We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lauren Dupler. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lauren below.
Lauren, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
My entire life, I had always been drawn to the arts, but it never really came naturally to me. I have memories of being in my elementary school art classes, admiring the works of my peers and wishing I was half as good as them. When I was in 5th grade, I took a career day quiz and my results came back as an artist, a writer, or a musician. Looking back, that was pretty on-par for the journey I took in life. A few years later when I was in 7th grade, our local festival – the Oak Harbor Apple Fest – was hosting an art competition for all ages. I decided to enter by drawing these very 2000’s-style blue and red dragons, and to my complete shock, I won first place in my age category. My prize included several professional drawing pads and different drawing pencils and supplies and I truly think it was those art supplies that fueled my creative fire first. I had always been a very creative child and channeled my creativity through writing instead of drawing, but those supplies opened up a new door for me and I started drawing everything I could when I had the chance. But my dreams of becoming an artist quickly died when, only a short year later, my 8th grade art teacher told me I was closer to becoming the next Stephen King, not Vincent van Gogh, and perhaps I should focus my attention on writing instead of drawing. I often wonder what my life would be like had that teacher encouraged me to keep drawing and creating art.
Admittedly, I let that teacher’s words live in my head rent free for the next 15 years and every time I wanted to pick up the pencil to draw again, I found myself writing instead because I told myself I just wasn’t good enough. I stopped drawing almost completely and focused on other art forms and stuck with creative writing and photography. This was during a crucial time when technology was changing and rapidly evolving – print journalism started to die out as it became digital, and the same began happening with photography, too. The forms of art that I actually excelled at were rapidly dying, just as my dreams of becoming an artist did when I was in middle school.
There was never an “ah-ha!” moment for me that sticks out on when I decided that I needed to have an artistic career path. Today, looking at what I do as a tattoo artist and knowing myself individually, I can say with absolute certainty that my career makes total sense for who I am, but it was a long road with multiple detours that led me to where I am today. I have always known that I was happiness and felt most fulfilled when I was creating something artistically and it wasn’t until I left the corporate world that I realized I needed art to feel most like myself.
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.
My journey to becoming a tattoo artist actually starts with baking. I started baking at a very young age because it was one of the few ways I knew how to express myself. Everyone loved a good sweet treat, so it provided me with that instant gratification of making people happy. At only 8 years old, I entered a local baking competition for children and my chocolate chip cookies won first place. That really launched my love for baking into an entirely new atmosphere. By age 10, I had started decorating cakes and won several awards in local fairs and events. I still felt like something was missing but I focused quite a bit on baked arts and I always saw myself as becoming the next Duff Goldman or Buddy Valastro, watching shows constantly on the Food Network and dreaming of when it would be my turn to be up on the competition stage.
In 2019, after working full time in healthcare administration for 11 years, I made the decision to leave the corporate world and focus solely on having my own cookie business, called Laurelea’s Sweet Treats. I made extremely detailed and ornate salted caramel butter cookies, decorated with a caramel royal icing. I would very often hear, “Oh my goodness, these are too beautiful to eat!” I loved being a Cookie Artist and the journey to owning my own business was extremely hard, but also very gratifying. It also allowed me the opportunity to show my children that I was able to work hard and accomplish goals that were once just childhood dreams. While I loved creating edible works of art for people, inflation and the aftereffects of Covid-19 began to negatively impact my business and by the end of 2021, I found myself looking at other ways to use my skills as an artist.
By mid-2022, it was apparent that financially I would not be able to keep my doors open to my cookie business with the skyrocketing price of supplies. I had always loved tattoos, and had attempted to start an apprenticeship when I was 18. However, when the conversation came up with my mom at that time, she discouraged me from following that path and urged me to get into healthcare, and essentially follow her dreams. So my initial dream of becoming a tattoo artist at an early age was put on major pause. As I was assessing the future of my business in 2022, I felt this internal calling to revisit tattoos and felt that my skills as a cookie artist, especially creating ultra tiny fine-line details, would be beneficial and cross over into the tattooing industry. My biggest challenge – I didn’t have a portfolio so how was I going to land an apprenticeship?! None of my art was pen-to-paper, or what most would think of as traditional art. My portfolio was only Instagram pictures of thousands of cookies that I had made over the course of 5 years. So landing a traditional tattoo apprenticeship at an older age (31 at the time) while not having much to show for, as far as drawing skills went, was a little difficult. But I was extremely determined to make it happen and also to never return to the corporate workplace.
In October of 2022, I had the opportunity of a lifetime and officially started my apprenticeship and journey into tattooing. Over the course of nearly two years, I studied under two different female tattoo artists who were both initially cookie clients of mine before taking me in to teach me tattooing. I recently graduated my tattooing apprenticeship earlier this year and I’ve been working as a full time tattoo artist at Ellis Ink in Toledo, OH since July. This entire ride has certainly been an incredible experience. I can truly say that this has been not only the most challenging thing I’ve done in my life, but also the most satisfying. I have fallen in love with tattooing, and while it definitely does have it’s difficult days, I don’t think I would ever want to trade this for a different career.
