Welcome back everyone. Before we get started on this episode, I do want to let you know
that this is part one of a two part episode. We had a great interview with Chelsea. She
shared a lot of great stories and a lot of great energy. There was so much good stuff
that we had to break it into two pieces. So sit back and enjoy part one of life's bookmarks.
Ready? Ready. I'm ready. Yes. Three, two, one. All right. Welcome back to Tales from
the Service Industry. I'm your host. I'm Bill. I'm here tonight with Ms. B. Hey guys. Our
resident deviant Liz. Hi team. And joining us tonight near and dear to my heart for professions
that I've wanted to have on the podcast since day one is Chelsea. Hi. Howdy. Chelsea joins
us from the tattoo industry. That I do. So that I do. Personally, I'm excited. I'm also
excited. I'm pretty excited about this. Just a couple of weeks ago, we recorded the origin
story and tattoo artists was on my list of professions to have on. So I'm and I just
recently got one done and I was like, I think I know the gal. And here she is. Funny how
fates cross sometimes. Yeah. So welcome. Hi, thanks for having me. Normally when we have
someone new on the show, we just ask them to do a real quick intro. I kind of tell us
a little bit about who you are, where you've been, what you do. And then we get into the
fun stuff. Cool being so my name is Chelsea. I am a tattoo artist. I specialize mostly
in neo traditional and I've pretty much worked in Orange County for the past two and a half
years started my tattoo journey as an apprentice, which most do apprenticeships are gnarly in
the best way possible. But mine was a little bit different because I did it over the pandemic
since tattooers were being outlaws and still working under the radar. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Prior
to that, I was a barber for like eight years. So it's been a nice kind of easy transition
since the industries are pretty similar, just different crafts, if you will. I like it. Yeah.
You can find me on Tik Tok and Instagram. They're both the same handles. It's Chelsea
dagger underscore tattoos and a booking appointments or just increase anything like that is all
done through Instagram. Nice. Yeah. Welcome. Thanks for having me. I think I just recently
saw one of your videos that kind of made its way around all the Tik Tok viral. Yeah. So
I actually have a question about that. Ask away. I've never really even heard of this
apprenticeship thing. Like what is that? So to get into the tattoo industry for years,
it's been set up where you basically build up a portfolio of all your best work. Normally
you want to go in as a client and start building a relationship with a tattoo or in a shop
that way and then kind of shoot the idea with them. If they ask you to bring in your work,
you take it into basically get criticized. Oh, that's fun. It's always fun. I felt super
like nervous doing that because at the time the guy that I actually wound up apprenticing
under, he was looking for an apprentice on Instagram and I heard through him or about
him through my friend who I'd known for a while that was getting tattooed by him, the
sending him like emailing my portfolio. So it was done mostly digital versus like bringing
in a hard copy. Gotcha. Yeah. So everything was done through email until he actually called
me in. My interview actually was strange also because he just kind of handed me a printer
and he's all, I just bought this. There's no directions. I needed to figure out how
to hook it up to my iPad. What the heck? Yeah. So I sat there for two hours because obviously
I didn't think to like Google the manual for this. I was like, no, I was like, it can't
be that hard. There's buttons. I just got to push it. Whatever sat there for two hours,
finally got it set up and then he's like, all right, cool. You'll start tomorrow. And
I was like, okay, that was your interview. So that's what I thought. But tattooing is
like a really disciplined skillset, obviously, because we're doing stuff on people that's
permanent for life. So I think for him, he was just trying to see like what my discipline
was like and if I was going to give up and get discouraged and walk out or if I was going
to sit there and tough it out, you know, no matter how long it took and it took two hours,
I did it. It's a very interesting way to do that. Yeah. I've never heard of that before,
but I've also heard of different interview processes for apprenticeships. It's just very
individual to the artist or to the shop and apprenticeship times. Like, mind you, this
is all unpaid. Like you're just working. I was about to ask you don't get paid. No. So
which is fine because you know, you're basically getting paid with the knowledge to tattoo.
But yeah, like my apprenticeship, I was doing it five days a week. At the same time I was
running my barber studio. So also running my business. I was at the tattoo shop for anywhere
between eight to 10 hours a day. Whoa. Yeah. Just watching, drawing, cleaning the shop,
running errands, doing odd errands also. Like you're basically their personal assistant
as well. I mean, there's another way I would like to put that. I was essentially like the
shop bitch, but just to be straightforward. But yeah, like I was doing stuff like running
to get his car registered at the DMV, like a bunch of stuff that he wanted to not spend
as much time on and focus more on tattooing. So I kind of alleviated that stress for him
in exchange for tattoo knowledge. Okay. Yeah. So I did that for a year. Um, I got graduated
into being like an artist. I was able to work on my own, start charging my own prices. And
shortly after that we kind of had a falling out. So I moved shops and I was at that shop
for probably about a year and a half. And it was very much like a foot in the door shop.
