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

Savannah, appreciate you joining us today. Do you wish you had started sooner?

I wish I understood myself a bit more sooner and I think that would have given me the confidence to pursue the art realm earlier in life. At the time of graduating high school, I was ok being influenced by parents and teachers to go through the college route because of the illusion of safety that it provides for a career and finances. But at the same time, I think it has taken time through meeting new people and experiencing different industries in different ways to get to the space that I am joyful in having a career that goes to the beat of my own soul. Through my journey of starting my career as a creative my values, beliefs, and boundaries for my own person have been challenged and shaped. And without those experiences, I am not sure that I would be as excited for my pursuit of creating in all aspects of my life.

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

I grew up in a very unconventional household. My mom’s side of the family traveled quite a bit with the military and my dad’s side of the family was on the road with the circus, and later a costume business. I am not sure if my creativity was born out wonder-lust and curiosity for the world, or if it was something that was established in who I was from the start.
Charlotte, NC was home base for my childhood. I completed school as a normal highschooler, doing what I could, to escape with passing grades and give myself more time for fun things outside of school. I had an affinity for anything exotic and farm animal related, breaking the rules, and drawing. The drawing piece became my own meditation outside of friends, family, and school. My parents encouraged me to go to college, knowing that I had a distaste for being stuck in 4 walls, I agreed to go for 2 years for my Vet Tech License. What else was I going to do? I had no other plans at the time. I graduated community college and passed my VTNE in 2016, I immediately left school and began traveling the world on my own.
I bought a one way ticket to Amsterdam, and landed a job working with (at the time 6 olympics, now 7) rider Karin Donckers in Belgium. I lived there for several months aiding in the care and training of her top level sports horses. After heading back to the USA, I arrived in JFK and bought another one-way ticket, this time the train to Savannah, GA.
Savannah, GA holds a special place in my heart, it allowed doors to open that I never pictured. I worked very hard setting up a training facility for horses just outside of the city for a wonderful woman (and now very close friend) Ann Eaker. I also held a part time gig at an emergency vet. In the interim of both places, I began painting and drawing a bit more seriously than I have before. The City of Savannah is filled with such vibrancy, how could one not be inspired?! I tended to lean towards florals at the time. It was very easy to escape into the blissful, quiet nature of things. I mostly used acrylic paints, being that all of my art projects were self taught and perpetuated, I would just sit and stare at the florals for hours on end trying to recreate the shapes and softness with the lighting contrasts on my pages. At the time, and still to this day, peonies are what continuously captures my eye.
After living in Savannah for sometime, I felt a bit lost. I had this sense that what I was building at the farm and working at the vet office was always for someone else’s energy and not pouring back into myself. I decided to move back to NC to land in Salisbury, NC.
I attempted going back to college – only to drop out after part of a semester. I had a client from GA send a horse up to me for training. I housed this horse at a facility about 40 minutes away from where I lived. The head coach, Bonnie Mosser, rode for the American Eventing Team and became very integrated into who I am as a rider and coach. While training with Bonnie, I got another vet emergency job near the farm. Once again, I was in a new place, different energies, but the same routine. I needed something a bit more.
I met Rodney Wallace through a mutual friend. And I would say this would become the turning point in my life’s trajectory.
Rodney competed at high levels of MMA and ran his own training gym in Salisbury, NC. I started by just going in for group workouts, that changed to private sessions, that changed to going to watch the guys spar and roll around on the mat, and then that changed to me being in the mix. I learned many things about self discipline, emotional control, and flow. Rodney took my passions and helped give back to myself through a different way of viewing my creativity. I was at a turning point in many aspects of my life and he helped opened new ways for me to gain the confidence for myself.
Rodney introduced me to another client of his, Mike Jones. He was one of the first tattoo artists in Charlotte and he currently owns Inksane Tattoo (Salisbury, NC) and Anything’s Possible (Mooresville, NC). What I thought was just going to be a conversation, introducing me into what it looks like to be a tattoo artist, ended with a conversation for an apprenticeship. I began my tattoo apprenticeship in the fall of 2021 and transitioned into becoming an employee in the fall of 2022. There are currently many negative stigmas about apprenticeships coming to light with the current social media presence. For me, I had a wonderful apprenticeship experience. Mike was extremely encouraging, and at a stage in his life where he could objectively criticize while pushing my art pieces to be stronger, to make sense to the viewer, and uphold their longevity.
This industry has its pros and cons, and for me, it came down to finding myself and my place within the art I created. From there, it translated to how I operated in the business. I believe confidence comes from where we stack our foundational beliefs and skills. Confidence is made in the building blocks. Once I believed in my confidence, my art skill and capabilities, my creativity amplified and really took off. Through communication and community building, I was able to bloom as a 2-D and tattoo artist. Reflecting on my life experiences with top level people in different industries, I had started to notice no matter the industry, these people operate the same. They did what they knew, they did it well, and then they added into their routine or mix.
Spring of 2024 I left Mike’s shop, not for a lack of love for all that Mike had done for me, but there was not enough continued creativity from the other co-workers. I struggled consistently listening to their negativity and their dislike for their own work. In the creative field, I did not feel that I could grow while also managing other people’s expectations of themselves and their clients, thus their reactions towards my work and my clientele. I opened up my own small private tattoo studio space, where I started to find myself spending more hours beyond the normal “40 hour work week” to get really good at my craft. I started to incorporate new skill sets like learning to oil paint, reading about art history, and spending much more time analyzing realistic tattoo pieces. I am writing this now, May 2025, and since opening my own space and dedicating time and energy into me, my clients have noticed an energy shift within myself. With the shift, I am able to give back to my clients more. Pieces that I have designed, are now being passed to the clients for healing purposes for them. I have also included new adventures through tattooing, fall of 2024 I traveled to Budapest to tattoo and this coming June I will be in Florida tattooing as well.
My art style on paper/canvas leans towards realism and that is where my tattoo pieces are headed towards as well. There are many exciting things coming up, and that allows me to keep my creativity and inspiration feeling fresh.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I want to share my world. My world is important to me, and it is something I have spent many years transitioning from survival mode, to something more emotionally in-depth, physically beautiful, and spiritually driven. The people I have met along the way have given so much to me. Producing art in the right dynamic is my way of giving back into someone new.

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

I do not feel that there is anything as creatives we can ask for society in terms of creating an ecosystem for art to develop form. As someone who is self taught, if there is a calling for you to create. Create. Do not worry about how poorly it looks, just create. I think so many people, without realizing it, write a story in their head, or on social media explaining reasons of why they are allowed to create. There is shame around what their creativity produces – is the art piece not good enough or did the artist spend too much time away from something else society deems as productive. To a high degree, so many aspiring artists feel their art must be useful.
I have found, the joy and the attention your art receives from my own energy is what matters. At the end of the day, people just want to be seen, heard, and validated. Pour into yourself, start at the foundation of who you are, and then build into something else. Creativity is exploring the unknown, let your world build from the foundational pieces that matter to you.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://savcattatt.squarespace.com
• Instagram: savcattatt
• Other: email: [email protected]