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

Marisa, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you share a story about the kindest thing someone has done for you and why it mattered so much or was so meaningful to you?

I’ve been doing hand poke tattoos on myself and friends for over a year and a half but decided I wanted to take it further. I went to art school, got a corporate job and bought a house with my partner. All things that I am so grateful for. I started reaching out to a few tattoo places to see if anyone would accept me as an apprentice as a hand poke artist, but inevitably they all said no haha. Except Sara, the owner of Pinkie Orlando. She gave me the opportunity to be a part of her team and become an apprentice under Caitlen (@cats.tats), who is an amazing tattoo artist. My partner, Josh, and I decided we could handle the extra workload, even though we both have corporate full time jobs and he is in grad school as well. It’s been the most rewarding thing I’ve ever had to opportunity to decide on. This all happened literally a month ago, so I’m still living it haha.

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 background and context?

So I am becoming sort of a jack of all trades. My current professions are Graphic Designer / Hand Poke Artist / Photographer. I have been doing photography since 2010 and capturing moments from weddings to newborn little babes. Photography is my first love, my first passion as a kid. Polaroids were my absolute favorite form of photography when I was like around 6 years old. My first ever camera was a pink Barbie Polaroid 600. Just walking around the house and annoying my sister with that bright as heck flash. I then moved on to any film camera I could get my hands on, took a black and white film class to learn how to develop my own film and print my photos out in the darkroom. I had a mini darkroom in my parents house for a bit and anyone who is in love with film photography knows the smell of a darkroom is the absolute best smell of all time.

I went to art school to become a graphic designer and have been in that field for 5 years.

And then there is the hand poke area of my life. I’m an apprentice at Pinkie Orlando (who offers a ton of different services all in one place). My love for art has flourished in this specific industry. Being able to have that excitement of creating little pieces of art that someone wants me to tattoo on their body is so cool. This is a rather new venture for me but I am having the best time.

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

The main thing driving me to be the best creative that I can be is my mental health. Last year my mental health tanked to an extreme level and coming out of that I was finding myself getting comfort from the art world like I did as a kid. I got lost in books and doing hand pokes on myself during the pandemic, just let my brain feel alive for the first time in a long time. In the last year I’ve realized that tattooing and photography make me so happy. I get to meet so many amazing new people with their own stories to share and being able to either put something on their body permanently or snapping a beautiful moment in their life that they can have forever has really pushed me to do the things I actually like.

If anyone reading this is struggling and feels alone, visit TWLOHA.com and read through the resources, blogs and find help if you see fit. But if you are really in the pits and can’t find a way out, please visit the National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline website, 988lifeline.org or text 988 to speak to someone to help you out of crisis. If those options are too scary or not an option for you, please reach out to me and I will gladly be you best bud.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

Oh for sure, it’s quite interesting when your creative path starts going more towards the unconventional route. The amount of humans finally breaking free and doing what they actually like is rising and inspiring others to do the same.

Heckin respect that every single person is doing the best they can.

Contact Info:

• Website: cartierphotography.com
• Instagram: @missa.handpokes , @missamarisa
• Other: @pinkieorlando – go treat yourself to something great!