For sure. I saw a lot of crazy things happen in that shop. We got robbed twice. Like, yeah,
it was not in the best area, but you know, it was cool for what it was. I learned a lot
by being there. Um, I was able to set my own schedule, but yeah, it was definitely. What
does one steal from a tattoo shop? Just all the equipment? So they stole, I think one
of the artist machines, and then I believe a ring light from the booth and he didn't
have his, like, so we had these weird, like just to paint the picture for you guys, the
building that we worked in was originally a massage parlor, like one of the sketchy
ones. So there's like my tour of this shop, I was mind blown cause I was like, okay, I'm
going to just run and use the restroom really quick. And when I went in there, there was
a shower and like a red light. So like they had an interesting, they hadn't finished remodeling.
I was like, okay, what, what could be worse than this? And it did get worse over the year
and a half. So when we got robbed, the guy that had this booth specifically just left
his machines out. So whoever like broke in, stole the machine. And we also did piercings
at this shop and we had all of the jewelry in a glass case along with like our merch.
So he stole like all of the t-shirts, all of the jewelry and just left. Okay. Wow. Still
never caught him. He left a crowbar behind, which I'm pretty sure was worth more than
everything he stole. Yeah. Cause I was like, this jewelry is not the best quality, but
you know, what do I know? I'm not a piercer. Yeah. It was wild. My gosh. So does your apprentice,
does she do all the things that. So we're actually trying to do the apprenticeship a
little bit different, which is why that video on TikTok went viral because all of us in
the shop that have been artists for a few years now, we all pretty much have similar
backgrounds with our apprenticeship where it was toxic. Like the best way to explain
it, a lot of us kind of went through bootcamp in the sense that like they tear you down
to build you back up, but like in traumatic ways, not like super traumatic, but just kind
of sounds like hazing. Exactly. It's like pretty much getting hazed for like a fraternity
or whatever. Yeah. So with her, we're doing it a little bit differently and we really
want her to focus more on like the art and like learning that. Then getting your car
registered. Yeah. Like it was crazy. Like I would tell her crazy stories. Like my mentor
had me like wash his car one day and he's like, go wash my car. I was like, okay, why?
And he's all, cause it's dirty and I need it washed. I was like, right. But I have a
tattoo coming in and like an hour he's like, figure it out. So for her, like, you know,
she has apprenticeship duties, like making sure that the shop set up with supplies that
we need, or she's like watching, you know, either her specific mentor tattooing, watching
us doing our setup, breakdown, cleaning, stuff like that. But we're not verbally abusing
her or anything like that. That's awesome. Yeah. And the thing that I think caught a
lot of people's eyes was that she doesn't look like the stereotypical person you would
have in a tattoo shop. So for anybody who hasn't seen this viral video, what does she look
like? She is just the cutest little like gem of a person. She's adorable. She's very bright
and bubbly. She herself does not have any tattoos. Wow. That's controversial in its
own. Like I personally, I've been tattooed by an artist who had not a single one and
he did incredible work. Like he was an award winning artist. And then I've been tattooed
by people who are very heavily tattooed because for whatever reason people associate with
how covered you are as an artist with your skillset. Huh? And that's not really the
case. Like I've been tattooed by heavily tattooed people who have like scarred me or, you know,
it's how you're taught. So I think that's like our main focus with her is just making
sure she's getting the skillset she needs so she can go out into the world and flourish.
I love it. Yeah. It's kind of like that mentality of never trust a skinny chef. Yeah. It's like,
it's so crazy seeing the feedback from all of that, like from the video, just because
a lot of it has been positive. A lot of it's been supportive. That's awesome. We can't
complain, but you get that one person that's just like, I would never. And I'm like, that's
fine too. You know, that's your own personal choice. It's your choice. I'm not saying you
have to get tattooed by any of us. You know, there's a tattoo artist out there for everybody.
Yeah. You know, and that's something that I think needs to kind of be brought up a little
bit more. I love how your shop though is trying to make, I mean, I hate to say this, but like
make a difference, but make things different in that aspect of apprenticeships and not
toxic. Your current shop is the current shop I'm at has been the healthiest work environment
out of any career that I've had, which is, I, it really caught me off guard just because
I was expecting similar traits from prior experiences, just because that's what I had
become used to. Everyone's super supportive of each other, whether it be like, Hey, what
do you think I should do with this design or you know, anything really, we're always
ready to just kind of jump in and help each other out because you're only as strong as
your weakest link as they say. And I'm not going to lie and may have watched a few of
your videos and you guys do seem like the happiest, coolest bunch of friends who just
happen to work together. Yeah. It's such a trip because I've had a few people come in
from Tik TOK and they're just like starstruck, which makes me feel really like, it's so cool.
