everybody would be in danger so everybody supported me to keep
me out of the streets”
Miya Bailey
“My mother was the first person I ever saw getting a tattoo when I
was about 8 years old and right there I knew tattoos had something
to do with my future. From then on I would look for anything having
to do with tattoos. I would look for books on how to...I became obsessed and in love with the thought that I might one day be a tattoo
artist”
Ty’ Esha Reels
“When I started there were 4 colors: black, red, yellow and green.
That’s it. We used acetate stencils. We only tattooed the military;
there were no civilians at all and women didn’t get tattooed. Women in shops were seen as sexual objects. The only purpose a woman
would have in a tattoo shop would be to give blowjobs to the artists. It was looked at as a very deviant , antisocial activity only for
criminals, drunken sailors and fallen women. Everything has since
changed”
Shanghai Kate
“When we moved to Arizona I started to waitress. I would draw on
napkins all day and bring them home to my husband. We started a
napkin collection. We didn’t have a Christmas tree one year because
we couldn’t afford it so I took placement papers from the restaurant,
taped them together and made a huge Christmas tree out of them
with everything we wished we could get underneath it”
Julia Carlson
“My first piece was on a grapefruit (laughs). For some reason as soon
as I picked up that machine it was so easy to get what I wanted out
there. I did a rose on the grapefruit, I was doing script and before you
knew it I had been through 3 grapefruits. I didn’t want to stop. It was
amazing!”
Sarah Miller
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