PIVOT

This year has been extremely transformative for me. A lot has changed, I have changed. I have changed a lot. & I have realized that I am no longer willing to compromise anything when it comes to living my life the way I want to. 

I got to a point where I hated tattooing. I hated what I love to do, because of the way I was doing it. Booking appointments a year in advance, planning my life a year in advance, tattooing boring subject matter, tattooing boring people… it made me want to quit tattooing.

Instead, I decided to make a major pivot in my approach to tattooing. I decided to only accept tattoo jobs that are truly interesting to me & only accept clients that treat me & my craft with respect. Through this process I am able to book less appointments, creating a six month cap on my schedule bookings.

This pivot was not executed in the most graceful and efficient way. I feel like I upset a lot of people, and I may have created a reputation for myself that I don’t want. I know I could’ve done better, and now I’m trying to correct that wrong by doing better for the people who are still paying attention.

My career path has been unprecedented. I have had just about ZERO direction. I’ve had to learn all of this the hard way. There is no correct business model for tattooing. & I was the premiere and sole fine line tattooer in the state of Kentucky for years. This was way more than I could handle.

I had no chance to really take the time to figure out who I am. I’ve spent so much of my life just trying to “get there” I didn’t really have time to think about anything else. I got so caught up in how busy I was, how many people wanted to see me. That I didn’t realize I was busy with jobs/ people that were sucking the life out of me.

This “pivot” in my career is me trying to make things right. Put myself in line to be successful & happy in my career. I have realistic dreams, and I know they can come true. I just need to deliver my message in a way that the right people will see/hear it.

I had a client recently that really made me feel like I did a good job. It was a realization of my dream. The client was full of bliss upon entering the Hideout, and once they settled in we spent some time talking about a loose idea (my favorite). Once we settled on a direction I started drawing. They spent an hour smoking and hangout out in the studio with my dog. Once I completed the drawing we began to make the tattoo happen. When we were done, we were talking about how getting tattooed can feel like coming home after a festival/ long trip. You can achieve a sense of transformation, achievement. It’s something special, it’s tattooing the right way.