It's so weird to me though, because I'm just like a weirdo like goober that in my free
time I build Lego sets. I love it. Oh, yeah. I was admiring them from afar. I was like,
Oh wow. Those are super rad, but like nerds of a feather. Yeah. I love that. But yeah,
they're just like so starstruck and then they kind of, you know, comment. They're like,
you guys are really like this in real life. And I'm like, I think that's why we've become
so relatable as a team and why people want to come hang out with us because even client
experiences a majority of my clientele is actually women. Cause obviously being a female
tattoo or women just tend to feel more comfortable with me. I had one client in particular, God,
it still pisses me off to this day. And I heard the story probably two years ago. So
super early on in my career, she basically came to me and when I'm tattooing her, she
told me that the last guy that she had gone to was tattooing the back of her leg. She
was wearing a skirt and the artist took it upon himself to run his hand up her skirt
while he was tattooing her. So that was insane to me because I could never, you know, like
you're, you're very up close and personal with somebody. Like there's no need to make
them feel uncomfortable for your own personal agenda, but I've heard plenty of those stories
and that blows my mind. You know, how are these people still out in the world? If that's
his priority, he should just be a piercer then, right? I mean, if your priority as somebody
in the body modification industry is to pretty much tickle your own pickle, if you will,
you should probably reconsider the industry you're in because you know, it's more than
just tattooing people. Like you're really responsible for other people's autonomy. And
I always tell people being a good tattooer is only half of being a good tattooer. Like
you need to be a good person as well because you're creating the experience on top of the
artwork for the person. It goes hand in hand. If you have a shitty experience, anytime you
look at that tattoo, at least in my personal experience, you're going to remember that.
And you know what's interesting? You say that is when you tattooed me, you made me feel
so comfortable. And like I am one of those people that I want to make other people happy,
even if it's to my detriment sometimes. Yeah. Well, that's why we're in the industry.
And like when we first put the tattoo on the location, I'm like, yeah, it's fine. And she's
like, no, no, are you really sure? She's like, this is going to be on your body the rest
of your life. You need to love it. And she made me feel comfortable to say, well, actually,
can we move it a little higher? And like, when I think that's when you like called me
over and you were like, Liz, what do you think? And I was like, nope, it needs to be here.
Here. Like this is how it needs to be changed. And you're like, okay, great. Let's take this
stencil off another one on. And we went about the day and you didn't make it inconvenient.
You didn't make it like it literally was about me and me liking it. It is about you and you
liking it. You know, like I had an experience recently where I was doing a consultation
with a potential client. She reached out, wanted a very specific design. We were talking
about it, but she kept going back and forth on it. And to me, that made me feel not confident
as the artist, because you might like that for a little bit in the moment. But I've always
noticed if you're compromising a lot during the consultation process, there's going to
come a time where you're not going to love that tattoo anymore. Yeah. And I don't want
somebody to feel like that, you know, because it's your body. You don't want to look at
a part of it and absolutely hate it. You should look at a part of it and be like, oh yeah,
this is great. Like I feel awesome. Hot girl summer, whatever. You know, the goal is to
build confidence and like build that trust between the clientele. Yeah. Because at the
end of the day, like if I'm happy about it and you're miserable, like that's not me doing
my job. You know, that's me only being in this for my own personal satisfaction and
nothing good really comes from that. You know, my God, I just love you. That is so amazing.
That's just, ah, well, so I'm so glad that your career is just such in like a positive,
amazing place. I love it. You know, I worked really hard to get here. It took me a long
time, but I had been wanting to be a tattoo artist since I was a kid. And my uncle had
me watching like Miami ink and all those cool shows when I was a kid. And the first time,
yeah. So the first time I was actually in a tattoo shop, I was with my mom. Really?
Yeah. So I was probably like nine years old at the time. We were just in Venice beach
for whatever reason. And my mom was newly single. So she's out there living her best
single lady life and she had no tattoos. She like absolutely did not like tattoos up to
that point, but for whatever reason, she felt compelled to walk into a shop, pick something
off the wall and I sat with her and I watched her do it. Wow. Yeah. So anytime she would
go get tattooed, she would always take me into the shop because I was always doodling,
you know, whatever. And she's like, yeah, you know, you could possibly be doing this.
I'm like, we'll see. What a cool mom. Yeah. She's pretty cool. She's pretty rad. My parents
told me I couldn't be buried in a Jewish cemetery if I got one. You know, my aunt, it's so funny.
