We were lucky to catch up with Austin Gerald recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Austin, thanks for joining us today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

It all starts with a leap. A leap of faith. Faith in yourself that you will make it. I had two part time jobs and was a full time student in college when I got my start in the tattoo world. So it was very difficult at first and I definitely wasn’t making a full time living off of craft. But slowly as time went on and I practiced, did more tattoos got better. Built a clientele and name for myself I then was able to sit down look at all my options and make a very hard decision. Keep working my part time jobs or shoot for a career in tattooing? I was looking over my numbers form the past few month of being a apprentice one night, I wasn’t making as much as a full artist mind you but noticing that I was making enough to not need the part time jobs. So I took that leap and put in my two weeks at both places, not at once but very close together. I was still in school at this point so I had to go to class while completing my shop duty’s but as I got closer and closer to graduating form my apprenticeship I keep thinking, “I can really make a living for myself as a tattoo artist, do I even need to complete college? Ive already got myself a career that is blooming here.” So I dropped out and focused on my career that I built with the leap I took. With time I was able to earn a full time living form this amazing job!

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 back background and context?

I got into this job by just getting tattoos and I always had a love for the arts. I drew for a long time before I even thought to pick up a tattoo machine. When I met my mentor she saws something in me and wanted to bring me into this wonderful and creative field of work. Doing tattoos has been one of the most rewarding medians of art to do in my life, it goes beyond art.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

If you can’t buy from artist we completely understand! Times can be hard for us all, but you can still support us by sharing our work. Share it with your friends, family, strangers on the street. Most people are on instagram, share artist work to your story, like the work it helps out a lot with the algorithm. Those are some great ways to support artists we appreciate it all.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

For me the most rewarding part of being a tattoo artist is that people are seeking you out for what you can do. They are trusting you to create something beautiful for them, to bring an idea they had to life. It feels so good to do a tattoo and the person loves it so much or it means so much to them that they cry happy tears. That’s what is so rewarding to me with my job, making people happy!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/g_square_tattoos/