We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Joi Bailey. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Joi below.

Joi, appreciate you joining us today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

The beginning of my tattoo journey was far from easy. No one told me that tattooing is one of the hardest things to learn how to do. Tbh I’m still trying to figure this out. My tattoo Journey began with my apprenticeship at Dark Age Tattoo Studio in Denton. Apprenticeships are basically an internship. You’re don’t get paid. You get to do all the cleaning, coffee runs and paper work. In return the artists at the shop teach you the craft. They also teach you basic art skills, how to schedule and how to talk to clients. My apprenticeship was 2 years and 2 months long. Working 45+ hours a week. Basically a full time job. The were opportunities to make money at the shop. The artist would tip you for helping. By you food. Stuff like that. I did about 9 months of just work before I could even touch a tattoo machine. After those 9 months I practiced tattooing on pig skin. Then after pig skin I was able to tattoo people for tips.
I lived with my mom to get by during that time. So the only bill I had to pay was my phone. Which was super nice. I also had a part time job a Chuys. Sooner rather than later there wasn’t a way I could work both jobs. I was so tired all the time. Chuys eventually fired me for not showing up. I still love Chuys though. I tattoo the manager that fired me and we’re friends now.
But yeah, I was just a really poor young adult there for a while, but Denton is a college town and most of my friends were poor young adults. So it really wasn’t a big deal.
I started tattooing in the same town I graduated high school in so I felt like that gave me some advantage on getting people to come to get tattooed by me. Also, working at Chuys. There was a big staff there so I tattooed a lot of my old co workers. I just knew a lot of people who liked tattoos. You would have those friends that would come in for the “free tattoo for tips” and the not tip you. That was disheartening. But in the beginning you’re not really tattooing for money you’re tattooing to learn how to do good tattoos.
From the beginning I knew that tattooing was it for me. It was something I was going to poor my whole heart and soul into. I wanted this to be my life’s work. I was lucky enough to be surrounded by extremely talented and successful artists who taught me everything. If I had any questions they’d always have the answers.
I don’t think I would be as successful as fast if I didn’t apprentice at Dark Age.
When I started walk in (1 1/2 into my apprenticeship was when I actually started making adult money. That was very nice, but very frustrating at the same time. Baby tatters have to do the walk ins that no one else really wants to do. All the scripts and infinity symbols. There was a week straight we’re I did nothing but script tattoos and I felt more like a copy and paste machine and less like a tattoo artist. I was a walk in artist so I really didn’t have a choice if I wanted to work there. I started to feel really burnt out and started fall out of love with tattooing. It was a really weird time. Because I was finally making livable money as an artist, I had a really cool job but I was still very unhappy with what I was producing.
My favorite walk ins were the little black and grey flower clusters. Or really anything black and grey floral. I would put so much time into those little walk ins that I got really good at them. Then I had people that would come to me for those flower clusters. That’s when I started developing my style. I was good at flowers so I’d put flowers in any design I could. I realized I really like working with black ink so when I’d talk to clients I’d talk them into letting me do it in black and grey. Then I was getting a lot of black and grey clients. Also the more time I spent on stuff I liked to do the less time I’d have for the walk ins.
Finally I came to a point were I felt like I needed to do my own thing. I wanted to feel like I was in charge of my own career. I wanted to make my own hours and take as much time off as I wanted whenever I wanted. I wanted to feel successful like the people who taught me.
There’s no speeding up your tattoo journey. If you cut corners it’s going to show in your work. If there’s any advice I’d give to my younger tattoo self. Or any baby tatters for that matter is to trust your journey. There’s no one road to this. You’re gonna make mistakes. You can’t escape that. Just love yourself and don’t beat yourself up. Haters are gonna hate. Drink water and take care of your back.

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

My name is Joi Bailey I’m from Denton Texas I’m 26 years old. I come from a big family. I’m in the middle of five. I’m currently living in Dallas with my corgi pearl and my cat Paloma. I’ve been tattooing for almost 5 years now I specialize in black and gray florals, black and gray realism and neo traditional. I really like tattooing anything nature or animals. The types of tattoos I do are normally medium or larger scale. I like to have my tattoos flow and contour with the body. The more organic a tattoo looks on somebody the more excited I feel about it. I would say I am most proud of the consistency I have with my clients. I stay booked and busy most of the time. It’s also a really proud feeling when I can make someone look and feel beautiful with my artwork. When my client is excited to sit in my chair, that makes me feel really great about my business.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Back when I was apprenticesing I had scheduled a client to Tattoo. We had talked about it that whole day. I was supposed to do some neotraditional cherries on her. The time comes for her appointment and she doesn’t show up. I was really looking forward to doing those cherries so I was trying to see if anybody else would want them. So I walked down the street asking strangers if they wanted to get this free cherry tattoo. Luckily I found a willing participant that was very kind and trusting. They healed up great too.

Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?

How about instead of buying an NFT you used that money to buy some original art that actually exist in real life. Or a tattoo. I can think of so many cooler things you can by. Maybe I just down understand, but I think it’s lame.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Joibaileytattoos
• Facebook: Joi Bailey

Image Credits
No credit