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

Lauren, appreciate you joining us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I taught myself how to handpoke tattoo while in my last year of college, and in my little cottage in the woods in Boone North Carolina. I have loved the process of learning to tattoo, and I believe that every step in the process happened at exactly the right time. When I first became interested in the craft, there really wasn’t that much information out there on the process and guidelines of handpoke tattooing, so that left a really lovely liminal space of potential for what it could, and has, become. I think having the freedom and ability to play and not have a structure for how this specific medium is supposed to look was really a turning point, since it is so technically different from tattooing with a machine. I believe this has allowed artists to really fine-tune the intricacies that hand-poking can achieve in the tattoo world.

Lauren, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I started tattooing in 2017, while in the midst of my senior year of undergrad at Appalachian State University. I graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, while focusing my studies in drawing, painting, graphic design, and photography. All of these studies helped me to be able to market for myself and my small business and create a community of people who are interested in similar wonders of the world. I want this community to know me as a real living breathing human being in this online world where we may sometimes forget the rawness of humans. I want to expand together in our relationship to the natural world around us and people to connect with me in that way as well. I think that these connections are prevalent both in my mixed media work and in my drawings and tattoos.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I think that building an audience on social media is such a tricky thing to nail down, honestly. We have to take in to account what time people are more likely to be viewing images and information, the algorithm that allows our work to be shown to wider audiences, the types of content you’re sharing, and more and more and more. And quite honestly, some part of me has this fear that social media will not last forever. It’s this bubble of space that we’re occupying a platform on, and it can be a super powerful and transformative space to be in, but much as we think that it matters how many followers or interactions you receive, I think that truly giving your clients or people viewing your work good experiences (both in person and online), and making sure they feel truly seen as a human being is of such a higher importance than a number on an internet site. I know highly successful small business owners who have less than 1000 followers, and people who have 30,000 followers that do the same amount of business. I think at some point, it all comes down to word of mouth, and building that community of people who truly and will always connect with your work, regardless of a social media platform in the middle of it all.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My newest vision for my creative journey is to just be the absolute least stressed I possibly can. To try not to put all this pressure on my work, because that’s not what fills my cup. What fills my cup to the brim is truly connecting to my surroundings and my work in a visceral and honest wholly non-judgemental way. To be the most present in each moment, and to soak that good stuff in. To breathe crisp and frosty air into my lungs during the short days of winter, and to play and dance and sing in the rivers in the hot sticky summers. To create things based on my human experiences in all days and in all times.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.laurencollinsartdesign.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mossysticks/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/laurencollinsartdesign/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-collins333/