My aunt's Jewish and like that's why she was so anti tattoos. And now she's got tattoos.
She's like, well, she's all, well, if they don't see them, you know, under my clothes,
I'm sure they'll still throw me in the pine box. And like, oh, I was like, okay, that's
your own prerogative. Like do you? So Ms. B, how does your family feel now? Oh, they're
totally used to it now. Like I think they're just happy if especially, you know, everything
that goes on in the world and all this we're alive, we're happy, we're healthy, we have
a job. And once I made them a grand kid, they're like, you could do whatever the hell you want.
We get to see our grandbaby. I was going to say, you know, at that point in life, if
a tattoo is the worst thing you've got going, you're so far ahead of people. Yeah. Yeah.
You know, it's interesting just because I think it's, I don't want to say it's weird,
but it's definitely more uncommon now to meet somebody who doesn't have a tattoo. Like,
yeah, very true. Bill's one of them. You're a unicorn. Yeah. You should have brought your
stuff here. Yeah. You know, it's not that I'm necessarily opposed. It's that I've never
seen anything that has been so powerful that I want on me for the rest of my life. Yeah.
I know that a lot too. You know, that's totally fair. I support that. Yeah. Don't put it on
your body if you're not absolutely sure. Well, yeah. I mean, that's why you don't put people's
names on your body, right? Oh my God. Do you have a lot of that? Unless it is your child
or your parent, you won't do it. Maybe even a sibling. I will not put your significant
others. Wow. Good for you. Absolutely want to hear these stories, but I've got questions
and that's actually one of them. I've got answers. What tattoos do you refuse to do?
You know, you just mentioned not tattooing names or well, significant other names. Just
because you know, for as long as I've been around on this planet, anytime I've seen somebody
get someone's name, like a significant other, it's cursed. I don't know what it is. I do
not know what it is. Like I know somebody personally, I won't name who it is, but she
had gotten her husband's name tattooed on her after how long they were together for
a long time, but they wound up splitting after the tattoo like a few months later. Yeah.
Curse. Yeah. And then she wound up getting it covered back up and then like now they're
back together. So there is some validity. I've had people who have only been dating
for two weeks and will come in and be like, Hey, I'm in love with this person. I need
their name tattooed on me right now. Like sit down. Like, no, you don't. This is just
the serotonin going through your noodle right now. Let's let it simmer down. This is a love
bomb happening. Like, are you being gaslit into this? Like blink twice if you need help,
you know? But yeah, it's crazy. So I don't do those just for personal reasons. Also,
I don't really do any tribal tattoos that are specific to a certain culture on somebody
that's not personally tied to that culture. Okay. I'm so fair though. Yeah. I'm personally
indigenous. So my tribe is Cora. We have symbols and stuff that are, you know, sacred and whatnot.
And it's not necessarily something like, Oh, this is artwork I want on my body because
it looks cool. Like it all has meaning to it. And so when I see a certain type of person
come in and be like, I want this full like Polynesian tribal tattoo because I want to
look like Maui from Moana. No, no, no, no. Cause like I have friends who are also Polynesian.
So I like, I don't know enough to like know everything about the tattoos and the styles
and like the symbols, but everything has a rhyme and reason to it. So you could be putting
something on your body that doesn't even mean what you think it does. Same thing with Chinese
lettering. Oh yeah. So true. I will tell you guys a funny story about that. Oh, I want
to hear. How many memes have gone around of, you know, Oh, I just got this tattoo. Orange
chicken. Like, yeah. Or like toilet or barbecue. I think Ariana Grande was one of them. She
saw it said seven rings, right? And it was like orange chicken. Yeah. Something off the
wall. My sister and I, she'll probably come up in these stories a lot because we're very
close in age. So any of the debauchery we got into together always. So I somehow, when
I was 16, got my hands on a tattoo machine and thought it would be fun to tattoo my friends
in my kitchen. I do not recommend that. There are so many things that can go wrong, but
my sister's like, yeah, I want our brother's name and Chinese lettering down the side of
my leg. Oh no. And she Googled it. I don't cause it's my sister. She's very impulsive
sometimes when it comes to her tattoos. But I was like, are you sure? Like we don't really
know if this is what this means. Cause none of us read Chinese. Yeah. We don't know anybody
that reads Chinese. She's like, well, I Googled it. That's your first mistake. She was adamant.
So I threw it on her leg and like a year or two later, we're at a Chinese restaurant.
