We recently connected with Amy Parker and have shared our conversation below.

Amy, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

Along with my sister, who is an evidential psychic medium, we have started a business for memorial tattoos where she does a reading, then I do a tattoo based on ideas that came through from the loved one. This process can be profoundly healing for our clients and it’s an honor to be a part of their journey.
Memorial tattoos are some of the most meaningful tattoos I do, and this makes it even more personal.
My sister and I have both gone through our own losses and trauma so this is something very close to our hearts.

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

I have been a tattoo artist in Las Vegas, Nevada, for the past twenty years and do a lot of different styles of tattoos. I love bright colors and also fine line black and gray.
I love to collaborate with my clients to come up with a design that feels unique and special for them. I work strongly by intuition and often am told I designed something they hoped for but had no idea how to describe, and it’s like I read their mind.
I also enjoy doing cover ups, taking a tattoo someone is self conscious about and turning into something they are proud to show off.
Memorial tattoos are very special as well, and I have done some which used the ashes of a loved one mixed into the ink.
Tattoos are a very personal thing, and I have a lot of respect for the craft and its history. And having tattooed for so long, I have seen my work heal and age and use that to learn from as well.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

In 2019 I had my first and only child and three months later in July I was in a bad paragliding accident. I fell about 60 feet and suffered so many broken bones. I nearly died and spent the next five months in the hospital learning to walk and use my body again. At that time the doctors told me to forget about tattooing and find something else to do. They believed sitting there to tattoo would likely be impossibly painful. With my baby daughter as motivation, I did my best to gain strength, mobility, and function, and one year later I was finally strong enough to walk without a cane or walker, and I did my first tattoo again on a family member, to see how it felt. My body ached from the exertion, but I did it! It was about 6 more months until I was able to return to work part time. Through many hours of physical therapy and the support of family and friends, I was able to get back to the job I loved and to care and provide for my daughter independently.
I have such a greater sense of gratitude for my work after going through this and have tried to learn and grow from what l went through.
Also after facing so much loss of my own I became more aware of how trauma affects us and how sometimes a tattoo can be healing and a sign of hope. I’m very lucky to have so many wonderful clients.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

On my first full day back to work I was terrified I wasn’t ready and I would be in too much pain and have to quit.
I made it through the day and on my drive home I got a call from my sister. Her beloved fiance of many years who had helped me so much during my recovery had died in a surfing accident.
It was so shocking and unexpected and over the next year my sister and I became even closer as she began to process her grief. In this time she discovered her gift as a psychic medium, and we came up with a business together for memorial tattoos.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amy_pruss/profilecard/?igsh=MWdoZG5vNXJyeHFweA==
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/15WPbbUPE3/?mibextid=wwXIfr