Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Ian Rumley. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Ian, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.

My family tree is a little confusing when I try to explain it to people the first time but it’s really pretty simple. The first thing my parents did right was being completely unselfish to make sure I had the best life possible. My mother was very young when I was born. My biological father had a lot of chips stacked against him and wasn’t a part of my life. My grandparents adopted me after they had already raised five kids of their own. I always knew I was adopted and have always had a great relationship with my mom. During my childhood everyone pitched in to be sure I had all of my needs met. I learned a lot from my uncles and extended family and spent a lot of weekends with my mom, my brothers, and their father who was a fantasy artist. There are many creative people in my family and they all have a big influence on me. I feel like I was raised by the village, many of whom are artists. Education was encouraged in my life as well and because I had educators in my family I had the privilege of attending good schools for some of my life that I otherwise might not be able to afford. My family also has an edge to them. Many of the people who influenced me are visual artists, musicians, writers, cooks, thespians, etc. I got a behind the scenes look at what it took to be a professional artist. I always thought I was going to be a writer and started school as a creative writing major. That was about the same time I started working at the tattoo shop. When I was offered an. apprenticeship there I knew I would have to dial in my drawing skills if I was going to be any good at tattooing so I changed my major to fine art and eventually attained a BFA with an emphasis in painting. My education and art career combined when I got a job as a high school art teacher in the charter school system. I owe both of those things to the unselfishness of my parents and my family who took me under their wing and gave me the confidence and encouragement to pursue a career that didn’t have many guarantees. I was taught to make my own opportunities and I can always call on the wisdom of a family member when I am not sure which direction I’m going. All of this is why I only sign my art with my last name, to honor them.

When I was a fledgeling tattooer my father (grandfather) was among many of my family members to show their support for my new endeavor by coming in to get tattooed. He was in his 60’s and didn’t have any tattoos. Tattooing was a little rougher around the edges back then and I wasn’t initially sure how he would react to my career choices. The first time he saw my sleeves was the day he came in to get tattooed. He laughed at me and said that I was being very brave. We had a great time and he came back several times for new tattoos. He was a chaplain at a hospital and told me that his tattoos were a great ice breaker when he would go into someone’s room and have hard conversations. He said it put younger people at ease to see his work and it was a good conversation starter. Due to his age and position people were surprised to see his brightly colored new tattoos. They would have expected any of his work, if he had any at all, to be aged and faded from past military service or something. When he was in his final days I thought about asking him if I could take pictures of them but I was afraid he would be sad because it would foreshadow the inevitable, I have always regretted not asking him. I think now that he would have gotten a kick out of it. He was always full of surprises and he always reacted to situations like that so much better than I imagined he would. I will always be able to close my eyes and see his tattoos though and it’s a helpful reminder when things are tough of how much he loved me.

Ian, 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?

As a native to Denver Colorado, I have been a professional tattooer for about 25 years, including my apprenticeship. I have had the honor of working at two of the best tattoo shops in Denver and learn from some amazing people in both the tattoo and “fine art” fields. I developed a curiosity for tattoos when I was in high school. My friends and I would steal ink from art class and go home and scratch our amature drawings on each other. We didn’t have any idea how dangerous and disrespectful that was at the time. My friend’s older brother who was like a brother to me and is now a good friend took us with him when he got tattooed and I loved the whole experience. I loved the counter-culture rebellious atmosphere, even when it made me nervous, and thought the art on the walls was so cool. I specifically remember a flash design of a naked woman with a skull head that I convinced myself I couldn’t live without. I had no money or I.D. so I had to find a way to go on without it. While I liked to draw and I was fascinated with tattoos, I didn’t imagine ever doing it for a living. I lied about my age and got my first “professional” tattoo at 16. I think I gave him my Denver Parks and Rec. card as an I.D. and he begrudgingly told me to get in the chair before he changed his mind. Things have changed since the mid 90’s. I remember having to card bikers when I was 19 or 20 and they would give me a side eye as they explained that they had tattoos that were older than I was.

I was so proud when we got older and my friends took my drawings in to have them professionally tattooed. We started going to a shop called Bound By Design and eventually I got my first tattoo of many from that shop on my 18th birthday. I wanted the S from the band Sepultura’s logo. I left, like so many people in my generation, with a tribal arm band that is now buried in a blackout. I had an apartment in the neighborhood of the shop and one of my neighbors was the counter manager at Bound. I was working a construction job at the time and he knew I hated it. He also knew me from the shop and I had shown him some of my drawings. He woke me up on a Saturday morning and told me that he could get me a job with him working the counter but I had to get up and come in for an interview immediately. I was excited but had no idea that I would work there for the next nineteen years. I started college at that time too and I would bring my homework and all of my art supplies to work and when it was slow, which was rare, I would watch the tattoo artists and draw in my sketchbook. I came in in my time off too and just loved being there. A couple of the artists took notice, showed my sketchbooks to the owner and told her I would make a good apprentice. I switched my major to fine art and have pursued the arts ever since.

