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How long have you been tattooing or painting?
Tattooing for 11 years, painting since forever
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What’s your overall perspective on the current state of tattooing, and where do you see it heading in the future?
Tattooing is a wild beast that ebbs and flows with the current economy (in the USA at least). There will always be grifters, visitors, sell-outs and crooks. I don’t see that improving any time soon. I do see a lot of good people dropping out of tattooing in the USA because it’s just so hard to keep your head above water here. That really breaks my heart. I fear there will be even less-deserving people in the industry over the next 5-10 years. I just hope new people joining will care about tattooing more than they care about faux-celebrity-bullshit.
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Where is your shop based, and what do you love about the location?
This past summer (2024), I opened up my shop “Cherry Kiss Tattoo” in Wilmington, Delaware, USA. I just love being closer to mine and my husband’s family. I was born and raised in Delaware, so it can be annoying being back in my hometown, but I was never really that far. Being able to afford a house here and get out of renting was also a pretty big draw.
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What are your favorite types of designs to draw?
Anything with babes, panthers, blood, and fruit is sure to get me excited. I love the combo of tough and soft.
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With all the advancements in tattooing technology, which tools or techniques do you rely on, and are there any older methods you still hold onto?
I think it’s important for me to keep up with advancements in tattooing. If I don’t, in 20 years I may have stubbornly pigeonholed myself out of a job. I love my iPad– it’s hard as hell to draw on, since I've drawn on paper my whole life, but it provides me with a different way to look at designs. Not to mention that when I go back to drawing on paper I feel I've vastly improved because of how difficult it is for me with the iPad.
I also switched to using a rotary pen last year. After struggling with worse and worse arthritic pain in my hand, tendonitis in my thumb, carpal tunnel, and nerve damage in my fingers from my machines… well, it’s been a career saver. I don’t like its application as much as my coil machines, but (aside from the health benefits) it’s convenient and pretty easy to use. I still keep my other machines out for the little stuff, since I don’t want to lose my ability to work with them either. One foot in the past, and one in the future!
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In your opinion, how important is it for artists to evolve their style over time? Is it better to master one niche or explore different paths?
I think developing a style should be viewed as less of a necessity and more of an inevitable outcome for those who wish to be innovators and those who think outside the box. Some folks want to master what's already been done, and I think that's great too– they’re both important. But, if you don’t have some semblance of confidence in applying most styles of tattooing, then you aren’t being purposeful in your intent to innovate– you may just suck. It never hurts to dip all your toes into every style and see where you land. There may be clients out there waiting for your exact idea, but there is definitely a clientele for classic script, black and gray, and traditional tattoos.
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What advice would you give to aspiring tattooers or those wanting to get into painting trying to establish themselves in today’s competitive industry?
I’d say (what every tattooer has likely said since the dawn of time) that we’ve reached a point where the bubble has burst. If you want to compete now, you have to work twice as hard and be twice as good. And if you are in– or joining– this industry as any minority (a woman, black or a person of color, disabled, LGBTQ+)? Well, we already know we need to triple that to be viewed seriously by our peers. The good news is: that it will make you better than the rest. The bad news is: it will burn you out if you don’t have the drive, and support system, to push through. 20-year career tattooers have been telling me they’ve had enough; so look at the long game. Do you want to quit in 20 years? I’m 11 years in, and I will do anything to keep tattooing. I don’t care if that means making stupid reels for Instagram– if I gotta do it, I'm doing it. Be hungry for tattooing your whole career, and you’ll make it!
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How do you measure success as a tattoo artist? Is it based on personal satisfaction, client feedback, or something else?
