I pushed through my hormonal sh*tstorm to come at you with
some gratitude. Namely five reasons I love being a tattoo artist.
For the full discussion listen of course, and for the short
summary peep below:
1. The connections/conversations with my
clients.
2. Self determined schedule.
3. Honing my craft, every day into forever.
4. I get to create the environment for myself and my
clients.
5. Being a part of a culture that touches most of
humanity.
Come back next week and maybe I will talk about reasons this
job is hard.
episode transcript:
Micah Riot:
hello, my darlings, hello. To be honest, I almost didn't make an episode for this week because I don't feel good. I don't feel good at all. My hormones are pretty out of whack, which makes for a lot of sadness, a lot of tears and a little in the way of motivation. But I wanted to push through it and make this episode anyway because I don't want to fall behind and I don't want to give myself an out.
Micah Riot:
I want to keep making the podcast. And what do we do when we feel like shit? We turn to gratitude. So today's episode is going to be a quickie about the reasons I love being a tattoo artist. I'm going to make it short and sweet. Let's do five reasons I love being a tattoo artist, and reason number one will be the connections I make.
Micah Riot:
I have the most amazing clients. I really have the most amazing clients, and this is one of the reasons why I started the podcast. I wanted to highlight and showcase and show the world how amazing the people that I get to tattoo are. They come from all walks of life, they have all kinds of different jobs, they're all ages and all socioeconomic statuses and, of course, all races and all sexualities and it's really. It's incredible that I get tattooed so many different kinds of people and I think the thing they have in common is that they are all seekers of meaning. I think we're meant for that. I think humanity is meant to be seekers of meaning, but I don't think that everybody is aware of that purpose, and my clients are.
Micah Riot:
We have the most amazing conversations. I find out incredible things from them and, for example, do you know why the birth control pill starts on a Sunday? I was informed about this last night by my client turned friend. It's because it takes two days for your body to bleed once you stop the pill, so your last pill would be on a Saturday and then you bleed on Monday through Friday, so you could have sex with your 50s husband through the weekend. That's why it starts on a Sunday. The pack starts on a Sunday. Okay, that's a very funny example of the things I find out from my clients. But just trust me, I have the most amazing conversations with people about all kinds of stuff, their lives, their work, touching upon every topic.
Micah Riot:
So number two reason I love being a tattoo artist is that I get to make my own schedule, not say over my schedule and when I go to work and when I go on a trip and not having to ask somebody else if I can take time off. Of course I have to make sure that I'm not messing up someone else's schedule because they agreed to come in and get tattooed. I really try not to reschedule people if possible, but overall it's up to me. When I want to do things I can always move my people around. I know who is available when and that's really nice to have that intimacy with my schedule and access to my clients and to be able to like. I'm going to LA this week because next week is my 40th birthday, so I needed to go show my face to my family. I haven't seen them in a few months, so I'm driving later today and it's midweek, it's a Wednesday, and I'll be there from today to Sunday, first in LA with my grandmother and then in Palmdale in the desert with my mom and I'm bringing the dog and it's just dog and I and I go on a little road trip, listen to a bunch of podcasts and audiobooks and relax. Yeah, I really love the fact that I get to make my own schedule pretty cool.
Micah Riot:
A reason number three I love being a tattoo artist is that I get to hone my craft over decades. You know it's been a decade and a half now it's been 15 years, and I'm starting to feel like I'm coming into my own in certain ways, like there are styles that I am working in that I feel like are mine and I feel really excited by them and I feel inspired by doing that kind of work, and so I'm still doing mostly everything, but I am starting to hone my specific style, which is exciting, and really just hone the craft. Like every tattoo I do, there's a potential to do the best tattoo I've ever done, the best flower I've ever done the best, pack the color the most tightly, the most well, draw the lines, build the lines up the most smoothly. There's always, every day is a new opportunity to be a better artist and a better tattoo artist and a better client facing human than I was yesterday, and that's pretty fucking cool because it's a trade and a skill that gets developed over time. I feel really lucky to have that trade and that skill.
