Why I became a tattooist

This one will be a little more personal.

We all have different perceptions of the tattoo World. Concerning me, I’ve always been in love with body modifications, I can see me again drawing every morning this little lizard on my left hand when I was 11-12 years old. When I grew up, the wish of being tattooed deeply incarnated my soul and I started to scarify myself with a real rituel respecting good sanitary conditions.

I had the wish to draw when I was little but what I could just realize were basic dragons, monsters… Iny my mind, art couldn’t be part of my professional prospects, I had nothing concrete so as my parents wanted me to have a “normal” job, I made studies until 22 years old and I studied english in a prestigious faculty thanks to my brave dad but I really felt like that wasn’t my place. When I get graduated, the perspectives I had was to become a teacher, working in tourism or being a translater. So I became a medical secretary 🙂

I worked for 4 years in a big hospital of my region. I truly believed that would be my future as my whole family has always worked in paramedical. Medecine really fascinated me. I tried to learn as much as I can but with no background, that was difficult but fascinating.

That’s how I followed the work of a surgeon in an operating room, I was so motivated that doctors spent a lot of their time to teach me a little of their knowledge. My best memories (and thats’s the moment you’re going to freak out) were at the morgue. Of course I’m a normal person, I’m not fascinated by death but the first time, I just wanted to see if I could bare the sight of dead people. And I discovered that world was just totally normal, the next level of your life, you will be at their place anyway one day and that’s interesting to see what’s going on.

But all these discoveries were not enough for me, my ideas of body modifications were still there, I couldn’t deny it. So, every day after my work in the hospital, I started to draw at home, learning thanks to tutorials on internet. The most difficult was to find the adequate equipment. I wanted to stop everything so many times because in my head, it wouldn’t be that hard to draw realism but my boyfriend helped me a lot staying focused and motivated. I was drawing sine one year and a half when I had a proposal of apprenticeship. The best opportunity of my life 🙂

I left my medical secretary job for a part-time working in my dad’s taxi firm as a secretary/accountant. Three days per week I was there and the rest of the time, I was an apprentice.

I couldn’t say this time was really hard for me, everything came so fast and at the right moment. My boyfriend created the website Inkage.fr, we made interviews, articles. I started visiting tattoo conventions thinking “how can I be part of this world one day, these guys are so impressive”. Step by step, things took their place in my life. Friends trusted me, I made my first tattoos. We started travelling with my love (we never did before). But what I had to work the most was on my fears, my stress. I’ve always been like that so can you guess how you feel when you ink forever the skin of people ?

You feel like how somebody like you… You who never had more expectations than working in an office for some guys who tells you what to do and that everything you will do would always be less effective than your collegues working since 20 years, how can you dare thinking you have the right to leave your trace on these guys in front of you ? This was my best struggle with myself. I strongly believe your best enemy will always be yourself anyway so keep fighting for and against yourself 🙂

This was how I began. I didn’t stay a long time in the shop I started, this in another story, I opened my own studio in the town I was living and that was the best decision ever.

I won’t say everything is easy everyday now, of course. I really like my life, I don’t regret any of my choices. I still have fears like everyone of you, I think I’m even afraid of my shadow, this guy can be so mean sometimes ^^ But working hard is my best passion now and seing your improvement is the best reward 🙂