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

Jullian, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

When trying to find a name for my business, I feel the name was already decided before I even landed on it. I had some ideas that sounded a bit more creative and would perhaps be less personal than simply using my own surname that would make the name a bit more inclusive to people that I may hire down the road, but I always came back to “Greenman Tattoos” and there were a few things that reinforced that.

When I had a few names I liked (which were chosen partly out of how they simply sounded when spoken) I began working on some visual branding. I wrote the names out in various styles and began drawing logos based on these names, and in the end, the work I was happiest with ended up being for “Greenman Tattoos”

When it comes to branding and naming, I am of the school of thought that says “less is more.” The name “Greenman Tattoos” is very succinct for it is inseparable from my name. When people ask “where” or “who” did your tattoo, the answer is the same: Greenman.

And within that simplicity lies an added layer that could possibly attract clientele that would be of a similar mindset or have similar interests as me. The word “Green” in itself can imply thoughts of nature and the care thereof. I am also very interested in mythology and folklore and “The Green Man” is a pagan nature deity that takes many forms across the worlds various cultures and pantheons. With these ideas in mind, anyone looking into getting a tattoo from me can catch a glimpse of who the person is behind the art.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I was born and raised in the sleepy town of Lillooet, BC and upon graduation I spent the next 5 years in the Vancouver area attending Emily Carr University of Art and Design where I received my Bachelor of Fine Arts, majoring in drawing.

Life would eventually bring me to Kamloops where I pursued a career in education by attending Thompson Rivers University, but half way through my first semester, opportunity knocked and with some encouragement from my lovely spouse I set my teaching plans aside and took up a tattoo apprenticeship at Sakred Skin & Studio in 2015. A little over 7 years later, I decided it was time to set off on my own and work out of my own shop.

I am very versatile in my craft and am able to do many styles of tattoo, but like most artists (or any human being for that matter) there are things that bring me more joy to tattoo than others. I love to combine the strict, technical challenge of realism with the illustrative chaos of brush strokes, splatters and sketch like markings. I also love to create designs (Norse and Celtic in particular) with pointillism. I am also particularly well known for turning beloved film and book characters into butts. You read that right. Butts.

This versatility is very useful when sitting down with a client and discussing how to best bring their visions to life. Sometimes a client may have an idea that would not translate well into a tattoo, or they might even have no more than a word or two to vaguely describe what they would like to see and it is my job to translate these ideas into an artistic expression that not only speaks to their ideas, but to my own artistic sensibilities and set of skills as well.

In the end, I want a person to get a tattoo they will love forever, and sometimes that tattoo is not going to come from me. I have no problem telling someone that I am not the right artist for them and I am proud to say that I have received nothing but thanks from potential clients who appreciate my honesty. And not to toot my own horn, but I have been told that my eclectic and chaotic taste of music is top notch and that combined with my penchant for telling story’s jokes and sharing useless knowledge makes the tattoo experience one of a kind!

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

Before I was tattooing, I was pursuing a career in education and during that time, I had different jobs in different fields to stay afloat, but the one constant in it all was making art. I never made money at it, but I always did it. Eventually I was able to find a monetary outlet for my creative endeavors through the online role playing community, mainly through the game Elder Scrolls Online. Before its release, there was a roleplaying community that was chomping at the bit to play and in anticipating its release, they were already creating their characters through story telling. One winter evening with nothing to do, I had drawn a character based in this world and shared it online. The drawing I did was inspired by old sketches (think Leonardo Davinci’s sketchbook of anatomy and devices) and I received praise for the drawing I did of my character and soon enough people were offering me money to draw their own characters in the same way. I never thought of my art as something somebody would want, let alone buy. I had finally stepped into the realm of a freelance artist.

Fast forward a few years later and I am now a tattoo artist, which is more or less the same gig as a freelance artist. People not only come to me for art, but for the art that I in particular can provide.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

With all honesty, tattooing, despite all of the amazing tools we have at our disposal for getting our names and our out into the world, like Instagram and Google (which does help enormously) I have found so far in my career that that best tools at a tattoo artists disposal is their clients. As an artist, sure it is neat that someone across the world saw your art on social media and said some kind words about it, but they aren’t the people walking in your doors. At the risk of dehumanizing my amazingly wonderful clients, they are your best billboard. If you can provide them great art, they will tell everyone they meet to come get tattoos from you, and if you can provide them with a great experience as well, they will speak so very highly and generously of you that they will do more than half of the selling of your work for you. And the people who they are telling are almost entirely within a reasonable travelling distance.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.greenmantattoos.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/greenmantattoos/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GreenmanTattoo

Image Credits
Jullian Greenman, Greenman Tattoos