Oliver Ruts, born in Tettnang/Bodensee, took private lessons in etching and graphic art from Malchus Weissenrieder, a former student of Alfred Hrdlicka"s, from 1984 to 1986 and finished an apprenticeship as a carpenter in 1985. From 1989 on, he learned the trade of a tattoo artist in Amsterdam. He then worked from 1991 to 1994 as a freelance graphic artist and amateur tattoo artist.

During this time, in 1992, he established his own publishing house, "Memoria Pulp", together with Andrea Schuler and published a book series called "The Mower". In 1994, Ruts opened up his own tattoo shop in Regensburg before moving to Berlin in 1995 to open another tattoo shop. Since then, Oliver Ruts is an internationally recognised and sought-after tattoo artist Between 2001 and 2002 he together with Andrea Schuler published "Herbert Hoffmann: Motivtafeln", an art book on tattoos, as well as "Bilderbuchmenschen", a collection of photographs of tattooed people for Memoria Pulp. At the same time, both of them began to research their first documentary film "Flammend" Herz" (Blue Skin) which premiered at the 2004 Berlinale.