We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Brigitta Mathe. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Brigitta below.
Brigitta, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with 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?
My name is Brigitta, and I am currently working in Chicago but am moving to Miami soon with my family. I am hoping to find a new Tattoo family after these five beautiful years in the windy city. I am tattooing for about 12 years and I came from a very small Hungarian town, made it to London, then Chicago and now to Miami.
First of all I am totally in love with tattooing and I feel very lucky to be part of this amazing, colorful industry. There is so much still in me and I hope I can let it all out in the next few years. I am soon to be opening up my online Clothing and art shop, and it’s been a dream of mine for so long, so I am super excited (if you couldn’t tell).
I have been able to earn a full-time living from my art in the past ten years and it seems like if I get lucky that it stays this way hopefully. The most important thing is that hard work pays off. That is just how it is. If you don’t come from money and you are not super – duper talented, you need to work your *ss off, listen, learn, shut your mouth and be determined, humble and respectful with the industry and people around you, especially the ones who spent their energy and time teaching you or giving you advice and guidance.
Milestones were definitely changing machines from coils to rotary, switching needle types and brands, realizing that I want to do realism style, learning how to blend colors, the long process of smoothly shading in both black and gray and color realism, and of course step-by-step working in better studios. Learning to separate work and personal life and drawing boundaries. Also realizing that I can actually charge people and being aware of my level of the craft.
Working around great artists speeds up your learning curve and definitely moving to new areas and meeting with new clientele who are willing to get tattooed my crazy ideas. I am not saying it is not possible if you staying in one area but definitely helps if you move around and get your blood refreshed.
It is hard to know what would have sped up my entire process as times are changing and I just feel lucky that tattooing is my journey and I could be a part of this industry.
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
My name is Brigitta, and I am a realism tattoo artist living in Chicago and I grew up in a very small Hungarian town called Gyor. As in many European countries, there are a lot of talented people in a relatively small area, so everyone is eager to break out or out-shine everyone else, as this is the only way to actually make good money (unless you have a lot of connections). I didn’t want to stay and get eaten by the sharks or stand in the line.
I have been drawing since kindergarten but I also was a very good student, so my parents didn’t want to hear about my aspirations to get in to our infamous art university. Apparently I had no chance to make a living out of it. So I ended up as a History major, but ultimately moved to the U.K. after university. I thought I spoke good English, but I realized soon enough I didn’t and had to take the only jobs i could get. The Uk is expensive so I needed to pick up the pace or I would be eating canned liver pate and tomato soup every day.
After flower picking on the fields and factory work for Tesco, I “finally” become a waitress, which was a level up in every way (minus the lack of free time). I happened to work in the Channel Islands, where my career started. I decided to do something I love and was passionate about. I started to draw madly between my shifts and managed to build up a portfolio so I can knock on every existing Studio door. I got rejected from my dream studio but then I found this old Scottish man and he liked me and my drawings and gave me a chance and that was all I needed.
I will be forever thankful for Sean for showing me that I deserved a chance and also guiding me and teaching me the basic secrets of the craft. He was a walk-in tattooist in a busy marina, the lucky “bastard.” He told me a lot of stuff I straight away did in a different way as I didn’t quite agree on the “cheaper is better” material choices, as it is rarely means quality, and by that time I had been around studios and artists before so I knew some things are just not worth saving money on. He never cared for what I did or how i did it so I could grow at my own tempo. I Really do appreciated everything he showed me. I started with a few coil machines and that helped me to learn how to make steady lines and gave me a good start even if it was pretty heavy and painful for my hands. The rest is history really:) Moved to Bournemouth then London and met with my husband there who was actually a walk-in client and then I have followed him to Chicago.
I think the most essential skills of the industry is having a thick skin, having confidence, creativity, a good style in drawing, a good attitude and a big spoon full of respect and empathy. Also being persistent is a key. I feel like it’s always been my strongest trait, to never give up and to not take no for an answer, especially if I know I can do something. I try till i die, just to be able to say that at least i did try. I don’t feel like I could exist next to a person in any way who gives up after the first try.
There are many things that can get in the way of reaching your goal as a tattoo artist and one of the main ones for all of us artists is ourselves. Artist blocks, lazy periods and chaos in our life is all effecting our craft. It’s hard to balance life and work when you are a Mom, but now I appreciate every extra hour I get to become creative even more then before. So ourselves, and time is the biggest obstacles you need to work around. For some people being an artist but still needing to deal with clients can cause a great anxiety and I don’t blame them, however I think I am pretty easy to talk to and provide great customer service if you can understand my accent.
On the other hand I don’t think I am special or any different from other hardworking artists (my husband would probably disagree but this is why we marry them :)) I do what is best for my clients and I want to make them happy. It is pretty damn cool that they die with my art on their skin. Not a lot of people can say that about their line of work.
I find dead things and science fascinating, so I collect them. I collect taxidermy, meat hooks, hammers and fun vintage dolls. I don’t think anyone ever wants to break into my house haha.
I feel like most of my clients and I have grown to become friends, so I guess I am building a very good relationship with my clientele. Plus, I listen. That is something so many people need the most. I listen and I tell them what I think and then we come to a conclusion together when it comes to ideas and designs.
Maybe what is very important for me on the other hand is humor. Especially raw, dark humor. Yeah I am one of them. If anyone wants to know me the best course is to get a tattoo from me.
I usually tell my clients if they die they need to write me in their will and give me the limbs I tattooed. That would be an awesome collection and at this point they are all laughing but hey they are not sure if I am serious and that is really funny to me.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
I find giving back to the community is very important, at least it should be so I chose a great cause to support it throughout my life with the best of my abilities. I try to help breast cancer survivors to cover up their scars and I do areola reconstruction too. I obviously do it pro bono and I hope my new studio will hop on this opportunity too. It is very important to me and I am doing this for years now. I am also part of a documentary film, called “unscarred,” which is still in production, as we need to find more financial support, but the topic is amazing . It’s a documentary which shows my industry in a different light and proves to every day people how our craft can help change peoples’ lives. There are a lot of amazing people working on this project and I hope it can fulfill its existence and come out soon.
There is a lot to learn and know about scars and cover ups and areola reconstructions, and hopefully one day I can give this knowledge to more artists so more of them can give a second chance and a second smile to these survivors.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
That I can truly be myself without being judged for being a fricking weirdo.
It is not that I want to be accepted or I need validation but I love around me a few folks who I can share my sick self and who I can have a spirit lifting intelligent conversation. That is all I want and I also love that int this industry everyone is almost better then you so I am never happy with myself and it is pushing me harder to reach my goals like a certain level of realism and hopefully my own studio in the US soon.
I also like that I can connect with other weirdos like me. It is very much like the Step Brothers movie.
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