Our waitress read Chinese. Thank God it said happiness, but it for sure wasn't my brother's
name. So she's just got happiness going down to side of it. Yeah. I was like, it could
have been worse. It could have been like, what if she was just saying that to make you
feel better? Cause it's on your body. I had to ask the lady. I was like, does it really
mean that? Because if not, I need to know so I could hold this over her head for the
rest of her life. Cause I told her so like I looked at her dead in the eye. She's like,
I don't want to hear it. And I was like, it's funny. You're just doing what good siblings
should do. And to be fair, like my first tattoo I got when I was 15, it was her name and the
name was spelt right when the stencil went on and then the artist lost the stencil halfway
through the tattoo. So her name is spelt wrong. I refuse to get it fixed cause it's a great
story, but this is why if anybody's listening that is underage, like under the age of 18,
do not get tattooed in a garage. This is your sign. Do not do it. Oh my God. Cause I also
have a six legged spider on me. Like they have eight legs. Why does he only have six?
Why? That's so funny. So funny. Yeah. So I don't do those. Obviously I don't do any like
hate tattoos. I was going to ask if anybody's asked. Yeah. One of my old coworkers from
the shop that I was telling you about that was gnarly. So he had asked me for a tattoo
that was very specific to a white supremacist group. And obviously someone who stands against
that he was adamant to and he's a, why won't you do it? I'm like, are you serious? Cause
I know I don't want to put that on you. Boy. So I've had that happen. Um, occasionally
I'll get like the random person that wants like a symbol tattoo thinking that I'm not
going to know what that symbol pertains to. So I'll start to ask the questions. Like sometimes
maybe they don't know what that symbol relates to. So I have to educate them on why maybe
they shouldn't get that. Like one of them specifically pineapple tattoos. You've always
got to be careful with the pineapple tattoos. Swingers. And upside down pineapple. Miss
B. Oh, a pineapple is also the symbol of hospitality. Yeah. But if it's upside down, that means
that you're doing some fun stuff on your weekends. That's the irony of the industry that we're
in. I had no idea. Pineapple was a symbol of the service industry. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, hospitality.
Oh, okay. Interesting. I didn't know that either. Good to know. But yeah, that's pretty
much it for as far as like tattoos that I won't do. Oh, and lip tattoos. I don't know
if you guys have seen those. We came in and I told you my lips are going on her butt.
No, not like actual lip shape, but I'm talking like the inside of the lip. Oh, two very different
types of lips. Yeah. I mean, I support the first one. Like go for it. Love that. If we
were talking about piercings, we could throw in a third. Yeah. I don't do the inside of
the lip because I don't hold. They fade after like six months. Like parts of it might still
hold a little bit, but so dumb too. Yeah. We had a, we had a group of chicks come in
one time that wanted something very specific written on their lip. And I was like, you
know, no, maybe like there's another tattoo shop up the way. Maybe we asked them because
it's going to be a no for me dog. So that takes me to my next question. That is, is
there a part of the body that you refuse to tattoo? Here's the thing. I am not shy. Um,
I have seen plenty of body parts in my time doing this. I think it's about how you approach
the question. Cause in my experience, even I'll tell a story about when I was on a dating
app, a lot of guys find out that I'm a tattoo artist and they asked me to tattoo their private
parts as a way of shooting their shots. So if you're disrespectful about it, I will respectfully
decline, but I don't really have anything other than the lip, like inside of the lip
that I won't tattoo. It also has to be tasteful. I think because I was also asked to tattoo
like an octopus coming out of the butt crack. And like, I don't want that on my portfolio.
You know, to me, I want to do something artistic and an octopus crawling out of your butt.
She just doesn't sit right with me. Has anyone ever, cause I'm seriously curious about this
ever actually tattooed their bits and bobs? I personally haven't done those tattoos. The
closest I've gotten is I've tattooed a woman's breasts before. Like that's pretty common.
I've tattooed butt cheeks. I do know people personally who have them done. Why? Yeah.
Cause you know, you just like run out of room or if you want like a full frontal, you know,
it kind of all ties together and maybe people just want to look extra good when they're
naked. Teach them. I don't discriminate. Okay. Okay. I do not shame, you know, like whatever's
going to help. We don't kink shame here. There's a foot out there for everybody. Yeah. There
you go. I missed my opportunity last time. I know you did. You were asleep at the wheel.
I was so focused. I'm so into this. Okay. So I am dying to know, how did you get started
in the tattoo industry during a pandemic? Very, very interesting. Um, so to start, you
know, how everybody was getting the pandemic unemployment and whatnot, it was mostly linked
to people who were W2. So tattooers were considered independent contractors. Um, so I'm not going
to say everybody in the industry does this, but you know, some people like to fib a little
bit when it comes to what they're actually pulling it income wise. So when push came
to shove the pandemic, unemployment wasn't enough to sustain a living. Yeah. So a lot
of tattooers were working underground, like doors papered out just so they could get by.