Growing up as an artist, and as a tattooer, I’ve faced a lot of “external criticism” (that's a nice way of putting it I think). I realized in college that I need to measure my success by how I feel inside, not by what others think of me. If I feel that I've done the best I could, that I've worked the most I could, that I’ve given myself grace and flexibility where I could then that's pretty damn successful to me. Am I happy? Am I having fun? Are the lights on? Do I spend time with my loved ones? These things make me feel successful. Unfortunately, I'm not money motivated and am pretty much singularly motivated by my need to create and enjoy life. I definitely have dark moments– comparing myself to others, and wishing I did better monetarily (strictly from a stress viewpoint). But in the end working ain’t what life’s about. When I die, I can’t take success with me, ya know?
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Do you thrive under the pressure of deadlines, or do you prefer having unlimited time to perfect your projects?
I can do well under a deadline, but I prefer having plenty of notice. I feel like I flesh out my best ideas when I’ve had a week or so to sit with them before ultimately drawing them out– especially for custom ideas. Ultimately, I am too self-critical in most situations to feel I've done right by my client if it’s sprung on me in the waiting room!
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What’s your take on social media’s impact on the tattooing industry, both positive and negative?
I believe social media has changed the industry more than mainstream media (like TV) has. Through social media you can reach clients and tattooers on the other side of the globe. You can learn from each other, share info and history, trade flash– it's wonderful! On the flip side, you have unfettered access to compare your work and success to others; people can steal your work, steal your identity, and you’re competing for clients who think follower count is all that matters. There's duality in everything, but social media tends to bring out the extremes both positively and negatively. As I've gotten older, I’ve leaned towards treating social media as more of a job than as a fun pursuit and it's saved me a lot of headaches.
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What sparked your love for art, and how has that initial spark influenced your career in tattooing?
I have always loved creating art. I cannot remember a time when I didn’t. I was drawing from the moment I held a pencil. I think just being born was the spark I needed! When I was six, my eldest sister came home with a tattoo. It totally changed my whole world. Not only could I create work on paper, but on skin? The concept blew my mind. It was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. And I still feel that way. Tattoos are the coolest shit ever, and making the coolest shit ever is what keeps me going.
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How do you balance downtime with maintaining creativity and pushing yourself as an artist?
Oh man, I have no downtime. I am always creating. Sometimes I burn out and collapse in on myself like a dying star. It’s only then that I remember I can put on makeup and go outside and be a human for a bit!
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What hobbies or activities help you recharge and stay inspired when you’re not painting or tattooing?
At the risk of sounding like a total nerd, for the past 4 years I've been working on a Webtoon. My husband and I also recently purchased a house, and I opened up my own shop, so putting up murals has become my other favorite thing to do. I also love embroidery (though I've needed to take a break from it the past two years because of my hands).
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Who were some of your first artistic influences, and have they shaped your personal style? If so, how?
When I was a kid, I loved my father’s and grandmother’s drawings. I was also hugely influenced by Final Fantasy 7’s artist, Tetsuya Nomura, in my teen years. Later, by the time I hit art school, I was really inspired by Caitlin Hackett, Tina Lugo and Toshio Saeki.
I think in a way they’ve all inspired different aspects of my work. My father made sort of simplistic, Fleischer-newspaper-cartoon-looking pieces, whereas my grandmother was a fashion illustrator in the 1930’s. I loved manga, anime, and American comic approaches to color, contrast, the body, and fantasy worlds. In college, I loved anthropomorphic design, differing line weights, and symbolism.
It’s all kind of congealed into what I do today, even though they’re so vastly different!
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How do you approach balancing technical skill with artistic interpretation in your work?
At some point the needle became an extension of my hand, just like a pencil. It took me a lot longer than others to get it– it did not come naturally to me. This gave me a different appreciation for tattooing (aside from my personal work) and, in turn, changed my artistic/personal work entirely. I want my tattoos to be proficient first, artistic second. Having the ability to apply any tattoo well allows me to be more creative artistically. Once I discovered where my priority was in applying my work, it was easy to keep it balanced!
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What is it that particularly drew you into painting flash?
The idea that tattooing draws from its history, acknowledges it, repeats it, AND adds to it has long inspired me to create my own flash. I wanted to add something to tattooing too– to make my own mark in tattooing and leave it better than I found it.
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