Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kylie James. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Kylie, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love for you to start by sharing your thoughts about the pros and cons of family businesses.

We have a four year old daughter that was there when we designed our shop. That was three months of pretty intense construction and stress, and she was there the entire time helping. She painted, and hammered, and ran around. When we were done and had to explain to her that now it was a shop and not a playground, she just started helping out. She sweeps up hair, she cleans chairs, she sits at the front and greets people. Involving families into businesses is really the best way to teach your kids to have confidence, to help out, and give them something special.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am am artist first and foremost. When I was four, I told my parents I wanted to be an artist and that was it. I studied Art History at University of Nevada Reno and then Graphic Design at the Art Institute of Los Angeles. When I was about 6 months from graduating, I started to get tattooed, and wondered how you got started in tattooing. I was extremely lucky that I got an apprenticeship after asking a couple questions on how to get started, and showing my portfolio. My apprenticeship was two years, with many ups and downs. But I started to tattoo and have stuck with it for 12 years. I opened a privates studio right when covid hit, that started my husband and I down the road of opening up a shop that combined tattooing and barbering.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

When I started my tattoo apprenticeship, my husband had started Barbering school. At some point we had read that back in the day of Barber Surgeons, Tattoo Artist would work out of the back of Barbershops. That fascinated us both, and even then, around 12 years, we mentioned we’d open up our own shop one day, half barbering and half tattooing. There’s an intrinsic connection between barbering and tattooing, a very simple desire to change your body in the way you want to. Barbershops and Tattoo shops work very similarly and the vibe is very much the same. So they work magically together.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

There’s been many things I’ve had to unlearn and relearn over the years. Once something starts working seamlessly its almost like I get too comfortable and everything goes off the tracks. For tattooing I think that has much more to do with technique. I started out thinking I was going to be a full color realism artist. I slowly started to shift that as I realized my strengths where in black and grey. And then fully realized it maybe ten years into my career and gave up color all together. But I think to keep your career moving, you have to reevaluate things from time to time and keep the things that are strengthening you and let go of the things that aren’t, even if that means a total shift in expectations.

Contact Info:

• Website: capuletpdx.com
• Instagram: kyliejames_tattoo capulet.pdx

Image Credits
Chad Whitaker