My biggest regret with my creative career is that I didn’t start sooner. I do often wonder what my life would look like today, as a 34 year old mom of 4, if I had actually started my apprenticeship at age 18. Would I still feel the same way today about the craft, knowing that it has changed exponentially over the last decade? Would I even been in this career still, had I started all those years ago? I also wonder about the physical aspect of what life would be like for me today. What you can’t see in this written interview is someone who has also gone through an enormous physical change with losing over 160 lbs – would 18 year old me have been able to keep up with the physical demands that come with tattooing for a long time? I’m a firm believer that everything happens for a reason, so my path into tattooing did take a long detour, but I’m incredibly thankful for that journey. Had it not been for the many roadblocks I’ve faced throughout my adulthood, I don’t think I could actually appreciate this career and my fellow tattoo artists, or artists in general, the way I do now. And I truly do have the most incredible job – I get paid to create beautiful, permanent art on incredible humans who frequently share their own stories with me. Not everyone gets to say they have a badass job they love, but I’m one of the lucky ones that does.
As I transitioned from cookie artist to tattoo artist, I brought a lot of my cookie knowledge and skills with me. Since I was combining two art forms, I needed my previous followers to continue following me and move from one brand, one art, to another…from edible to permanent art. What better way to nod back to my past than include Her in the future? And that’s when Cookie was born. Cookie is this cute little persona of me, Lauren. She’s my little icon logo, the face in front of my face. In the very beginning of my apprenticeship, my mentor asked me to design something for my business card. I didn’t know how to create digital art. I only knew how to use royal icing to make art. I only knew cookies. So I made a cookie. Cookie is me and I am her, but she represents who I am. She has sparkly pink glasses – I have sparkly pink glasses. She’s kind of shy and timid, but loves glitter and rainbows and it’s like a dance party in her head at all times, usually some level of Taylor Swift. Cookie is also very poorly drawn since she was really my first digital creation. But I will never recreate Cookie – she’s practically perfect in every way.
One thing that also made my cookie artist brand easily recognizable was the color – lots of pink! So when transferring mediums, I wanted to bring the pink with me. All of my branding is bright pink, vibrant, and pastel rainbows that sparkle. It’s quite a vast contrast from what the tattooing industry is typically known as. This also kind of sets me apart from other tattoo artists local to me. Additionally, as someone who has struggled with severe anxiety from a young age, I wanted to figure out how to give my clients a better tattooing experience than ones I’ve personally previously had. The tattooing industry has changed, for the better, over the last decade and it’s wonderful to see the community being more progressive and catering to the needs of their clients. As a society, we see the value in being provided excellent customer service and we genuinely like to have positive and feel-good experiences. Let’s be honest – tattoos can be scary. And I want to make them more enjoyable for my clients. When you come to my room for a tattoo, the vibe is automatically warm and inviting. My room is painted with a custom mixed pink and I’ve painted a pastel rainbow mural on one of my walls. I’ve decorated my space with warm tones and what we like to call “maximalist” decor – think fun disco balls, pink skulls, fuzzy pink unicorn skeletons, and even rainbow dinosaurs. I have a few fun conversation pieces strategically placed in my room too, just in case.
As a mom of four, including two young girls, it’s extremely important to me to make my clients feel safe. The majority of my clients are young females, ranging from 16 to their early 40’s, and a large percentage of those clients are getting their first tattoo. I have worked really hard to build up my reputation as having a clean, safe, friendly and welcoming space for my clients and I absolutely pride myself on giving my clients a wonderful experience. I want to make this experience a great one for you! And when you leave, I want you to have everything you need to have a nice heal on your new tattoo, so I make up these cute little goodie bags for my clients. In my bags, which are also pink, I include a card with very detailed instructions on my aftercare, as well as quick tips to keep your tattoo healthy over time, so if you forget everything we discuss after your tattoo, no worries because I’ve got you covered. I also include a sample of my favorite aftercare, Hustle Butter, and a cute custom Cookie sticker, along with a few other goodies that I won’t spoil for you. Am I a little extra? Absolutely. But you deserve it because you just sat through me poking you with a bunch of needles and that calls for a little extra.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
This is a list of things I would love to tell some of the not-so-nicest people I’ve encountered over my lifetime:
– Even though I am a tattoo artist, I am not a human printer. I am a human.
– Asking for a discount of any sort is rude and disrespectful to all artists. Asking for a discount instantly tells me that you do not respect me as someone who has bills to pay or as an artist who has spent years improving my skills. If someone’s prices are not within your budget, find someone who is. You may sacrifice quality, but that’s not their fault as you set the bar with your budget.
– Your lack of planning does not constitute as an emergency for me. If I can fit you into my schedule, I absolutely will and I’ve been known to come in pretty frequently on my days off to fit clients in.
– Be patient. Artists can’t be creating if we’re constantly responding to messages. Sometimes, it will take us a day or two to get back. After tattooing for hours, sometimes we just need to mentally decompress and we don’t have it in us to instantly reply to a request.
– Be kind. We’re humans. With feelings. And we’re just doing our best.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
I get to create beautiful, permanent works of art that my clients wear for the rest of their lives. That’s absolutely incredible to me.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.ellisinktattoo.com
- Instagram: @Cookie.Inkz
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cookie.inkz
Image Credits
Marge Media