We were lucky to catch up with Sam Taylor recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Sam, thanks for joining us today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?

Well, happiness obviously comes from within, and people love to say “oh you should be happy no matter what your career”, and I agree to some extent, but I think its more that you a doing yourself a disservice when you know in your heart what your soul’s purpose is and you don’t pursue it. I have been creative ever since I can remember, and the majority of times when I was truly at peace, was when I was drawing, painting or being creative.

I have worked other jobs, dish washing, bartending, waiting tables, landscaping, forklift driving, door to door sales, to name a few, which you can be creative in all of them in their own unique way. However it wasn’t until I moved into a more artistic role (My sign-writing apprenticeship being the first), where I realised that I was finally on my way to be able to use every moment, in every day being creative.

So it’s not so much that I am happy being an artist, it’s that after working in so many different industries, I know how unhappy I was not being an artist!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

As I said, my first creative role was my sign writing apprenticeship. I stayed in that industry for around 6 years, where I also had a side business painting large scale graffiti murals. The way I got into the tattoo industry started off with me driving down the highway at 110km and in the blink of an eye, hitting a tree on the Hume Highway, while I was on my way to Sydney to paint a wall.

It was about a 9 hour drive, and I was half way to my destination. The sun was beaming into the car, right on to the backseat, where I had all my spray cans. Funnily enough I thought to myself “I should cover those cans before one explodes and I have an accident”, I turned around to cover them with a hoodie I had in the backseat, and at the same moment, I must have pulled the steering wheel down to the right.
I felt the rumble under the tires as I was heading off the road and felt the car come to a halt with my head hitting the activated airbag. I instantly felt something was wrong with my back, opened the door and through myself out.

Luckily, an off duty paramedic was driving on the other side of the road at the exact moment, and turned around and prepped me for the ambo. It was pretty foggy from there but one thing I do remember is how sweet and nurturing the woman was who stroked my head and sat with me until the ambulance arrived.

I was pretty much on my back for the good part of a year, I was prescribed a whole bunch of pain killers, but I I was just recovering from a pretty decent drug problem, so I decided to not take them and deal with the pain.
Already being an artist, I drew a lot, although it was mainly graffiti style letters. I decided to teach myself calligraphy and went through pads after pad after pad of paper and also taught myself to draw portraits (horribly!).

At the end of my recovery, I decided to get a tattoo. I sent Diego Mickey who was a tattooer not far from me, a message and we set up a consultation a week later.
The night I sent him a message, he put up a post looking for a tattoo apprenticeship. It had always crossed my mind, but it was never a definitive decision, but I sent him a message anyway with a few drawings that I had done while I was laying on my back.
He told to come in the next day instead. I went in, we hit it off and got the job that day.

Diego was very supportive with pushing me to tattoo letters. There are some great lettering tattooers who pathed the way for other artists like me, however they had their own styles and I wanted my work to be a reflection of me, after all that’s what art is. So I worked hard on developing my own unique style which I call Hollow Victorian. I tattoo many styles, but I would say people know me more for this.

What am I most proud of in my tattoo career?
That’s an easy one – I took my Mum on her dream trip to Italy for Mother’s Day for a month. I remember sitting on our balcony at the hotel in Positano on a beautiful day with a glass of champagne saying to her “drawing the alphabet got us here” It was the perfect moment. So a huge thank you to all my clients who helped make that came true.

What are the main things I want my potential clients to know about me and my work?

Listening to a tattooers professional advice is definitely recommended to get the best tattoo possible.

Please remember every artist is different. Many people take photos of my work to another tattooer expecting them to replicate my style, but its always best to go to the right artist for the job. And vice versa, if you come to me with a style I am not 100% confident in, and I know you will get a better tattoo with another artist, I will point you in their direction instead.

I have spent years developing my style and like most things in life, if you want quality work, it is going to take time, dedication, money and patience.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I’ve had to unlearn so much as an artist, and I think that’s a huge part of progression. Still to this day I am learning and unlearning certain things.
I may have been using a drawing technique that Ive been using for years and only now realised it wasn’t the most effective way.
I think the fastest way to progress, is quickly pin pointing these methods that aren’t really serving you as well as another could.
I have many little epiphanies whilst Im drawing or tattooing, and saying to myself “next time, DONT do it like that”, and then out of habit, I’m doing it in the next piece. Quickly identifying that problem and correcting it in the future is a huge part of creating art.

Another thing I had to unlearn was the use of the ego. I don’t mean “killing the ego” like I hear some people say. The ego is a part of us, and serves us when we need it. So you can’t kill the ego, that’s like ripping of your left arm because you only want to use your right. What I mean is, when I started my tattoo career, I won’t lie, I wanted to “be one of the best” so to speak, and to do that, I contracted the help of my ego.
However now, I am at a point in my career/life where that part of the ego no longer aligns with goals.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

At the start of tattooing, I wanted to make an impact on the industry. Which is the same mind frame I have with anything I try, I want to do my absolute best, I want to push myself and see what I am capable of. Although now, as I said, my ego has taken a bit of a back seat, especially with tattooing. I don’t need to be whoring myself out on instagram, jumping through hoops to get validation from others. I was luckily enough to come up and ride the wave when it was a decent platform where you could just post and that was that.
Now, my main goal/mission is to create beautiful pieces of art. Whether that be a tattoo, a drawing, a painting, writing or creating music.
It took years of doing true work on myself, figuring out who I am, recognising and getting back to the core reason which drives my creativity, and that is love.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.samtaylortattoos.com
• Instagram: @samtaylortattoos
• Facebook: Sam Taylor Tattoos