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

Dominique, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Have you been 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? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

I met my mentor, Kristen Miller, from a tattoo she decided to gift me as a cover up. We were complete strangers on the internet but we followed each other. She reached out with this beautiful design offering myself to come in and get rid of the bad tattoo I had on my leg. Once I was in her chair we started discussing life, I asked her how she had gotten to be a tattoo artist herself as I was interested in pursuing an apprenticeship for myself in the future. I showed her some of my art and she told me how she would like to one day take on an apprentice.

About a year later everything aligned and she came to me asking if I wanted to do a trial period to make sure we would vibe. I of course couldn’t believe I had this opportunity and immediately got everything I needed to prepare for this journey. We hit it off and she officially accepted me as her apprentice a month later.

Some of the major components in making this dream a reality was her ability to make information digestible, the way she taught made it very easy for me to pick it up. Having someone put their faith and trust in you is an incredible feeling.

Unfortunately with a career like this, there is no rushing and you want to take your time and patience with it and learning, you are essentially doing a minor invasive surgery and putting an image on someone you want them to love forever. I was very thankful for the pace that she put me at. The patience itself in turn helped me speed up the process.

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 background and context?

My name is Dominique (Mob) Cuzzone. I am currently an apprentice under Kristen (Noct) Miller, we rent our own booth under the title Nocturnal tattoos that we officially opened in September of this year. I have been tattooing for about a year and three months. While I am still learning, I specialize in anime and color work as those are my strong suits. I try to be as versatile as possible because I believe that is the best way to keep interest as well as preserve the longevity of your career in the tattooing industry.

It was thanks to Kristen for seeing the potential in me that has gotten me to where I am currently. This craft is not for the faint of heart and you have to be willing to put your entire being into it. People will eat you alive in this industry and it’s very important to listen to the constructive criticism, block out the banter and try only to compare yourself to Yesterdays you. You can only be as good as your past self. I think my biggest advice for anyone who’s an artist in general is to not compare yourself to others and what they can do and what you cannot do, but compare yourself to how you’ve improved. Everyone progresses differently and that’s okay.

I think what sets me and our shop apart from the rest is our willingness to take on new challenges that we feel 100% comfortable with. Whether it’s a goofy idea or some thing meaningful I always love a good challenge. I will say knowing what you can and can’t take on design wise is a big deal. I never want to seem like I just want to take someone’s money and accept anything thrown my way, you want people to love the artwork on their body, it is permanent after all. If I don’t feel confident with a design I love recommending them to other artists I feel would knock it out if the park! It’s very important to help each other out in this industry.

We strive toward providing hospitality and good conversation. We want our clients to feel safe and happy with the service we provide them. We want to give them an experience and piece of artwork they’ll never forget and love forever.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

As artists we need to look out for each other, building your community of people who don’t mind giving it to you straight but don’t knock you down is important. I always see a lot of jealousy because somebody might be progressing faster than the other, we need to stop looking and comparing our pace to others. We need to support each other because no one can build an empire alone. It doesn’t take much to hit share, heart react somebody’s art that you like and comment for social media boost. We all know social media plays a giant part in gaining clientele and following. So just take a second to react, share, follow, etc.

As for the clients and friends who are helping us build our empire, just know that being a tattoo artist is a full-time job. Most of us tattoo all day and go home to draw all night for our appointments. Please be patient with your artist and trust them too! We got your back and we appreciate that you choose to put trust in us to make your ideas come to life!

What do you find most rewarding about being creative?

Being a tattoo artist specifically is one of the most humbling yet ego boosting jobs I have ever worked personally. How cool is it that somebody chooses you to put your artwork on their body for the rest of their life!? Seeing people light up and the confidence they gain from customizing their body is one of the most rewarding feelings out there. I wouldn’t trade it for the world. Giving people confidence gives me so much confidence in return.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://nocturnaltattoos.com/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/hoekagehoekage?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dom.cuzzone