We were lucky to catch up with Mars Obsidian recently and have shared our conversation below.
Mars, appreciate you joining us today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?
Tattooing is a crazy lifestyle, a lot of it involves and insane mental battle with yourself and the artistic world. It turns you into a very open minded person in some ways and very closed-minded in others. You start to care so much for protecting the sacred side of the passion for the craft as well as understanding other artist minds, really any. Beyond tattooing you start to pick up different music tastes and put yourself in other artists shoes, other people’s shoes, you have to embody people as a mind reader at times.
Day one this isn’t easy, you get SO absolutely excited to be in this world. A high that’s unmatchable. More freedom, good money, true expression, all in one job. And who wouldn’t want that right? They say find a career that you love, you won’t work a day in your life.
Soon, let’s call it day two, met with stress, pressure, infinite stamps marking how much money your art at that time is worth, all of a sudden the whole world is perceiving you and every tiny detail of your art. The only thing you care about is your mentor and the idols you’ve picked up in this world. They’re intimidating, how could I ever be THAT good?
Day three, you put your blood, sweat and tears into it. You start loosing weight from stress, you live on Red Bull and bosco sticks (Shout out to my apprenticeship.) I ended up with a bad ulcer, couldn’t self moderate my emotional side, my social side, my social ANXIETY, my connection with other artists…Things got WEIRD.
Day four, let’s call it a year in now. The apprenticeship is over. Surprise! Now you’re out there, where do you even start on your own? Do I choose a specific style now? Everything I’ve learned has changed me to my roots. I could go anywhere, I could be anyone. But you’re careful, there are even more eyes on you now, infact the whole town knows you. When did I meet everyone?
It seems the hype wears off after that. You go into somewhat of an imposter syndrome. I wondered why I didn’t fall into any certain style type. Fighting with depression and inspiration all at once. No one in your personal life understands you, you don’t want to erase either side of yourself because your expression and who you are truly rely on the changing tides of your emotions.
Somewhere amongst your rambling, you start to say f*ck it. You stop caring about other people’s two cents on your life, you start to re visit who you really are, your lines get strong.
Your shades sculpt themselves differently,
Your friends can spot your art from a mile away,
Your loved ones and clients rave about you,
You find your passion again,
You find your style,
People feel that. You’re booked out. You’re proud of your art. You’ve made it.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Mars Obsidian Arts is a multi faced monster for sure. Everything I do fits into my business, Tattooing, Design, Commission art, Music, Performance art, craft classes and absolutely anything else my clients think up where they may need an artsy friend.
Have you ever had to pivot?
At one point when I was young, about at the start of my career. I was quite the leader of every friend group I had first starting out, (referencing the part of my story about self moderation here)
I was throwing parties, I was hosting events, I was picking everyone up daily, my house was the hangout, I was driving hours for everyone, I was paying as much as I could,
I loved my friends.
I exhausted myself.
I was insanely unhappy at the time with life in general, pretty lost but I loved to make my friends laugh and show them the things that drove me.
I stressed bad about this, so bad I made myself sick, very sick, for years.
I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis, basically my stress was eating me.
As healthy as I tried to be I was putting a face on daily. My dreams were in the back burner, I was working hard in the foreground but in the background thought about my childhood dream frequently.
Now when I was a child, I ran. That’s it.
If I was upset I would absolutely book it through the woods. This was liberating, it purged my stress and kicked my creativity into overdrive. So I wondered what would happen if I ran to somewhere else? How far could I go? Who could I be?
I was somewhat of a forest gump
(I hope that made someone laugh lol)
In all seriousness, I wanted to travel so bad. Something about a tattoo artist and a the pure lust for freedom and traveling. It’s an unspoken part of our blood and all of us have it.
So I did it. The things I found took my career to places I could never dream of. I found the coolest tricks and styles out there, I saw colors and shook hands, I changed time after time after time and made thousands of friends. We had talks, we took hikes, we learned new things, we got locked in during Covid, we took chances, I raised other artists, I NEVER regretted a thing.
I’m entirely different now. I know my peace well, and how to communicate better, how to deal with crazy situations, and how to stop when things are too much. Compartmentalizing my brain and being able to rest mentally was huge. Learning how to do business in the smartest possible way, how to use money, how to make it. I had help. A lot of it. Little bits from a thousand people truly. My art comes from little bits from a thousand experiences, truly.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
Let em be weird. Someone’s got to do it, right?
Contact Info:
- Website: https://venue.ink/@marsobsidianarts
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/noonelikesacustomartist?igsh=MThzc2xrYnJ1Yjc0Yw==
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/18Dkzue8pX/
Image Credits
Inkblot Arts/Michelle Premer Photography