We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Finn Licata a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Finn, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

I’ve done several projects that have involved covering up scars from gender affirming surgeries. my most recent favorite was a piece that had a crane centered on the individual’s chest with thorn vines coming out from the sides following the path of some double mastectomy scars. There’s only so many ways a person can take control of their body and I’m proud to play a part in the few ways people do so.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m a transmasc tattoo artist who focuses on body affirming tattoos for other trans folk. I entered the tattoo industry in 2020, despite the chaos of the year it ended up leading me to a fulfilling career path that involves me with my community. I started off as a shopkeeper at my mentors gift shop and after several months she took me on as an apprentice. I’ve been tattooing for two and a half years, but it’s lead me to some amazing connections with other queer artists.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Creating your own schedule and working on your own terms is amazing. I spent nearly ten years working in food service with nothing to show for it and being immensely depressed, and after only tattooing for a couple years I have hundreds of pieces of art walking around in the wild. It’s such a treat to be trusted enough to make permanent changes to someone’s body.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Early in my career as a tattoo artist my business instagram account was hacked. I ended up losing the account. I had just hit 1000 followers, which in the grand scheme of things wasn’t that many people, but I had just quit my part-time job and I felt like I was completely starting over. Luckily a hundred or so folks followed my new account from my hacked account but it was a challenge to get the algorithm to promote me like it had before. However, a new account was a clean slate that allowed me to rebrand my image as an artist the way I’d been trying to on the previous account. It also encouraged me to start making reels, which was something I had never tried before.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @fickleflutattoo