Yeah. And as someone who was a client during this as well, that was the busiest I'd ever
seen tattoo shops. Like people just needed that outlet. So tattooers were just booming
tattoos out like five, six days a week and like really just boom. And you know, so my
friend that I had worked with prior, he and I were still Facebook mutuals. I had seen
the tattoos that he was getting done. So prior to the pandemic, I had followed his artist,
eventually saw that he was looking for an apprentice. He had posted it. So I asked him,
like, how do I get involved with this? And he's like, well, I need to see your portfolio.
I would need to know your availability X, Y, and Z. And I said, well, this is perfect
because since the world has shut down me as a barber, I can't work. So my availability
is wide open. So I wound up, you know, accumulating a bunch of art that I had either had done
during the pandemic because I was doing a lot of painting or I was coming up with new
pieces and just threw a portfolio together of what I thought was my best work. And I
was emailing it over to him and then he kind of got sick with something. So he had to take
some time away. So that kind of stopped the interview process. But I was still, you know,
asking other tattoo artists. And that's the thing about becoming an apprentice is you're
going to hear a lot of no's. You're going to hear so many no's. It's going to get super
discouraging, but it only takes the one yes. So anytime someone asks, like, what's your
advice? I'm like, just keep going. If this is something you really want, someone will
say yes, eventually. Oh my God, I love it. Yeah. So eventually he emailed me back and
I went in for my interview and he handed me that printer. Figure it out. Hey, figure this
out. And like I said before, that was just so he could see my discipline because tattooing
is rough. Like you could be a phenomenal artist on paper. Tattooing is a completely different
medium because you're working with skin, you're working with the different layers, you're
working with, you know, how to stretch the skin, how to pull a clean line and people
and people. Yes. And like, you know, when I have a canvas up on an easel, that's not
really moving a whole lot. Some people just cannot sit still and I get it. Tattoos hurt.
Like I personally think it sucks. I don't like actually getting tattooed. I like the
outcome of it. But yeah, finally got in the first few months of my apprenticeship. I just
sat and I drew and like the only thing I was drawing at that point was script lettering.
So that really flowy cursive style, which I hate, you know, when you approach it, you're
like, it's just like spelling. It's just like writing out a letter. No, you're actually drawing
the letter. So that was something I was not even used to or even remotely thought of.
So it was a struggle trying to get through that. So I could get to my next round of homework,
which was American traditional. And then from there we went into black and gray. So you're
learning all the different elements of tattooing, especially now there's so many different styles
that are so popular. It's good to kind of have some knowledge in them. A lot of tattooers
actually specialize in one style and that's personally what I do as well. It's just so
you can kind of master your craft in that. But it was daunting. Like I said, I would
go in at 11 a.m., clean the entire shop, mop the floors, do the bathroom, set my mentor
up all before all the artists were in there. Wow. And then I would be there from like 12
to maybe like six or seven o'clock at night, sometimes eight to nine. It was just really
dependent on whatever my mentor was finished. And then I would have to break him down, clean,
knowing my homework for the day, go do my normal job because then, you know, the pandemic
stuff started opening back up again. Wow. I would do it all again the next day. And
I did that for about a year. I think it wasn't until actually like five or six months in,
I didn't pick up a machine. That was going to be one of my questions. When in a typical
apprenticeship do you actually get to start tattooing people? It's really dependent. Like
I know people whose apprenticeships went on for five years. Like I personally went through
one that was no income, with no income. Yeah. So the hustle is real. It's the most broke
you will ever be during your career as a tattooer. But it makes it worth it once you get through
like the final hump of it. But yeah, at six months I picked up a machine. I still wasn't
tattooing people. I was tattooing oranges. I was tattooing bananas. Yeah. Just to practice.
Wow. Yeah. And then before I was able to tattoo other people, I actually had to tattoo myself
first. Really? What did you tattoo on yourself? It was this flower right here with the storm
trooper helmet. Oh my God. How cool is that? Yeah. It was spicy. That took like five hours
because I still had to do my apprenticeship duties in between it. So I would take breaks.
So I'd have to like wrap it up. Oh my gosh. I think the first errand I had to go run was
to like go get lunch for everybody in the shop. I came back, sat down, started going
at it again. And he's like, Hey, I need you to go run and get this again. And I was like,
Oh crap. So then I would wrap it up, go, come back, do it for like a headache. Yeah. A flower
with the storm trooper in it. And by the way, I know you guys can't see this and it's beautiful.
Yeah, it is. It's a red flower, the storm trooper in the middle with like green leaves
out of it. Oh my God. This is probably my favorite tattoo. Not because I did it, but
this was actually, so I had lost somebody really close to me the two weeks prior to
me starting the apprenticeship. This was the only tattoo that he had and he absolutely
hated it. So I thought like as my first tattoo, I thought that would be cool. Oh, I love that.
