We were lucky to catch up with Karly Alberts recently and have shared our conversation below.

Karly, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?

Being self employed has its own unique set of stressors. Sometimes I have a lot of work to do, but life gets in the way, so I find myself pumping out drawings at 4 am. Sometimes I have to start work after the baby goes to bed and get home with a handful of hours to sleep before she wakes up. With that said, I now feel much more fulfilled when I finally lay my head on my pillow at night.

I’ve worked regular jobs before so I remember what it was like to leave work and just be done with work. It’s great. I’ve worked in jewelry stores selling expensive diamonds to wonderful and happy couples and I’ve also (this surprises my clients) taught at the high school level. In fact, I taught English, then photography, for about six years while tattooing at night. I was doing both full time but I wasn’t a math teacher so I never bothered to tally up the amount of hours I was working, nor did I want to.

I had constant moments in which I questioned myself, ‘Which direction should I go in?” “What will make me happiest?” “Can I even survive in Hawaii as a single school teacher?” On days when I’d finish tattooing at 10 pm and I knew I had to get to school early the next morning to set up projects for my photo class I would wonder if it were even possible to get enough sleep to function.

Finally, I just decided there would be a quit date. I’d save all my money, buy a little apartment, and then I’d quit one job or another. I bought the pace, really thought about what I’d want to be thinking about as I lay my head down on the pillow at night and I picked. I haven’t regretted choosing tattooing one single time and I just opened up a private studio named Musume Ink that I’m stoked to welcome my clients into. “Musume”is Japanese for ‘daughter’.

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 am just someone who truly appreciates art. I like being around it, talking about it, and I especially like listening to people talk about it, which is why I think I form such nice connections with my clients. When I’m tattooing them it feels like I’m articulating their story for them in a way they may not be able to themselves. Sometimes there’s a healing aspect to it, as in scar coverups or memorial tattoos, and sometimes there’s a truly joyful element to the creation process that is hard to describe. All I know is that this is my favorite thing to do and now I do it for work, which is the dream, right?

The funny thing about my current life path is that I never expected to be here. I was an art major for my first two years of college, which would make one think it was a natural transition into tattooing, but I actually didn’t get into my apprenticeship until I decided to give up on all my art degree aspirations. I would no longer be a painter. I would be a teacher, like my mom. I’d have to grow out my Mohawk and take all my piercings out when I graduated. Then, just like that, I ended up being invited to apprentice at a little shop in Waipahu and I found my new art form.

Of course, I finished school and taught for a bit. I went from a charcoal and paint covered student to a nervous apprentice. I tattooed and travelled for a bit then decided to teach, all the while trying to conceal the purple streaks in my hair. My eyes were always strained from tattooing so I wore sunglasses in the bright hallways and a leather jacket in the air-conditioned classrooms. At one job no one liked German death metal or thought late-90s era emo was fun, at the other job they got it. It was a weird time, but it lead me to the type of business owner I am: a tattooer that looks like a librarian.

I meant that to by funny, but it’s a little more true than I want to admit. In all seriousness, my varied experiences working with people, especially young people, taught me two things. 1: no one is cool to a teenager. Especially if you’re the one giving them rules and making them read and write. 2: everyone wants to be understood. I feel I’m blessed to be in the position where I can help people express themselves through their tattoos. My clients have stories and I’m there to help them tell them and, in the meantime, I’m touched by their stories too.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

My marketing strategy has always depended on word-of-mouth referrals. When I’m with the client I do my best to treat them with respect and do good work for them, then I send them out into the world. A friend tells a friend, or someone sees my work at the supermarket and strikes up a conversation with my client and then the process starts all over again. However, if I could go all the way back to the beginning, I would have put more effort into building a social media presence from the time I was an apprentice. I just wasn’t that into being on the phone. I know no one will believe I’m saying that now,but I really wasn’t into it ten years ago.

For all new artists, that’s the exact advice I would give them: start working on your social media presence now. You have no idea what people are on their browsers searching for. I just had a girl contact me for a piece that I’m fairly sure had just searched for ‘horse tattoos’, saw one of mine, and made an appointment with me after a couple of direct messages. She even left a nice review for me online. Imagine that, but an extra ten years of that. Future you will be happy you put in the effort.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

This is going to be a little out of left field but, to this day, I believe that all the answers to all the questions that could possible be posed are in Khalil Gibran’s, “The Prophet”. If you want to know about choosing your passion, teaching people, giving and sharing, it’s all in there.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: tattoosbyk.ko/instagram.com
• Other: [email protected] (shop page)

Image Credits
Karly Alberts