one very weird path to tattooing
There is rarely a week that goes by that I don’t receive an email through this website from someone wanting to become a tattoo artist. I do my absolute best to respond to every single inquiry that comes into the shop, whether through text, voicemail, email, or DM. Everyone deserves acknowledgment and to be treated with respect, as far as I am concerned! Some of the messages about apprenticing break my heart, simply because I remember so well how it felt…wanting to get a job as a tattooer, and constantly getting turned down. It’s not easy to get into the tattoo industry! You can’t go to school for it, and you need a mentor to give you an old-fashioned apprenticeship. (And let me say - I DO NOT endorse trying to teach yourself. Bad, bad idea. You can cause a lot of damage to someone if you don’t know what you’re doing. And…uhhh….bloodborne pathogens. Just saying.)
I rarely tell my story about how I got into the business, mainly because most people expect me to talk about my passion for tattooing and how awesome it all was to start out. However, my decision was largely pragmatic, although I will readily admit I love what I do. I figure it might be helpful for those interested in getting into this business to hear an uncensored version of how one woman started out. Here goes!
I loved tattoos from the time I was a little girl, and I always knew I wanted to be covered in tattoos. I told my mother when I was probably 8 or 9 years old that one day I’d shave my head, pierce my nose, and get all the tattoos. Predictably, she almost fainted! I did all of these things as an adult. I waited until I was about 22 to get my first tattoo - a lower back tattoo, which I will admit, I may have gotten not in the best frame of mind (I’ll let you draw your own conclusion on that - I was young, stupid, and going through a breakup). I told the artist how the tattoo represented balance to me, and how it was likely the only tattoo I’d ever get because it was so full of meaning. He laughed at me, but when I walked out of that shop - Eternal Tattoos in Taylor, MI - I felt like I had gotten my “bad ass card” punched for the very first time. Looking back now, it all seems really ridiculous! I was the walking definition of a “hot mess” at that age, and I pretty much did everything I tell clients NOT to do before getting tattooed.
Shortly after I got my first tattoo, I moved to San Diego to start a doctoral program at UCSD in music composition. I found Avalon Tattoo within a few months, and started getting collecting little tattoos all over my back and shoulders, all from one of the in-house artists, Steven Mast. After I finished graduate school, I immediately got a job teaching full time as an assistant professor at San Diego City College in their music department (I'm actually still there as an adjunct online instructor!), and finally had some funds to get "big work" done. I started in on a sleeve and a back piece, realizing that I loved tattooing more than just as an enthusiast...I wanted to learn. Teaching was great, but was never what I had intended to do full-time, plus my job was causing tension with my now ex-husband (long story); it was becoming exceedingly clear I needed to find an alternate career path away from academics.
I approached Steve, my tattooist, about learning to tattoo, thinking...he knows me, he knows I'm serious, of course he'll help me out! He immediately shot me down. “We don’t have apprentices at Avalon.” OK, bummer. But I kept coming back, I kept asking, kept getting tattooed. For TWO MORE YEARS. He tried to send me to Los Angeles, to see Robert Benedetti and Greg James who were both then at Sunset Strip Tattoo for their apprenticeship course. I couldn’t quit my day job though and take a few months off to apprentice, as I was financially supporting my then-husband.
Two years later, worn out by my persistence, Steve asked the owner of Avalon if she’d be willing to have a shop apprentice. Nope. Would she allow him to take his own apprentice? Yes, so long as the apprentice laid low and didn’t tattoo any clients. I was offered the chance - to be an individual artist’s apprentice without the benefit of any shop backing, although I would be allowed to travel with Steve to tattoo at other shops (Designs by Dana in Cincinnati, OH) where he also worked. Done deal.
My first tattoo - on myself. At Designs by Dana in Cincinnati, OH.
The apprenticeship didn’t come free, and it wasn’t exactly easy. I had to do all kinds of fun things, like scrub tubes, solder needles, build machines, and hang out regularly watching my mentor work, all while working full time and doing side work in theatre. I had no guarantees of work following my apprenticeship (and yes, Avalon Tattoo turned me down for a job…in fact, the owner never even returned my phone calls). Steve couldn’t get me a job. I was on my own.
All the while, I was traveling. Tattooing for free where I could as an apprentice. Learning. Continuing to scrub tubes. This continued for a FEW YEARS. THERE WERE NO GUARANTEES ANY OF THIS WOULD EVER PAY OFF. I eventually ended up having to quit my day job when my ex got a job on the other side of the country and relocated to Massachusetts where I had literally no connections in tattooing.
I was eventually able to find full-time shop work - an hour and half drive away (EACH WAY) from where I was living. I paid my dues there, to say the least!!! I worked in a super sketchy shop for a few years with crazy weird people and for even shadier characters. Let me tell you - it’s no fun to work in central Massachusetts for a shop owner who doesn’t pay the heating bill SEVEN TIMES in one winter. (Yes, ink can freeze.) And never mind the co-workers who’d knock me over in the hallway, sexually harass me, tell my clients while they were in my chair that “Oh, I can fix that!”, block my way to shop equipment, and race to snake every single walk in. I could write a book about the wacky and supremely nasty things I saw during those years! (A coworker who thought it was OK to let someone change the diaper of a baby on the floor of a tattoo shop? I saw that. Gross on every level.)
It didn’t all suck though. I learned a lot. I worked my butt off, and ended up with a decent little clientele after a few years; simultaneously, I also went through a really rough divorce. I was able to strike it out with a trusted coworker (now a dear friend) to open our own place in the sprawling metropolis of Webster, Massachusetts. That was my first shop. I was very happy there! I’m proud to say my former business partner is doing well at that shop, Witch Doctor Tattoo Studio, and we are still friends. I miss her (and her wife) a great deal! It’s hard to find good people you can trust in business. We had great times together!
This location, here, in Santa Paula, is my second shop, the first I’ve owned solo. I relocated to Ventura County with my awesome boyfriend in March of 2017. Yes, I moved here for love and a fresh start!
I’ve now been in the business for over a decade. It hasn’t been easy at all, but sitting where I am today, all of the struggles have been worth it. To me, this is the best job in the world, worth all the more because of the work that's gone into it!