So really went for it full color on my first tattoo, which is an absolute no, no, but I
was like, I'm going to figure this out anyway. He's like, my mentor looked at, he's all,
yeah, figure it out. And then just walked away and kind of just let me, didn't watch you
do any of it. He watched me do some of it. And then he would like just kind of peek over
and be like, Oh, okay. Well, maybe try this. And then I did that. And he's like, okay.
Then he'd go back to what he was doing. Okay. Interesting. That was how the rest of my tattoos
went though. My mentor would just like, watch me lay the stencil down. All right. You're
good. And then he would leave. No, he would just completely leave and tell me to take
a picture of it and send it to him. Yeah. So I was like going in blind. Thank God for,
you know, other resources and other artists in the shop. Cause I was scared shitless.
I can't imagine why. I know. He was doing his own thing. I don't really know, but that
was pretty much the main reason why we had the falling out. Cause originally I was supposed
to do another year at that shop, but as an artist, just to kind of pay my dues back.
And it was getting to a point where I was like, I'm not really learning. Like I'm doing
X, Y, and Z and it just wasn't matching up. So I was trying to have a conversation with
him about it. And you know, I was looking at another shop to move into at the same time,
just in case the conversation didn't go well, lo and behold, it didn't. And he wound up
telling me like, you're never going to make it in this industry. Like you just gave up
on yourself, all this like negative shit. The printer didn't teach you anything. Apparently
not. But yeah, so I got really discouraged, but I think that was kind of, you know, like
my sign, like I need to leave if I'm going to continue to grow. Cause being here, I don't
think it's going to happen. And it's been interesting to say the least, like moving
from that shop into the shop where I kind of really started getting on my feet as an
individual artist. And then to now, like being in this amazing shop that I'm in, I love it.
Yeah. It's been wild. I love it. That's so cool. Well, I have a question for you. I have
an answer. Go Liz. What would be the wildest backstory you have heard about someone's tattoo
they're wanting to get? That's a fun one. Um, I'm sure you get a lot of stories. Yeah.
I'm trying to think of them like people's therapists, right? I'm like the therapist.
You order off of wish. Like, have you guys seen me? I should not be giving anyone advice.
I'm going to be on fiber. I wouldn't say like the craziest backstory. I will say I've had
interesting requests. There was a time where tattooing with someone's ashes and the ink
was really popular. I have never heard that. Miss B, have you heard that? No. Yeah. So
the person that I did this on is somebody that I'm really close with. Outside of this,
I wouldn't normally do it, but because we have like that personal relationship, I really
sat down with her and I told her, you know, this is the risk. This is what I need to do.
And like, I mean, tattooing is very like clean and sterile and you are introducing ashes
into that situation. Actually, I don't know the name of the company off the top of my
head, but there is actually a company where you can send them the ashes and they'll mix
it and pre-mix it with the ink. Yeah. But me, that's not how that went. She brought
me a Ziploc baggie with a little bit because you only need like a small pinch, right? But
I was so terrified that I was going to spill because I'm clumsy and I was like, this person's
going to haunt me for the rest of my life if I spill. But I did it and like, I'm a little
superstitious, but there was definitely some interesting things going on during that session.
Like, did you have just the feelings that no, like actual physical shit was happening?
Yeah. So my green light that I use has two knobs on the back ones to adjust the warmth
ones to turn it on and off. It's the only way you can turn it on. It was turning on
and off by itself. No. Yeah. Which was crazy because prior to her, I had tattooed somebody
else and that wasn't happening. So I'm thinking maybe there's a short in the cord, whatever.
And then we had YouTube as music on a TV and YouTube just started skipping songs by itself.
You know, I looked at her, I was like, Hey, I'm glad I could do this for you, but maybe
let's not do this again. Like, I a hundred percent believe in that stuff though. Yeah.
I'm not superstitious, but I'm a little stitious. I was going to say that. No, when my grandmother
died, I swear microwave would just turn on the 30 seconds. It would just turn on. We
weren't even in the kitchen. We were in the living room, lights flicker, fans go on and
off and we would just be like, Hey grandma, how you doing? And I go about our day. Okay.
I a hundred percent believe that. I was telling the story to my coworkers too, cause the way
that the shop was set up, I was basically in my own room. So the only people seeing
this happen are you and the client, me, my client, and then the one person that I shared
the room with. And I like looked over at him. I was like, am I like a little stony baloney?
