Oddie’s Origin Story; How I became a Tattoo Artist

It’s no secret that it’s incredibly hard to find an artist willing to take on the responsibility of an apprentice, regardless of your artistic talent. I actually found myself waddling my way through an alternative route, which ultimately landed me a career in Tattooing.

Here’s the lore of how I fell into the Tattoo Industry.

My career actually began in the beauty industry; I first landed a job as a lash technician at a small beauty bar after years of working in customer service. To no ones surprise, Lash artistry isn’t something I ever planned on pursuing either; That, too came about rather unexpectedly. 

Let me set the scene, and take you back a few years; 

21 years old, in my prime Femme era, (“egg state” Before my awakened fluid self came out of my shell) I was working at my local Starbucks (barista - artist pipeline, it’s a canon event) when the beauty bar my mom frequented mentioned they were hiring new lash technicians. While I didn't have a traditional art or trade school background, I had spent most of my free time drawing, painting, and experimenting with makeup, which lead me to have a pretty steady hand. The owner (and coincidentally, my mom's lash artist), offered me a complimentary spot in their training course. It was a chance for them to see if I had a natural talent for the craft, and, if I did - they’d hire me. At the time, I was pretty eager to move on from my minimum wage barista job, so, naturally I welcomed a new opportunity.

Representing Shrimp Posture since 2016

After completing the training, and noticed that I was quick to learn, along with having a strong work ethic; I was hired.

Over the next couple years, I worked hard putting all my time learning the skills of lash precision and application. I worked closely with the other technicians, adopting their tricks and techniques, while also gaining experience on how to build and maintain a loyal clientele. At first, I really enjoyed my new found career... But, as I continued my path in the beauty industry, I began feeling a bit lost in it. After around 2 and a half years, life had moved me closer to the city, and I decided it was time for a change. After applying around and interviewing but not feeling drawn to any salon locations, I eventually found an opening within an artist collective studio that felt more true to my vibe. The space housed a mix of beauty professionals offering services like permanent makeup, lash and brow lifts, as well as ... tattoo artists.

Examples of hybrid lashes

Hard at work, circa 2018

With joining this studio, I began to reflect on my career. Being a lash technician came with some creative limitations that I didn't anticipate. It was fun to explore a new alternative career choice that allowed me to work primarily with my hands and nurture my creative side, but it quickly became evident that this career for me stemmed less from a passion for beauty and more from a convenient opportunity. Surrounded by this new environment however, I did feel a familiar spark of inspiration again, and motivated myself to reconnect with my craft once more.

With my new found inspiration, I began aiming to specialize in rainbow lash extensions, creating vibrant, fun bold looks.

While being a part of the LGBTQ+ community myself (inching further towards coming out of my shell at this point), this became my way of ensuring my trade remained authentically my own, allowing myself more room for creativity to shine in my work. It also helped me feel more represented, inspired and better connected with the LGBTQ+ community. Unfortunately, I quickly realized that specializing in rainbow lashes wasn't exactly sustainable. - just like most beauty services, lash extensions are a luxury, and are financially hard to maintain long term. The clients I loved working with the most couldn't always justify the regular cost and upkeep of the service - 
As much as I loved creating these rainbow looks, the lack of demand for colourful lashes left me feeling restricted in my creativity, and, once again, made me question if this was the path I was meant to be on. 

Examples of my work

Rainbow Pride lashes

Examples of my work

Watermelon Lashes

This was right around the time that learning to tattoo became an actual achievable option for me.

I'm happy to share that getting my own very first tattoo was such a warm, welcoming experience. My artist at the time had actually encouraged me to pursue tattooing during my first couple appointments - and yes, while it was a huge dream of mine, they weren’t explicitly offering me an apprenticeship… And, if I'm being honest, at the fresh age of 18 getting my first ever tattoos, I didn’t exactly have the confidence or the financial support to jump headfirst into an industry i essentially knew nothing about. 

It is a pretty well known fact that getting into the tattoo industry isn't easy. Very few artists are able, or willing to take on an apprentice. While there is some incredibly talented self taught artists out there, the self taught route without landing an apprenticeship is very tricky. There are barely any resources on how to start - not to mention the new trend of "Tattoo Schools" are generally considered a joke in the industry, plus there are a LOT of controversial opinions towards self starting artists... (we'll get into this in a later post)

Over my first few years of getting tattooed, I found that it had become a deeply healing experience for me, helping me navigate self-image struggles, and mental health challenges. This amplified my passion and appreciation for tattoos, and by the time my journey led me to the artist collective, I had already become a fairly tattooed person.

This collective is where I was first introduced to Hand Poke Tattooing, which is still one of my main techniques today. At the time, I knew of traditional bamboo techniques used primarily in Thailand, but that's about the extent of what I knew about machineless tattooing. The term Hand poke was entirely new to me.

