We recently connected with Nakota Garza and have shared our conversation below.

Nakota, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Any thoughts around creating more inclusive workplaces?

Tattooing inclusivity has come a long way since my start in 2008. In my first couple years of tattooing I was regularly rejected for being a woman. Multiple walk in clients chose to get tattooed by an under qualified male apprentice instead of me, a fully qualified female for no other reason than their inherent doubt in my abilities because of my gender. It was a strange idea to me that an industry full of outcasts in every form were still very much profiled for not fitting the image someone walking in off the street had of a “tattooer”.
In a way I can say the TV shows may have helped the general population get used to a visual of an artist apart from the “biker” look they grew up assuming.
Now, I couldn’t be happier to see so many beautiful new people of every diversity and identity take a love to tattooing and be welcomed in to this industry. I know there are still outdated mindsets to break from within our industry and clientele, but I’m happy to see so much progress in the last 15 years. Being a woman is no longer considered the hinderance it once was not too long ago.

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.

I was drawn to tattooing because I always had an intense passion for visual arts. I started oil painting at 15 and always loved working with my hands to create. To me, the best part of this entire journey is the connection developed with each client. Tattooing can be an incredibly healing and transformative art. To help someone who has placed so much trust in you to feel more in love with their body in an unmatched exchange of energy. My goal with every piece, every person, every appointment is to help each client feel more like who they truly are, more confident, and more at peace, when they leave the studio that day.
I have certain styles of tattooing that I personally love to do and feel I excel in including Art Nouveau based designs, floral, and a hybrid of neo traditional with realism elements.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I think things like YouTube and online instruction, even on a small scale can help build that “spark” that all of us creatives are chasing. When you’re able to understand and over come even small hurdles like figuring out how to realistically shade a sphere, that small win will fuel your next goal. It’s easy to get frustrated with building your skill to match your taste. A lot of us have great taste, we know what we want this project to look like in the end, we just need help breaking down the steps in a logical order to get there and that’s where consuming any instruction or tutorial will help guide you or give you the tools to get there. I think it’s also really important not to feel like you have to limit yourself to one style of art. The tools I learned in tattooing made me a much better painter and fashion designer, the lessons I learned in painting made me a more capable jewelry smith and so on. There is a lot of cross over ideas you can use when creating and I think it’s important to explore many mediums if you have the curiosity or desire.

Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?

This is a hard one. As much as I adore tattooing and being a creative, there is always a hustle needed. It’s not an industry where you can just relax at any point really. You have to constantly keep up with changing styles, social media marketing, client relations, etc all as a single person business. 7 years in to my career, when I felt confident in my abilities, I had moved to Germany for some time to tattoo in Europe and when I can back to Southern California it took a while to get settled and rebuild clientele, longer than I anticipated. I lived out of a hotel for a little while and found myself just demoralized on many occasion. I remember reaching in to my pocket and grabbing the very last $20 to my name to put gas in my car so I could drive myself to the studio and hope for a walk-in. I don’t think this is industry, at this point in time is cut out for people who do not have a tenacity and to some extent blind faith in themselves.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @Nakota13
• Other: Threads- @nakota13 TikTok- @nakotaart

Image Credits
John De La Torre