12/27/2023 0 Comments Black light tattoos near meThere, I met many artists from many backgrounds who all helped and inspired me. I apprenticed at City of Ink for two years and worked there for a total of seven years. It was hard to find any other Black women tattooers at the time. Finding out about her made me feel so hopeful and inspired. I did a lot of reading online and found out about the first Black woman to tattoo (in a mainstream American sense), Jacci Gresham. There was Kat Von D and the women she had on her show that was as close as it got. I remember watching things like LA Ink and Miami Ink and seeing no one who looked like me. I started my apprenticeship when I was in high school at a street shop in Atlanta.ĭid you feel you saw yourself represented in the industry? Was there anyone you looked up to or anyone who mentored you? I read as much as I could about what it was like to be a tattoo artist, and I read that the best way to go about it was through an apprenticeship. I was inspired by books on Japanese tattooing that I read in bookstores and at the library when I was 12 or 13. To make the process a little easier, while adding some more color to your feeds, the Cut caught up with three Black tattoo artists to discuss being seen within the industry, caring for the melanated skin you’re in, and how to find an artist you’ll really vibe with.Ī post shared by Kandace Layne did you get your start in the tattoo industry, and what inspired you to pursue this path? If you’re in the market for some fresh ink, it can be hard to find artists you can trust who will understand and celebrate darker skin. Click over to that studio’s staff page and you’ll probably find a similar trend in who has been hired to wield the tattoo needles. Meanwhile, limbs that would wear Fenty Pro Filt’r shades in the 300s and 400s are few and far between, if present at all. While countless Instagram grids can showcase pieces as diverse as tiny-script tattoos and sizable, shaded stoic creatures, they’re all often overwhelmingly highlighted on white and light skin. You don’t have to scroll too far down to notice the dearth of brown hands, wrists, arms, thighs, necks, backs, and collarbones on popular tattoo accounts. Decorating your body with permanent pieces of art has peaked in popularity, and collecting tattoos is now a more normalized form of outward self-expression and body reclamation, right up there with tried-and-true beauty-world modifications like shaving your head, dyeing your hair bright pink, or having someone puncture multiple holes in your ears.īut just as beauty campaigns and brands’ social-media accounts are lacking in brown-girl hands, aspiring body-art collectors of color know all too well that the tattoo world has a similar representation problem. Your body is a temple, but it may look more like a museum these days.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |