Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Canada Walkinshaw. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Canada, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
I had a very old school apprenticeship. Which meant hanging around a shop until they stopped telling me to get out. Also meant doing a lot of free labor and going through some good ol’ fashioned hazing. Definitely gave me some thick skin that has helped a lot with the job. I ended up kind of getting taught by everyone at the shop, so I am very lucky to have been taught by numerous talented artists. Because of this I got to get a good grasp on multiple different styles which helped me to develop my mashup style I have today. If I could’ve done one thing different during my apprenticeship it would’ve been to travel more and to do guest spots and conventions. I’ve been comfortable too long in one spot and I feel it stunted me at an artist. Have more experiences would’ve helped me develop more, I am trying to start venturing out now though!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am a tattooer that specializes in mashups. This means that I take two or more styles of tattooing and combine them in an obvious way. As an example I did a realistic panther head with an American traditional dagger going through it. My goal is to contribute something unique, strange and beautiful that hasn’t yet been seen by anyone in the Tattoo community. I feel I am getting closer to this goal, but I’m not quite there yet. I pride myself on the desire to constantly learn and grow. I don’t ever want there to be a day where I think I am done learning. The most wonderful things about art and about tattooing is it’s always changing and growing, there’s always more things to try. It is incredibly exciting for me. I am very lucky to be doing what I do..
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
I want to leave my mark in the industry. The tattoo community is a very tightly integrated group, trade secrets, techniques , books and artwork- it’s all passed down through the generations. What tattooing looks like changes bit by bit based on the new generations of tattooers. Some people impact this more than others. I want to create strange new styles and designs that people haven’t seen before. I want people to know just by looking that it’s a Canada piece. And I want it to make them think of new ways to tattoo like countless others have done for me. Something that sticks out that could make artists look at tattooing differently. Or even just artists in general.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
Getting through my apprenticeship, like most artists , was the big struggle. In the beginning you really need to earn your way in to get taught anything. After I convinced them to not get rid of me I spent about a year or two cleaning and taking care of things around the shop (ie doing food runs, smoke runs, setting up stations, handling clients etc) while working on my sketches. I ended up working 7 days a week for a long time and would work typically 1:30-11:30 PM or later most nights. I don’t think it happens as much now but there was definitely a lot of hazing back when I started which ironically was what made me know I wanted to tattoo for the rest of my life . I realized one day that even though dealing with all that sucked- i still kept coming back because I would happily do it everyday if it meant I got to be a tattooer.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.canadatattoosandmore.com
- Instagram: @canada_tattoos
