We were lucky to catch up with James Lenius recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, James thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

I’ve always had a deep hunger to create. When I was growing up it was definitely intertwined with the way I regulated and understood my emotions, and as a teenager I started honing in on the technical side of the process. I honestly never saw myself pursuing a creative career; it felt too risky to share something so personal and vulnerable, especially when people mock the idea in the first place. I had heard enough remarks about art school graduates never finding work by the time I was 10 to never consider it an option.

I can’t imagine a career outside of the art world now, but it took a long time to get here. I had a lot of growing and healing to do before I could see any kind of future for myself, much less a future that I could be happy in. I think of it as moving up Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: I had to find stability before I could explore the idea of enlightenment.

I reached the conclusion to become a tattoo artist by strict process of elimination based on my variety of work experience and, honestly, random coincidence. I wanted to work in a trade doing a craft I could master. I wanted something social and personal. And I wanted to find a field that was in high demand so that work wouldn’t dry up.

Eventually I started researching how to become a tattoo artist. Luckily for me, I had started doing stick-n-pokes for friends in high school and then expanded the operation in college, so I wasn’t choosing completely blindly and was already comfortable in that role. Once I had a clear path forward and a plan to save up tuition, I felt an unbridled sense of hope. I wasn’t looking for an artistic field but as I learned more, asked tattoo artists for advice, and started drawing flash designs, I realized that the creative side was essential in finding my perfect fit for a career. It felt like I had been freed from a lifelong prophecy to have a miserable job forever.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Absolutely! My name is James and I’m a tattoo artist based in Portland, Oregon. I strive to create beautiful things and am so proud to say that it attracts wonderful people. My number one goal is to create a space and to create art that makes people feel comfortable in their skin.

Being trans is definitely intertwined with my practice, both while drawing before an appointment and while tattooing. I design tattoos outside of the gender binary; I don’t have “girl” designs and “boy” designs, I just focus on drawing things that I like and that I think will resonate with others. I also focus on being consent-oriented and trauma informed during my appointments, which I think is lacking from a lot of cis male tattooers. Too often my clients tell me that they have had past experiences with other tattoo artists that made them feel guilty about moving a stencil, pressured them to tough out the pain, or otherwise made them feel uncomfortable or unsafe. It’s important to me to treat everyone with dignity and respect, so I try to individually connect with each of my clients and make them feel heard.

I’ve also branched off and explored other artistic avenues in the last year, including travelling out of state to tattoo, linocut printing merch, and painting my first mural. I’m so grateful for the community I’ve found in Portland and on Instagram for expanding my creative opportunities and audience. I’m so excited and blessed that I get to continue to grow and explore not only my tattooing practice but other artistic ventures, too.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

It is so important to me to foster a supportive environment with my peers. I refuse the idea of the zero-sum game. In cities with a lot of tattoo artists, it’s easy to blame an oversaturated market when you’re struggling to stay busy. But the truth is, tearing other artists down or stealing someone else’s design doesn’t get you clients.

I have found my biggest success in the friendships I have made with other artists. We can, of course, support each other digitally and widen our audiences, but the support and kindness person-to-person has been so essential for me to stay motivated and focused. I have learned so much from artists with more experience in the industry who are willing to share tips and advice or bounce ideas off of each other.

Sometimes I don’t have any tattoos booked and I just feel stuck. I have nowhere to be and nothing to do and time feels like a big scary void. I’m just hoping I won’t run out of money before it’s time to pay rent. Having a whole community of people who understand that feeling and say, “hey, why don’t we draw together tomorrow? I’ve been feeling stuck, too” is the biggest relief. My goal is to provide that same support to others so we can all thrive together.

Whenever someone mentions that they might want to pursue tattooing, I don’t see them as a threat to my income, I invite them to ask me questions and collaborate. We cannot expect to defeat capitalism and materialism if we see our peers as competition. If I succeed by myself, who will be with me to celebrate?

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

About five months after I had gotten licensed and had been tattooing full-time, work dried up. It felt like everyone that wanted a tattoo from me had gotten one and that was it. I was ready to start doomscrolling through Indeed postings and pray to find some kind of stable income.
I had very slowly accumulated followers by putting up paper fliers in walkable neighborhoods for about 9 months and had miraculously reached 1000 followers. I decided to do a tattoo giveaway to hopefully get at least a few clients and be able to pay rent, and claimed that it was in celebration of reaching a milestone rather than out of desperation.

Since I had nothing to do and nothing to lose, I poured my heart into this giveaway. I did my research and thought about what kinds of things I valued in a giveaway: low stakes, high rewards. I knit five plushies, gave them accessories and personalities, and put them at the heart of the event. Not only could you win a free tattoo, but a free hand-made plushie, too. I made it easy to enter and plastered posters all over town, walking and biking multiple miles every day. If it was my last ditch effort to find clients, I was going to make it count.

To my surprise and delight, I doubled my followers by the time I picked the winners and had enough momentum to have steady work for the next few months. Unfortunately there will always be slow months when you’re self-employed, but this giveaway taught me that there is always work out there, you just have to figure out how much work you’re willing to put in to find it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://jameslenius.com
• Instagram: @clownstoothh

Image Credits

Charlie Durso, Quinn Yokie, and James Lenius