I worked my way into the gallery scene in Denver and have been showing my art almost as long as I have been tattooing. I have done a lot of volunteer work for schools that service “at risk” students and eventually got a job as a high school art teacher. I was originally asked to come teach one class because the school thought the kids would get a kick out of taking a drawing class from a tattooer. The kids responded well to me and I fell in love with teaching so I took on a larger class load and taught at two different high schools for the better part of ten years. My students would sometimes ask me tattoo related questions and I had three rules. 1. I wont teach you anything about how to make tattoos because that is what an apprenticeship is for, but if you want to tattoo you have to know how to draw and I will teach anyone I can to do that. 2. If I catch anyone tattooing themselves or anyone else at home they fail my class immediately (which I would not have been able to enforce but they got my point.) 3. I will not tattoo my students until they graduate and turn 18. I still tattoo some of my former students and at least one of them has gone on to be a successful tattooer herself.

I now own my own studio, Singularity Tattoo. I always swore I would never own a shop because I saw what the owners of other shops had to go through but I have created a unique situation that works for me. My clients like the atmosphere here and some of them enjoy the fact that I make a lot of art outside of tattooing as well. I am a very lucky man. I’ve worked hard to get where I am but I stay humble and stay in my lane and I think that has contributed to my longevity. Before my first tattoo machines even arrived at the shop when I was nineteen I was given some advise that has always stayed with me. You can learn from everyone you ever come across, even if it is learning what not to do. I am a lifelong student.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

Something that I have learned over the years and talked to my family about is that as an artist you have to embrace your selfishness but know how to manage it. This is a hard one for non-creative people to understand as it makes us look self absorbed and can hurt people’s feelings. As an artist you don’t have to be a selfish person in a negative way, but you do need to allow yourself time and space to be creative. Often that creative process does not fit into any fixed business hours. I want to be clear, this is a broad statement, but some of the most amazing artists I know didn’t have any interest in school. I went the route of a formal education but I know many talented, dedicated, successful artists that didn’t graduate from high school. I always thought it was ironic that they chose a career with so much homework. We don’t have the luxury of creating when we are “inspired.” As a professional you have to be able to turn it on even when you don’t necessarily feel like it. The real struggle is time management. I am still working on that one. Some people are naturally more inclined to manage their time in a disciplined way. I am not one of those people. I have struggled to manage my time and have a habit of biting off more than I can chew. Two things suffer from this. One, the people that care about you may feel like they aren’t as important to you as they really are, and two, your work can suffer. If you are doing too many things at once you may not be giving any of those things the attention they deserve. My long time friend and co-worker talked to me about that a lot. He asked me to remember to turn off the fan in my station when I went home for the day. I didn’t understand at first but he explained that when I was at work sometimes my mind was already on whatever else I was doing that day, or at home. Then I get home and my mind is swirling with work and I am not really at home either. I have to remember to be mindful and pay attention to whatever I am doing at that moment instead of the thirty other directions I’m going in all the time. I have taken that a step further and when I am tattooing a line I tell myself that all I have to do is make one good line at a time. I shouldn’t be thinking about anything else. Not the next line or how I am going to shade something. It helps me to remember to turn off my fan, I know that I have hurt people that I really care about because they thought they weren’t as important to me as whatever I’m working on. I don’t mean to make them feel that way, it’s just hard for creative people and professional artists to turn off their fan sometimes. We love people passionately but also need time to ourselves to get the work done.

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

I wish I would have prioritized traveling more when I was starting out as it is a great resource for us. I used the excuse that I was too busy or I had kids young, but in actuality I didn’t make it a priority. If it was important enough to me I would have found a way. I think my insecurities kept me from doing those things too and it would have been good for my confidence, and my humility. I was fortunate to work in big shops and always had plenty of people to learn from. I wish I would have gone to more conventions and taken seminars from other tattooers. Tattoo artists were taught to protect trade secrets and it is a recent phenomenon that so much information is available to the public online and on social media. When I started tattooing there was no google search engine or tattoo podcasts so conventions were a place to meet other artists, take classes from professionals and learn about our equipment. I did not take advantage of those resources and I think I would have really benefitted from them. Many of my friends and colleagues have made a name for themselves and sharpened their skills by traveling. I have done a handful of conventions and a couple guest spots but it would have helped me to get out of my comfort zone more often. The good news is that it’s not too late. I have time to travel and learn, as well as access to the right streams of information online. Now that I don’t work with a bunch of other artists every day and I’m not in school anymore it is more important than ever that I get out there and learn as much as I can from others.

Contact Info:

• Website: singularitytattoo.com
• Instagram: @singularitytattoo38 @redrum_ley
• Facebook: Singularity Tattoo