James was born in then Israeli city ofSharm El Sheikh. His father, an American, converted to Judaism three years prior to moving to Israel, where he joined the Israeli army and met James' mother who emigrated from Romania. James lived in both Israel and Egypt as a child, and spent much of his childhood without his father who left the family when James was four years old. Suffering from severe ADD, James explains that he was drawn into art and tattooing from a young age, as his father had tattoos and was also a painter. James moved to the United States aged 11 or 12, living with his father's parents before moving to Miami at the age of 12. At the age of 15 he got his first tattoo, an experience which made him determined to become a tattoo artist himself. He moved back to Israel in his teens and completed his military service in the Israel Defense Forces as an Infantry sniper.
Career
In 1992, he started his apprenticeship with tattoo artist Lou at Tattoos By Lou. He is the co-owner of the Miami Beach, Floridatattoo parlorLove Hate Tattoos, the subject of the TLCreality television program, Miami Ink. James also co-owns the DeVille clothing company with Núñez and Jesse Fleet, and the Miami nightclub Love Hate Lounge, with Núñez and two other close friends. He has also created designs for Motorola's RAZR V3 mobile phones. His wife, Jordan, gave birth to their first child, Shayli Haylen James on 3 August 2008. Their second child, a daughter named Nalia, was born 8 May 2012. James has also recently invested in a jewelry line, Love Hate Choppers Jewelry, with Boston jeweler Larry Weymouth. In 1996 he lived for a few months in Denmark, where he did tattoos. He revealed on his blog that he was moving to New York and that his new show NY Ink planned to begin filming in March 2011. The show premiered on 2 June 2011. Season 2 of NY Ink premiered in December 2011 and ran through 1 March 2012. It was announced that Ami James was opening a tattoo studio, 'Love Hate Social Club' in London, UK in November 2012. The tattoo studio had a number of guest tattoo artists including, Darren Brass, Megan Massacre and Chris Núñez. In 2013 James teamed up with PETA in an ad for their "Ink Not Mink" campaign. James also co-founded , an online platform for getting a custom tattoo design, which launched on 9 May 2013.
