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

Hep, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you tell us the backstory behind how you came up with the idea?

I think there’s nothing special about how I decided to become a tattoo artist, i believe that it’s an idea that crosses every creative’s mind, I just think it happened to me at a time when i was ready for the commitment. With the growth of instagram i started to see more and more possibilities of how tattoos can look, and that made me wanting to become a tattoo artist.

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

I’m a Vietnam born, Seattle raised artist.
I did a 1 year apprenticeship in Seoul South Korea at “Inked S” under SanLee (color realism)
Then after that i apprenticed in Seattle at “NieU Studio” under PingPing for 2 years and counting.
I enjoy tattoos, tattooing, and collecting tattoo, i aim to give the best possible tattoos to my clients in the style of black and grey realism/micro-realism structured in academic/classical art fundamentals and basic ideas. It’ll be like collecting fine arts, the type that’s last the test of time, on your skin forever.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For me the most rewarding part about being a tattoo artist is sharing the excitement with the clients after the tattoo is done. It’s a different level of joy that they feel, and I’m so happy that i get be the one that tattoo the art on them.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I am constantly having to unlearn and rethink what my idea of tattooing is. As far as application, tattooing is not like drawing or painting where the canvas is the same every time, we work on the skin which is an organic canvas that’s different from person to person. And so there is always some form of figuring out or rethinking that goes on in each and every tattoo. The biggest lesson for me is to never expect it to be the same, either it’s applying the tattoo or even sticking with a certain style. It’s a hard lesson and i still have trouble excepting it, but i know to be a good artist i have to be able to rethink and recalibrate constantly.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @hep_aom
• Other: Booking email: [email protected]

Image Credits
Main photo by Diana J Lee