Moving to Illinois

This past summer has been a whirlwind but I’ll sum it up here: I quit my job and left my first tattoo shop (Firefly Tattoo Collective in Noblesville, IN) to move in with my partner in Illinois. 

I’ve never tattooed full time so the plan was to find a regular job then start looking at shops. The job search took MUCH longer than expected. Luckily I had partner/friends/family support because it was the hardest job search I’ve ever experienced. I ended up finding one that’s pretty stable with a regular schedule. It’s full time so I don’t anticipate being able to jump into a shop anytime soon. I plan on having this job for a year at least. I do not want to rush the process of finding a new shop. When I found my apprenticeship, I was looking for three years and didn’t find the one until I moved to Indianapolis. That said, I knew it’d be a risk to go to a new city where I didn’t know any tattoo artists or shops. Now that I’m employed I’m saving what money I can for my favorite type of research: getting tattoos. Recently, a new tattoo shop opened within a fifteen minute walk of my apartment so I’ll get a few non-rent paychecks under my belt and report back! 

When I wasn’t losing my mind applying to as many jobs as possible, I finally got around to working on my branding. I arranged and printed a portfolio book covering my first two years tattooing. One of my favorite things at conventions or checking out new shops is looking through portfolio books. With websites and instagram, they might be somewhat obsolete but it was important to me and made a good starting point. After that was finished I started on business cards. Business cards have always intimidated me because I’ve never felt like I have a good symbol for who I am as an artist. I don’t have a specific tattoo style that I can discern so summing myself up in a single image felt impossible. I love tattooing script though and I love composition so I pressed through and made a few designs that I hated until I figured out what I wanted. Now it’s the header of this website and I’m deeply in love with what I came up with. It feels unique, vintage, warm, feminine, and “me.” 

Lastly, I made this website. What I like about a website is that I can keep editing, adding, or subtracting elements as my career evolves. I’m excited to build this into something that is useful as well as beautiful and personal; a blog is a crucial part of that. My favorite artists have always been open about the process of becoming who they are. I can scroll back and see where they came from and how they came up. I can identify key influences on their work and learn how they overcame obstacles. It showed me that I could be an artist too. If I ever get to the point where I can do art full time and pursue all my creative endeavors, I want anyone to be able to look back and see that I started out with certain privileges and certain hardships too. 

I’m reading Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer right now and at the end of the first chapter she talks about how Indian principles of living aren’t literal but fluid, open to interpretation to fit the times. She boils it down to “use your gifts and dreams for good.” This is my attempt to do just that. 

XOXO,

SJ