We were lucky to catch up with Christian Colón recently and have shared our conversation below.

Christian, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I started drawing at a very young age. My love for art transferred from paper to walls. Growing up in Brooklyn New York in the 80s, I did a lot of graffiti also. I started tattooing at about 15 years old with a homemade machine one of my uncles built me a messed up a lot of friends early on in my years. I was in the Air Force from 1999 till the end of 2005. I tattooed while I was in service. It was probably while I was in the Air Force that I realized I could make living off if tattooing professionally. So I pursued an apprenticeship in 2007 in Clarksville Tennessee. I have been a licensed artist since then.

Christian, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’ve been tattooing professionally since 2007 in the state of Tennessee. I like to do color, work, and black and gray. I like to do realism, illustrative, linework, and custom lettering. One of my favorite parts of my job is being able to take someone’s ideas and turn them into a design just based off of brief descriptions, and may be a reference photo or two.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding part of my job is making people happy with my art. It’s such a great feeling to see the joy on someone’s face when we are done with their tattoo, especially if it’s memorializing a loved one.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

YouTube is such an amazing tool nowadays. You can connect with world renowned artists, watched some of their live streams of them tattooing. When I first started out, he had to actually travel to go to a seminar with an artist that you liked or respected. Now it’s as simple as logging onto their website and purchasing it.

Contact Info:

• Website: Icontattoo.com
• Instagram: Instagram.com/jbeantat2
• Facebook: Facebook.com/jbeantat2