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

Clayton, appreciate you joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

If you had asked me a year ago whether or not I was going to get a tattoo, I would have given the classic response, “I want one, but what if I end up regretting it in 20 years?” If you had asked me whether or not I was ever going to work full time as a creative I would have given a similar answer. What if I end up regretting it?

The fear of regret is a dangerous force to fall victim to, and it can keep you stagnant for as long as you let it. The key for me was flipping that fear of regret on its head. In 20 years I might regret never getting a tattoo when I wanted one. There are a lot of things I wish I had experienced, but not very many that I wish I hadn’t. Even the dumbest decisions cultivated important self growth in my life. This mental trick was exactly what I needed to start eliminating fear of regret from the equation entirely.

With the help of a new partner who understood this feeling intimately, I started solidifying a new mantra for myself: I will always respect the person I was and the experiences that got me to where I am now. This immediately opened me up to saying “yes” more often and allowing myself to have the experiences that my anxiety had previously kept me from. First on the list? A nose ring and a tattoo.

I started looking around for a tattoo artist and quickly noticed an interesting trend about the ones I liked best. Most of them worked at the same shop, a local joint called The Hive SLC. Even more interesting was that a few of them had gone through the same program to score an apprenticeship at The Hive under the guise of the owner Mason Atlas, and applications for the next session were coming up soon. A seed of an idea had been planted.

I ended up choosing an artist, Marie (@good.juju.tattoo), who ran a private studio downtown and she was nice enough to let me in on the process. I gave her a prompt, she came up with the initial design, and then she allowed me to take it and customize it to my liking. I loved every second of working on that tattoo. The thought “maybe I could do this for a living” popped into my head more than once while I was working on it. I had spent the last 10 years working in IT, but it was always just a means to an end. It kept food on the table and allowed me to pursue art and music on the side, and while it was a comfortable job it was starting to feel pretty empty spending 8 hours a day doing something I wasn’t passionate about just so I could have a couple hours in the evening to pursue what I really cared about.

As I lay on the table to take on my first big risk I was struck by this realization. Watching Marie prepare for the tattoo, I could tell how passionate and proud she was about this work. This was only reaffirmed as she performed the tattoo onto my skin with care and expert precision. The seed of an idea had taken root, and as I was driving home with fresh ink on my arm I decided I wanted to start taking art more seriously again.

This experience had awakened something in me that had been dormant ever since I decided to take a job in IT: a lust to live off my creativity no matter the risk. My inspiration at the time was a tattoo artist at The Hive named Nate (@pate.tattoos) who was the most recently chosen apprentice from their junior tattoo program and was absolutely killing it with his blackwork tattoos. His work spoke to me in a way that was incredibly motivating, and he had also been working a passionless job for a number of years. Maybe I could make that switch too.

I decided it was time to take some steps towards my reignited goal. I wasn’t convinced that being a tattoo artist was the right direction for me, but I knew I wanted to work as an artist and this junior tattoo program seemed like a good way to potentially light a fire under my ass. With that in mind, I submitted my application using some old commission work from a few years back (which were the only real pieces of art I had made in the past 10 years) and bought myself an iPad to draw on.

It worked. After I was accepted into the program and braved through some intense feelings of imposter syndrome it all started to come together. I was absolutely hooked and my art was improving at an insane pace. I was manically pumping out pieces that I felt extremely proud of. Regardless of whether or not I was chosen for the apprenticeship I knew that I could do this for a living.

To my surprise, at the end of the program I had the honor of being picked as the next apprentice for the shop alongside another member (@ladybrightstudios). Although accepting the apprenticeship and transitioning into a full-time tattoo artist was going to be a big risk, at this point it was a no-brainer for me.

Clayton, 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 go by SourTrout (@sourtrout.ink) and I am a tattoo artist. I tend to naturally favor a graffiti-esque look with thicker lines, meandering forms, and bright colors. I also love incorporating the shape language of old 90’s cartoons like Ren and Stimpy, and I am always eager to branch out into new styles and aesthetics.

I value the importance of levity and playfulness in life but also love getting to know people on a deeper level and learning about what experiences have shaped them. I hope to explore these two sides of life’s coin with my clients in this practice. My grandfather was an artist who specialized in both silly caricatures and intricate contour line work landscapes, and I have him to thank for my ability to weave the whimsical and elegant together in my art.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Finding that spark and getting into a flow state with your art and then seeing it all come together. Putting hours into a piece of art that ends up dazzling even my own eye is a special feeling.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

Fuck that shit. I think they were probably born out of good intentions to find a new way to fund artists, but it quickly devolved into a scam-infested cesspool that needs to die.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sourtrout.ink
• Instagram: sourtrout.ink
• Twitter: sourtrout.ink