Local 'stud' will try for DIY stardom

The DIY Network is looking for a "stud," and New Port Richey's Mike Balestrieri is in the running.

The winner of the cable channel's Stud Finder Search will win a starring role in a new home improvement series. Contestants have been posting videos showing off their home remodeling skills, and Balestrieri's "Concrete Artistry and More" has been among the top-rated audition videos. The video shows Balestrieri, who owns Another Dimension Tattoos with his wife, Heather, creating a backyard pond.

"The kind of show I'd like to do would be to teach people that there is art everywhere and no building material should ever be sent to a landfill," Balestrieri said. "Just because it's too small to build a house doesn't mean that you can't build something out of it.

"I'd like to show how to bring your artwork to merchandise and then get it into a store. This could help everybody, from the artist who makes it to the T-shirt guy down the street."

Balestrieri credits his skills as a tattoo artist with enhancing his do-it-yourself expertise. He recently learned to make molds from his own sculptures so he can create limited edition pieces and how to do metal casting.

"I've been tattooing since 1991," he said. "About four years, ago I took my airbrushing to a whole new level and wanted to paint on three-dimensional surfaces, so I started building sculptures to paint on. I use mostly construction debris and fiberglass. I'm all self-taught, so I learned the long way of what not to do."

Balestrieri, 35, cites his family as a primary inspiration for his creative projects.

"My dad got me a job at his machine shop tracking down parts and doing paperwork," he said. "This gave me the opportunity to be all over the place and stand there with the experts asking, 'How's that work?'

"Within a short time, I was on machines myself, making the parts for aircraft instruments, and soon I was running the lathe department. This place gave me the opportunity to start a body jewelry manufacturing company. By the time I was 19, I had a 12-page color catalog and was selling jewelry all over the country."

His passion was fueled by a natural sense of curiosity.

"Even as a kid, I always wanted to know, 'How'd they do that?' I remember being really little and knocking on stuff at Disney asking my dad, 'How did they make that?'"

Now Balestrieri's own children - daughter Victoria and stepson Patrick O'Neil - inspire his home improvement projects.

"I have two kids that are my world," Balestrieri said. "That's one of the reasons I started transforming the backyard. Our backyard is a sculpture garden with koi ponds and gardens, and it's really fun so our kids would rather play here than down the street."