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

Alright, Jeremy thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I have been doing Art pretty much all my Life. My first memory of becoming an artist is from watching my mom draw things like Batman Superman ect. After that I became interested in drawing cartoons. I used to draw pictures from comics or still like object like a race car in my room or something like that. Fast forward 14 years later I graduated high school with a scholarship for Columbus College of art and design. I went for about a semester before I realized I couldn’t afford to go to school full time and work full time to pay for my apartment and bills. Coming from a tough upbringing my family didn’t have money to send me to school. After I dropped out of school around the age of 21 my uncles who were incarcerated had got out and were doing jail style tattoos. Of course being young and not fully thinking it through me and my girlfriend at the time both had got tattoos. After going back for my second one my uncle asked what I was doing with my art and at the time I wasn’t doing much with my talent in the everyday hustle and grind. So he suggested I started tattooing. He took me to get my first tattoo kit at 21. He was supposed to teach me but got locked back up. Do I had this tattoo kit now I didn’t know what to do with. All my friends and cousins wanted tattoos so I had plenty of people to practice on. For about a year I did it on my own then I moved into a traditional tattoo shop and learned the right way. I have been doing this for 12 years now been in 4 different tattoo shops and now I own my own private studio called Hidden path tattoo in downtown Columbus

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?

I have been doing Art pretty much all my Life. My first memory of becoming an artist is from watching my mom draw things like Batman Superman ect. After that I became interested in drawing cartoons. I used to draw pictures from comics or still like object like a race car in my room or something like that. Fast forward 14 years later I graduated high school with a scholarship for Columbus College of art and design. I went for about a semester before I realized I couldn’t afford to go to school full time and work full time to pay for my apartment and bills. Coming from a tough upbringing my family didn’t have money to send me to school. After I dropped out of school around the age of 21 my uncles who were incarcerated had got out and were doing jail style tattoos. Of course being young and not fully thinking it through me and my girlfriend at the time both had got tattoos. After going back for my second one my uncle asked what I was doing with my art and at the time I wasn’t doing much with my talent in the everyday hustle and grind. So he suggested I started tattooing. He took me to get my first tattoo kit at the age of 21. After practicing on a few family and friends, I knew this is what I wanted to do as a career and a passion. I started to look for an apprenticeship around local shops with a portfolio, but none of them were interested in having me. I even had someone, tell me to quit tattooing, but that was not an option for me I was determined. Eventually I ended up getting into a lower and Street shop and work there for about a year then me and the person I work with at the time decided to upgrade to a little better shop. I ended up staying there for another year and decided that I needed another change to help me grow more as an artist, I ended up getting a private studio with my sister who does professional make up and skin care. I worked here for about a year and again decided that I needed another change to help me grow and fine-tune my craft I ended up meeting with a friend that was opening a shop around the corner for me so I went to check him out and ended up working with him and three other artists for another two years. He decided to shut down the shop and pursue other opportunities. I again moved down the street to another tattoo shop for another two years after this shop, I decided it was time to get my own studio After the four years I have been in shops. I have built a nice clientele, and I was only getting better as an artist. Now I own a five star tattoo shop in Downtown Columbus called Hidden path Tattoo. I pride myself on customer service and giving the customer what they want while also giving them something unique that fits them and their style I love black and gray that is my go to, but I can pretty much tattoo most things that come my way. I love all art in general, and I also love painting and drawing with pencil when I have the time around my busy Tattoo schedule, family life, and hobbies. I am now a self Taught tattoo artist of 13 years.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My goal or mission in Tattooing is to give people a piece of me. To make Art through an ancient ritual that is called Tattooing and give people something they can cherish for the rest of their lives even when I am gone from this world. I love meeting new people and coming up with new ideas with people and putting it to skin. For me tattooing is like a meditation to where I forget all my troubles and just connect with the person in tattooing and getting to know them and then getting to know me. It’s almost like a kind of therapy for both parties.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being a creative artist is doing what you love and making art that other people also love. The freedom to create what ever you can think of without direction from anyone else like a boss in a 9 to 5. Knowing that my art is for a lifetime on peoples skin it brings me great honor and a sense of pride that people trust me to give them a beautiful piece of art that they have to look at EVERYDAY.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Jeremy_Pathammavong / Hiddenpathtattoo
• Facebook: Jeremy Pathammavong