Did I really see that happen? And he was like, yeah, dude, that was weird. I was like, I
don't want to do that anymore. But yeah, that was probably the weirdest request. I haven't
really heard any crazy backstories though. Mostly just people go, who's my mom? I mean,
I've heard, yeah, I mean, I've heard plenty of people that are like, yeah, I got this
tattoo and I was super hammered at 3 a.m. in someone's garage. Oh, that actually, I
just figured one out. Okay. So my buddy comes to me, he moved out of state, he was visiting
and he had been wanting to get tattooed by me for a while. Just didn't work out with
my scheduling, his scheduling. So he got a tattoo by his neighbor where he moved to and
it was in a garage and he looks at me and he's like, yeah, look at it. I'm looking at
it. It's not the best tattoo. The lines are super blown out. I'm like, Hey, he gave it
the good old college try and that's all that matters. And he's like, yeah, you know what
he cleaned it with? Oh my God. I already immediately knew it was like, this is going to be so bad.
He cleaned it with window cleaner. No, no. Yes. So don't do that. Like don't wash your
tattoos with window cleaner, please. If anyone is getting that idea, don't do it. Wow. Insane.
I was like, how are you not in a hospital like septic right now? Yeah, because that's
going in your bloodstream. Yeah. People really don't understand what can go wrong with tattoo
and I've seen a lot of crazy stuff. It's an open wound. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. People
are like, no, it's cool. I could totally go into a jacuzzi the day after. Like that was
disgusting. Point to me on the map where you thought that was a good idea. Please. It's
wild. Yeah. That was probably the craziest thing I've heard recently. I'm sure there's
plenty more. I've seen crazy stuff happen in shops. Oh yeah. Let's get into that. Like
what? I'm dying. Again, this is all from my year and a half in this one shop. So I pulled
up to work one day, the shop was upstairs. So I'm like getting ready to walk up and I
can hear commotion happening. I'm like, Oh, this can't be good. As soon as I walk into
the shop, there is a guy beating up one of the artists, like just going toe to toe in
his booth. Like he's getting knocked around. All of his equipment is getting broken. Is
the artist hitting him back? He was trying to, but I found out that essentially for reasons
that I do know, but I'm trying not to like put him on blast too much. He owed this person
a few bucks, we'll say. Okay. And this person came collecting a few dollars. Yeah. And what
was so crazy to me though was that this was at like 3pm and I'm just like standing there
trying to print my stencil and like, Hey, maybe let's not do this right here. Maybe
let's go outside. Let's go outside. You know, the movies and the TV shows, we can take this
outside. No, literally you can go outside and they didn't. They just like hashed it
out right there and then just went on about his day. The rest of the day, like nothing
happened. I'm all today. Did I see this correctly? Like it was like UFC up in there. I was like,
good Lord, you guys. And you just walked on and you just walked in and you just kept going.
You're like, no, I learned early on in that shop that the best thing I could do was just
mind my business. You can put your head down, focus on your own work. Cause I was trying
to protect my piece. Cause like as an artist, your environment really does affect like the
type of art and work that you're putting out. Cause I think a lot of it is emotion driven
and like in that regard, but yeah. So I was just like, all right, I'm just going to print
my stencil and go prep for my client and just pretend like none of this happened. Wow. There
was a lot of interesting characters that went into there though. Like, yeah, it was intense.
That was probably the craziest. And then during my apprenticeship, actually, there was a client
that had driven a few hours to come get tattooed by my mentor, like drove quite a distance
and he pulls up, we get him prepped, get him stenciled and he's like, all right, well,
I'm going to go outside to go partake in some activities. I'm like, fair dude, go get ready
for the tattoo, whatever. He didn't come back in and we were just really confused. So I
went outside and there's five cop cars in our parking lot and they have him and his
buddy in the back of one. Oh my God. Yeah. Like I was like, what just happened in the
past 20 minutes that he was outside? Like what the hell? The cops were essentially trying
to say that he had stolen the vehicle that was very much in his name and they didn't
believe him. So they held him back there. It was definitely racial driven. Oh, that's
disappointing. Yeah. Because he was an African American guy. My mentor being someone who
is Hispanic, Spanish was his first language. So he spoke with an accent. Even the cops
were giving him shit. Anytime he would try and say something like, no, you're just not
understanding what I'm saying. Like being very, what's the word I'm looking for? Condescending.
Condescending. Yeah. So I was just like, that is quite the experience. And the poor guy
didn't even wind up getting his tattoo because that whole fiasco took probably like four
or five hours. Wow. Figuring out who the car was registered to. Yeah. It was, yeah. Interesting.
And there was no need to have like five full on, like we're not talking those like small
coupe police cars. We're talking like the SUVs, like the explorers. I was like, there's
no need. And we're going to use that story as the end point for this episode and say
thank you for listening to part one. We will be back shortly with part two of life's bookmarks.
Thank you for listening.
Have a new podcast.net.