Now, I had heard the term "Stick and Poke" before but, (regrettably), until this point I had associated it with DIY basement projects—to my understanding, that meant generally an untrained, unsanitary / risky activity to do with friends. (would love to expand more on this topic, maybe new tattoo stigma blogs comin' soon)  I had no idea it could be a professional alternative method of tattooing, let alone one that would jumpstart my own tattoo career. Once I became more educated with hand poking, I found myself falling in love with the concept of machineless tattooing. After getting a couple tattoos from both the machine and hand poke artists that I was sharing space with, I immediately felt like this was something i needed to try. (I really said “I can do that!”)

Granted, while my beautician background gave me a solid grasp of sanitation, skin, and skills with precision, the complexities of machine tattooing still felt wildly intimidating. As I didn't have an actual "apprenticeship" or "mentor" I personally didn't feel comfortable jumping into machine work without more guidance and experience.

However, (luckily for me), hand poking felt incredibly familiar. The precision, movement and focus required was so similar to the skills I’d developed in lash artistry. The artist I shared a station with was kind enough to let me use their setup, and after watching them tattoo for a few weeks, I hand poked my very first tattoo on myself. I felt immediately comfortable with the needles, and after a few more self tattoos (and various practice fruits) my friends became eager to let me practice on them too.

one of my first tattoos on an old pal

The collective was supportive with me transitioning from Lash Artist to Tattoo Artist. It truly felt like my dreams were coming true!! Becoming a tattoo artist was finally a reality, and as 2019 came to a close, I was beyond excited for the year ahead. I truly believed 2020 would be the greatest year yet, the one where I’d grow the most as an artist, and I felt like I was exactly where I was meant to be. But, of course, you know what happens next, right?
-(queue sweatpants, zoom birthday parties, Animal Crossing and movie marathons for months to come)-

2020 was here - along the start of the COVID-19 Pandemic (RiP 2 years of my potential social life). For myself and my fellow artists, Lockdown had unfortunately kept us out of the studio, unable to operate. During those difficult months, I decided to pour my energy into improving my drawing skills again, aiming to remain connected to my creative roots.

Then, when we were finally able to reopen, the new challenge of social distancing in our open concept shared studio became increasingly complicated. I didn't want this to stunt my growth, so I made a pretty wild decision: I left the artist collective to pursue a small private studio of my own. It was a huge risk, but after months of lockdown reflection, I made the decision to fully invest in my tattoo career, full steam ahead into my next life chapter.

The following year was challenging and filled with uncertainty due to the ongoing effects of the pandemic, but, it also sparked intense self-reflection. I moved private studios a few times, and grew stronger in my dedication to tattooing - slowly building a solid portfolio and sharing in some pretty special client and artist connections. During this time, because of my precision based experience with lash artistry, I found that I was able to achieve crisp, clean line work with my hand poking style. I continued to aim my style towards mimicking the appearance of machine tattoos.

1 session - Handpoked 2021

1.5 Years healed, Handpoked

Lines and colour - Handpoked 2022

Over the next couple of years, I decided to invest in a tattoo machine. I had seen several fellow hand poke artists continue to evolve, and adapt their skills with learning machine tattooing, and I thought it was the right time to expand my artistry as well. One of my closest friends (whom I met at the collective just before the lockdown) played a huge role in helping me gain confidence with the machine. With their light guidance and support, I continued improving my art and tattoo style with machine techniques.

Now, Looking back on my journey towards where I am today, I'm grateful and proud to see how far I’ve come—from a young, hungry (albeit closeted, but we'll get to that another time) Lash Technician navigating their own individuality and artistry to a blooming queer Tattoo Artist specializing in both hand poke and machine techniques. And sure, while I didn't have a traditional apprenticeship start in the industry, I sure did have some pretty incredible support from this community. 

I’m extremely proud to have built a style that incorporates the precision, softness and care of hand poking with the versatility, contrast and boldness of machine tattooing. Each design I have the honour of tattooing is a reflection of everything I’ve learned along the way, and the invaluable guidance I’ve received from light mentoring and fellow artists.

Handpoking in the private studio, 2022

Tattooing this year, 2024 at the East Side Tattoo Convention

Moving into 2025, I’m keen to return to a collective environment that first sparked my tattooing career. I’m very excited to share in what's around the corner, knowing this industry will always challenge me. One of the things I love most about the tattoo industry is that it is constantly evolving. There is ALWAYS more to learn, and ALWAYS room to grow.

I’m ready for new opportunities to collaborate and continue evolving alongside another diverse group of talented artists. Cheers to every one of you that’s supported and helped me get me this far, thank you for continuing to be here.

Much love, and thanks for reading!! (Very cool beans of u~) I hope you learned more about me! Stay tuned for more of my musings on tattooing, info dumps and more blogs coming soon!
~ Oddie

You can now find me at Slowside Tattoo Studio