We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sinead Stewart. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sinead below.

Sinead, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?

To answer this question simply, I would say yes, I am happy! It’s a privilege and a joy to be a tattoo artist. I get to create permanent art that isn’t hung up on a wall or discarded. It lives, it moves, it remains. When people choose my personal designs to wear forever, I am thrilled.

The downside to being your own boss is that there aren’t paid sick days or paid vacation days. You have to do your taxes at the end of the year and pay back.
I take my work home with me, always. There is homework and I take my job personally, because it is!

I would be lying if I said I didn’t think of having a regular job from time to time, where you simply show up, punch in and do the thing. The idea of leaving work and living your life sounds pretty great, sounds like another type of freedom…but not the kind that I am interested in. I am a workaholic and I made a great choice being an entrepreneur because I genuinely get excited about my work.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I have been in the tattoo industry for over 16 years. I started out working as counter staff and worked my way up from there. There were plenty of times at the beginning of my career where I thought I should quit. It was highly stressful and I worked with a lot of toxic people. I am currently writing a book about all my experiences, its been a wild ride!

I was dedicated to this career choice. I was steadfast with my goals and I knew I could be excellent if I just stayed the course. My love for drawing and having the one on one engagement with clients was so rewarding that I knew I couldn’t give up on my dream job. I am so proud of sticking to my guns and remaining true to myself.

Now I work in a private studio with loyal clients who always come back, I treasure these people. If you have ever been tattooed by me you hold a special place in my heart. My style varies from colourful bold tattoos to simple thin linework tattoos. The only style I don’t do is realism, not that I don’t think those tattoos are awesome but simply because I never cared to do them. I enjoy creating more traditional, neo traditional, illustrative blackwork pieces and flash designs. My favourite tattoos are ones that I have pre drawn where people point to and say, I WANT THAT! There is nothing better.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

When I first started in the tattoo industry I was working as counter staff at one of the only shops in my hometown. I expressed how badly I wanted to be a tattoo artist but the boss’s son was suppose to be the apprentice, even though he wasn’t that interested. I was doing all types of apprentice duties without the title; I was setting up the stations and tearing them down, I was making the stencils, I was doing some drawings, and I was cleaning and sterilizing tubes (which apprentices don’t even do now). One of the tattoo artists working there said he would give me some pointers randomly and help me get to that next level. When the boss found this out he was livid. I went in early one day to scrub the tubes and I overheard the boss yelling at the tattoo artist about this new development. He said women shouldn’t be tattoo artists. He said I wasn’t a good artist. He said a bunch of wild things. I was so mad. It lit a fire under my *ss. I left that shop and found a female tattoo artist to work for, and never looked back.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

The more independant art you support the more beautiful the world becomes! Supporting local can be more expensive but it is the fabric of our communities. Small business is so important and if we don’t support local then we become inundated with big box stores like Walmart squeezing out the little guy. I can’t imagine living in a world like that…how beige and boring! If an artist says their price, please do not negotiate. You would never walk into a McDonalds and negotiate your happy meal, so please don’t do that to an artist. There is so much factored into that price. I saw a quote recently and it said if you don’t think art is worth the price, then take away books and music and movies and all the things that make life worth living! As I said in the beginning, paying for art makes the world a more beautiful place. Creatives make this life worth living. To have your breath taken away is priceless.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sineadstewart.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/sineadtattoos
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thesinead

Image Credits
Hollie Phipps is the photographer who took my ‘headshots’ and the photo of me taking a photo.