We were lucky to catch up with Kaia Culver recently and have shared our conversation below.
Kaia, appreciate you joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?
In high school, I was always drawing. I never took an art class, but I would always be drawing on any surface I could find, in my journal or on my friend. I even did henna on my free time, as if the need to draw was an itch I constantly needed to scratch. I never thought of it as anything serious, it was just something I enjoyed. All of my friends always told me I should tattoo when I was older, but I had no idea how to get into that field. After high school, I went to a community college, and so I was 19, a business major, and going to college to complete my associates degree in General Science. I had no idea what I wanted to do, so my plan was to finish that off and then find a well-paying job right after graduation. My big change happened during my sophomore year, when my dad recommended I take a charcoal drawing class, because he believed that I would do more good in a creative field. I decided it was a good idea, so I took two semesters of a charcoal drawing class and absolutely fell in love with it. After that point, I decided I wanted to redirect my career to a more creative one and ended up acquiring a tattoo apprenticeship before I even finished my degree. I’ve been tattooing professionally ever since.
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.
Honestly, I stumbled my way into the tattoo industry. When I was 20, I went to a tattoo shop after I began my charcoal drawing classes in college. Not only did I end up leaving with a cool new tattoo, but an apprenticeship too. This was a huge surprise because I was not originally looking for an apprenticeship at all, and it all happened over the course of one tattoo. Currently, I am a black and grey realism/surrealism tattoo artist, and I tend to focus on micro-realism. In addition to being a tattoo artist, I am a senior in college in a state I have never lived in before. I am going to school for psychology and would eventually like to apply it to my tattooing. I think that an important aspect of tattooing is not only the artwork, but the people/clients and the relationships I can build with them through my art. I am proud of how much I have grown from the age of 20-23, and of all of the artistic, personal, and general growth I have gone through at this point in my career. In the future, I would like to continue growing as an artist and continue to put a smile on the faces of the people I meet.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
My main goal in my career is to help others throughout their journey of life, no matter what backgrounds, experiences, or places they come from. I personally believe that one of the best aspects of my career is seeing the reactions after finishing a tattoo, and the instant gratification I get every time. After an especially long tattoo, it is so rewarding to see my clients look in the mirror with a smile on their face.
How did you build your audience on social media?
Social media plays a huge role in the tattoo industry. It is how we gain clientele and it is essentially a public portfolio. When I was a tattoo apprentice, I made an Instagram and Tiktok specifically for my drawings. I would post photos of my drawings and videos of the process, and in general any content I could make. I built my audience by being constantly active and throwing my personality into the mix, adding the emotional touch that I think makes all the difference. My best advice for those just building their social media is to post everyday, make reels/videos especially, and to most importantly (but also most cliche) be yourself. It is hard to not feel discouraged if you are posting and not getting much interaction or immediate growth, but keep posting because consistency really is key! The engagement in your posts will eventually come, it just has to reach your niche audience.
Contact Info:
Image Credits
@artbykaiac