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

Hi Joana, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

I believe that one risk I took that ultimately shifted my life, was the risk of believing enough in myself to pursue a career change in tattooing. I knew from a young age that I wanted to freelance in some creative way. After college graduation I found myself working a full time job managing a retail store, I did this until my early adult life. I had a love hate relationship with this job. All the benefits that working for a corporation provides; healthcare, paid sick time, a steady paycheck. It gave me everything I needed and left no time for anything else. Scary to think, to loose all of that was a risk itself.

Though the beginning of my tattooing journey, I would put in long hours at my job then rush home to practice my craft making it hard for me to push myself creatively. I contemplated quitting, taking the risk on myself. The more I contemplated it the more fear took over…pushing me further away from taking the leap. I continued tattooing on the side like a good employee. Burning the candlestick from both ends. Then one day I got laid off. Just like that all the years of service swept away. The timing couldn’t have been better. It was exactly the push I needed to take the leap .

Tattooing meant practicing art as a career- the career change would provide no type of security blanket. Yet now it didn’t matter either way and the risk didn’t seem so risky. This was a calling, and there’s nothing to loose anymore.

Everyday I make tattoos for people who saw the value in me and my work and couldn’t be more fulfilling . I went from tattooing in my attic to Co-Owning Brocktons first black owned, women owned tattoo establishment. A confirmation that taking the risk on myself was a life changer for the better. I have my mantra tattooed on my shoulder as a reminder of this -it reads “You were born to this. You will succeed.”

Joana, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Joana Coli my artist handle is Nxtladyink. I am a mom of 3, a full-time tattoo artist and business owner. I started my tattoo career 14 years ago, as an apprentice under my mentor, Polo. I co-own my business, 1Eleven Tattoo Collective, with my business partner Courtney, for the past 6 years. Our tattoo shop is a collection of creatives including, tattoo artists, body piercers, and permanent make up artists. Each artist specializes in a variety of styles and specialties.

I enjoy black and grey works, as well as dainty delicate fine line pieces. I also find pleasure in doing small pieces with splashes of color. Photorealism is a style I admire a lot, finding joy in animal portraits and floral pieces. What makes our shop unique is that we consider ourselves chameleons of the trade. We can adapt our tattoo styles to what the client brings to the table. This may range from portraiture pieces, minimalism tattoos, new school, traditional American or pop art for example.

Sometimes clients may have a tattoo that they regret; a ex’s name, a tattoo they have out grown, or a tattoo that has aged beyond recognition. In some cases I can offer a cover up session, which gives them a whole new outlook on their body image. This is particularly true for many who have experienced some medical related trauma that have resulted in surgeries, or mastectomies, for example. Often clients want to honor the memory of a loved one or pet they’ve lost. Tattooing in many ways can give closure, and healing. I approach these with great caution and sensitivity due to the nature of the job. Many times we have to be just as emotionally strong for our clients apart from being able to execute the job properly. Tattooing is a lifestyle and therapy for many.

One thing I’d like my clients to know is that the design process is fully a collaboration between they and I. I take my time to ensure ever part of the design reflects the wants and needs of their tattoo session. I become fully invested in every piece i take on from the smallest minimal line design to the more complex pieces such as sleeve planning and building. There is so much behind the scenes work that energy gets poured into, sometimes this isn’t shared with the client, in terms of research for pictures and developing other design elements.

Any client who comes into 1Eleven Tattoo Collective will get the full experience with any one of our artists. We want clients to know that they are in the hands of a licensed, experienced body art professional and that we will do our best to deliver the possible experience.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Funding my business wasn’t easy. Traditional forms of funding was not an option for us at the time. We followed all the rights steps to ensure our credit was on point, that the business was properly incorporated, that a solid business plan was in place, and we made sure we were using a DBA bank account to manage and track our money coming in and out of the business. Even with our business relationships with our banks-they still would not lend to to us.

They considered our business to be to high risk, much like the marijuana business one bank rep told us. One bank sent us on a goose chase to work with a corporation called SEED that helps fund small businesses. This process although didn’t produce the results we wanted- it did however force us to look at our funding in a different way.

We were hit with so many Nos that it almost made us give up-it proved to be extremely expensive -but giving up was not an option -we had to be resourceful on our own. I cashed out some of my 401K, and we pulled together whatever savings we had, neither my partner or myself came from money. We had to tap into our own credit lines, and savings and donations from our families; we really funded our project one tattoo at a time.

How’d you meet your business partner?

When I started on my tattoo journey, my mentor mentioned he had just started teaching another young female artist a couple months before we met. He said to me, “ Im teaching another girl how to tattoo too, you guys should be friends”. His vision was bigger than I even could visualize at the time, he knew we would need our person- just like he had his person- to be one another’s support though-out our tattoo journey.

We really consider ourselves the real ole’ Gs. We were the the only two minority women in our area doing tattoos at the time. In a lot of ways we are trail brazers. Paving the way for other young women to follow. We took on our calling seriously with grace, and stride. We knew that in order to level up we really needed to take this on professionally and open our very own tattoo studio.

This task was not easy by any means- we had to prove our character in a lot of ways to a lot of people who had the power to accept or reject our business, in order to secure a physical location. With perseverance, a dollar and a dream- lol , we pushed through the Nos. In a nutshell this was how 1Eleven Tattoo Collective was born, though our need to have a safe place to collectively practice our craft.      

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/invites/contact/?i=vmk5vqdsz1we&utm_content=2q9wt0k
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/nxtladyink
• Other: https://www.instagram.com/1eleventattoo/

Image Credits
Headshots done by by Adriana C Photography