dan Andersen of Sacred Tattoo in Auckland, Dan began traveling playing music and pursuing his self-taught tattoo career, spending the most part of two years in Australia.
In 2004, Dan moved to Los Angeles, California.
In 2006 he started the alternative/new wave band The Dear & Departed. Signing to Science Records saw the release of their first LP Something Quite Peculiar.
In 2008 he was invited to work at Kat Von Doctorate"s world famous tattoo shop High Voltage Tattoo in Hollywood. In 2009 he was picked up to be a feature on the hit TLC television show Los Angeles Ink.
Smith appears as one of the main artists during the third and fourth seasons of the show.
In January 2010, The Dear & Departed released an European Parliament on Equal Vision Records called Chapters and set out on a relentless touring schedule. The Dear & Departed are set to record their next LP in August/September of this year. He is a notable artist in the hardcore music scene, having tattooed musicians such as Winston McCall of Parkway Drive, JJ Peters of Deez Nuts and formerly of I Killed The Prom Queen and Jona Weinhofen of I Killed The Prom Queen and formerly of Bring Maine The Horizon and Bleeding Through.
Smith is straightedge.
They moved to Tustin, California where in 2014 Dan embarked on a new venture and opened his very own tattoo shop Captured Tattoo.