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

Alright, Jacob thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I knew I wanted to be an artist from a very young age. For as long as I can remember I was drawing and creating art, although I wouldn’t be able to make a career out it until I was in my late 20s. Up until then I would only have small commission jobs such as graphic design and mural jobs. I was working at a restaurant when a tattoo shop opened next door and a friend convinced me to try and get an apprenticeship. I was scared but I did it and it worked out. I brought in a couple sketch books and got the apprenticeship immediately. That was in 2013 and I’ve been tattooing ever since. Tattooing has allowed me to also branch out and focus on other forms of art as well. I paint and do mural work. I also create my own comics.

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 back background and context?

My main career is a tattoo artist. Almost my whole life people have told me that I should be a tattoo artist based off the kind of art that I was doing. Mostly drawing inspiration from comics I would fill sketchbooks full of drawings using pen and markers. I started to get more into surreal and spiritual art in my teens, Exploring more of a psychedelic style. I was doing more colorful transformative art for awhile. Trying my best to understand and explain the natural world and existence in general. I believe an artists duty is to reflect the world and share its light with humanity. Both the light and dark aspects of it actually. In my 20s I started exploring more of the dark side. Using only black ink I focussed more on art that pointed out the hypocrisy and violent nature of humanity. Which looking back I was looking for a good balance between the two and I think I’m still searching for that balance. That duality comes through in my tattooing as well. I haven’t focused on just one style but many trying to be as well rounded as possible. I enjoy doing colorful illustrative and traditional tattoos along with black work and black and grey realism. Aside from tattooing, in my free time I work on painting. I’d love to get my art into galleries one day. My paintings are as mixed stylistically as my tattoos are. Ranging from realistic to cartoonish at times. I’m constantly pushing myself to get better and better along with trying to develop my own style and voice. Creating comic books are a way for me to tell stories in another way separate from tattooing and painting. Although I feel most art tells a story in some way, theres something about the combination of words and pictures that seems like the perfect marriage. Comics allow me to dip my two in other forms of the medium which I enjoy such as Sci fi and horror and comedy.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

I’m not sure what society can do but I think artists could be more supportive of each other. I feel like the art world is kind of dog eat dog for the most part. Some artists seem to go out of their way to put other artist beneath them while they are scratching their way to fame or fortune. I always enjoy seeing other artists work and if I had my own gallery type space I would love to showcase new or old artist who didn’t have the luxury of not having to work a normal job or go to art school.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

There are so many rewards for being an artist I think. It starts as a child, being able to create things that don’t exist or be able to create a world of your own and escape into it. Becoming an adult it can be a release or a form of therapy for people. For my tattooing the reward is not only monetary but the connection you can make with another human being. The honor in them choosing you to mark their body for life with something meaningful, a memorial or something that just looks cool. Seeing your art on someone’s skin is an amazing addicting feeling and I fell in love with it from the first tattoo I did. For my painting it goes back to the same feeling I had as a child. Using your imagination to create something from nothing is magic in its purest form. To me everyone is a artist as a child and you either hold on to that or hide it from yourself.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @j.g.artworks @futureghostar @nebulainc.comic