We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Malcom Rauch a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Malcom, appreciate you joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

Roughly around three years ago I was working a regular job with crazy hours, 4:30 AM to 4:30 PM sometimes even longer. Then I will come home and work on my craft or dedicate that time to my family. I’ve always pictured myself being my own boss so there would be some days at work where I had to reevaluate myself. Like is this really what I want to do, are you settling for less? The job paid well but again I never wanted to work for someone else. Prior to working the job I was on and off playing football and acting, but I knew overtime and because of age I needed to think of something more realistically. Around the last four months of working I start a tattoing which then I only had one client a week on a good week sometimes two clients but I could see the potential than what I was doing. As time went on I had more clients every single week. I got to one point where I had to make a decision to quit my job and start my tattoo business or continue to work 12 hour shifts. I eventually quit my job and bet on myself. And humbly it’s the best thing I could’ve ever done for me and my family. Towards that last month of working my regular job it got to a point where I only had $20 in my bank account because I was putting so much money into my vision and my business that I had to remind myself every day that if I fail and I crumble I can only blame myself. So once I quit my job I was very disciplined to wake up in the morning and do whatever I needed to do to get my business Boomin. From then I’ve learned without taking a risk in life you will never see what you’re capable of accomplishing.

Malcom, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

For the ones that don’t really know me, I was born in Tokyo Japan, my mom was an Olympic swimmer after she had me she stop swimming. Growing up we didn’t have the best relationship but I always looked up to her as greatness and that’s something that I wanted to be. In my head if she can do it I can do it and I was determined to make her and my family proud. I played football most of my life so that’s really all I knew but one day after practice, a lady came up to me and asked if I wanted to be in a movie which I’ve never done. I ended up going to a tryout and they loved how athletic I was and on camera I can make the Sportscene look so natural so they use me for a lot of stunts over the years which is how I got into acting, throughout time I was acting and playing football as well as working when I didn’t play but within all that I’ve always been an artist since I was little I drew on everything, which then I transitioned my art into tattooing.
I feel like my service and my creativity is something that is very unique because the way I can vision things and put stuff together then say I’ll tattoo it on the clients I love seeing their reaction in their smile when they get to see the finished product. But what really sets me apart from others is my determination and my discipline and how driven I am to be so successful in everything I do even being a father.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

I feel like the depending on where you live for myself I’m in the Dallas area. Our time I’ve noticed that there’s a lot of selfishness around. I feel like sometimes we have to look past that and be proud of our peers and support them because I feel like that goes along way. I’ve had different artist feel envious because I’ve only been tattooing for 2 1/2 years and I’m so great at it that I feel like some other artist are feeling a type away because they’ve been in the game for a long time but I feel like sometimes in that situation that we support each other and help each other succeed we can all eat

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I and this case money isn’t everything but I’ve worked so hard that humbly I’m able to take care of my family financially. But like I said I love and I enjoy seeing the smiles on my clients face when I do a tattoo for them or even as a production designer I’m able to book locations that some people have never seen or can’t get so it makes me feel good after seeing the finished product I was able to be a part of something great

Contact Info:

• Instagram: JustInkBoutIt, & malcomjax
• Facebook: Malcom Jackson

Image Credits
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