Micah Riot:
Reason number four is I get to create a space that people love coming into. I get to create a space, fill it with art, make choices about colors and flavors of tea and other things in the space in the shop that like plants that people love, and people will come in and say I love your space. It feels so good here, the energy here is lovely and I am proud of that. I love creating that space. I love being the person to make those decisions and at this point, of course, decisions are both ours mine and Sailor's. They have their own area of the shop where they have complete say, and I, for the most part, have a say in my section of the shop of what it looks like. But together we create and co-create the energy in the shop and the overall feel and look of the space, and it's smooth and not an issue. So I love to create and co-create the environment.
Micah Riot:
And I will finish this off with a fifth reason this is not an extensive list of reasons, this is just five that I could think of off the top of my head in this moment as I'm getting ready to skip town and I would say it's that tattoo culture is universal at this point. Really, there's very few places in the world one could go and not see tattoos on people's skin, and Instagram has made me aware of so many tattoo artists from across the globe, every continent, every country, and it's super cool. It's super cool to see those connections and even though when I'm looking at art on Instagram sometimes I'm really envious that people have really amazing skill and amazing visions and such a unique, creative way of creating their art and putting it on skin Like really tattoo art has become art like. It truly has become art. I think it always has been, but it's now much more universally internationally recognized as a form of art by a lot of people, and people work in so many different kinds of styles and reuse the body in so many different kinds of ways. It's super cool. So I love that I could go really anywhere in the world and encounter tattoos and encounter tattoo collectors and tattoo artists, and I would say that I am now brave enough to ask to guest spot in most places.
Micah Riot:
There's definitely some intimidating shops and artists out there in the world that I would have I would feel shy about approaching, but I actually, a couple of days ago, sent an email off to Esther Garcia, who has Butterfat Studios in Chicago, and Esther has been somebody I've followed and admired since the beginning, since I was a baby tattoo artist. I really always. I love the way that she did her flowers and her like food and flowers and and like animals, kind of insects. I once drew some bacon inspired by a tattoo of hers. I've been admiring her work for a long time. She's always tattooed in the kind of a painterly style that I saw 15 years ago when I was starting out.
Micah Riot:
Clearly her career is a lot longer than mine and she just always been one of those people that I'd be like I would love to meet her someday. I would love to be, to come into her shop one day. I would love to tattoo next to her one day. I would love to learn from her, and so I emailed her as I am thinking about venturing out east to visit and tattoo and spend some time on the east coast and Chicago kind of fits the east coast vibe. So I thought about her and I emailed her and I said, hey, I have been tattooing in the Bay for 15 years. I've been admiring you for that long. If you ever have space for me at your shop, I would love to come and guest and also I'd love to put you on the podcast.
Micah Riot:
And she responded only like two days later. I thought I'd probably not probably not hear from her back or maybe hear back from her like weeks later. So I was surprised that she got back to me so fast and she's very sweet, very warm, very welcoming. And she said yes, we take guest artists. When would you like to come? I'm not sure about the podcast, I'm kind of shy with recording devices, but we'll see, we can discuss, and it made me really happy actually getting that email back.
Micah Riot:
So, yes, there's always things to smile about, even when I feel kind of like shit. So, yes, the connections I can still build across the globe by going places and tattooing in other shops and also talking to people with tattoos and connecting with tattoo artists. It's pretty cool. It's an opportunity unlike any other. It's a job unlike any other. I'm so grateful I get to do art for a living. I'm so grateful that I have this life and, like, there's difficult things too. Perhaps next week we'll talk about the difficulties and the hard parts of being a tattoo artist, but don't let it deter you if you're a young person and you want to tattoo. There's so many beautiful things about it. If you really want it, I think you'll find the best parts and you'll be able to deal with the worst parts. Thank you so much for listening. I really appreciate you being here and supporting me, even though sometimes it's hard for me to push through my own crap. I appreciate you. I hope you're having a good week and I'll talk to you very soon. You.