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

Justin , looking forward to hearing all of your stories 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.

Learning how to tattoo is a lot about learning from your mistakes. Knowing what I know now, I would say accepting failures would help myself grow faster. The most essential skill is patience when it comes to tattooing. A huge obstacle in the way of learning more would be ego, I find that tattooing is more mental than physical.

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.

I first got into tattooing right out of college, not happy with the result of my education I decided to take a chance with tattooing. Not fully knowing it would turn into the career I have today. I provide a different take on modern tattooing, with primarily doing Neo traditional. I also do other styles to keep growing while providing versatility to my clients. My clients come first, I try to help guide them to the best outcome with working with their ideas and create together to ultimately come to the right balance for the piece they will carry for the rest of their life. I am most proud of the ability to understand that although I am creating the art, it is my clients piece of artwork. Customer service comes first, while creating a beautiful piece that will stand out.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I feel the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is the reaction from clients. Sending them home with a piece of art they will love year after year.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

I feel something that people that don’t create struggle to understand is how much time and effort goes into the day to day. As such with most things we do in life it takes time and effort to achieve being great at whatever we choose. Although I feel when we do get to that point it can appear easy, but that is far from the truth. Understanding someone who creates is mostly having trust they have your best interest in knowing what will work and look the best.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @greenbaybully

Image Credits

Justin Harris