We recently connected with Natisse Thomas and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Natisse , thanks for joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?
I’ve always been an artist, since I was little. My mind is always going and things like meditation and being still are hard for me. There’s something about creating something, whether it’s painting, drawing, crafting, or tattooing, it’s the only time my mind quiets down and I can stay on place. Creating art has always been my form of meditation.
I wanted to be an artist but when I was graduating high school, but making a living selling paintings and drawings didn’t seem like a valid option. The practical option was college, get a degree in something that was a “REAL JOB”, but college just didn’t seem right for me at the time. I was a bit lost with the pressure of choosing which career I was to pursue for the rest of my life. I decided I could go school anytime but right now I didn’t know what I would study so I didn’t want to waste the time and money, and I needed to be able to support myself financially right now.
The first risk I took was not going the traditional college route and choosing a trade school instead. I went to beauty school. I could go part time at night while having a full time job during the day. It was awesome. There was so much to learn, it was a creative and fun environment and I really enjoyed the experience. I graduated a year and half later and was working full time in a salon right away. I did hair for 10 years. It was an incredible career I got to start very young, it supported me financially. It wasn’t selling my drawings or paintings but I’d found a way to be an artist and make a living. I would still paint, and craft and create artwork at home and I participated in art shows whenever I had the opportunity.
After 10 years of doing hair I got the opportunity to learn how to Tattoo. I was 29, I had a successful career in the beauty industry and the thought of starting all over in a new career was daunting, but I was literally just offered the opportunity to do my dream job! I could be the kind of artist I always wanted to be and make a living from it. But I had to start all over and it was going to be really hard, takes a lot of dedication and I would have to do it the same way I did before, I’d need to still support myself by working and then dedicate every other ounce of time I had outside of work to my apprenticeship. I was nervous. It was a huge risk to just up and switch careers and let go of my hair career but it honestly didn’t take much thought. I immediately said yes, I was determined to figure it out and I knew if I took the risk and committed I’d have to figure it out.
It was really hard. I was always exhausted and it pushed me to limits I didn’t know I had, but ultimately I made it to the other side. It was one of the most rewarding experiences and a decision that has truly changed my life. I feel like this was what I was truly meant to do. The hard work and sacrifices I had to make to get through my apprenticeship had more than paid off. Tattooing has not only fulfilled my dream of making a living as an artist but it has allowed me to really explore who I am as a person and who I want to be. I have gone through so much change and growth over the last 8 years and in another 2 years I’ll have been tattooing as long as I did hair. It’s wild how fast it went by. I am so glad for the risk that I took in switching careers and I’m so grateful for incredible opportunity that was gifted to me to change my life.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
The risk I took in changing careers at 29, starting over and leaving behind a career that had been so good to me paid off in a big way. Now, my husband and I own a successful private tattoo studio in South Lake Tahoe, California. We took on an apprentice that we trained together, she’s been out of her apprenticeship for about a year now and works with us at the studio. It was such an amazing experience to teach someone how to tattoo with my husband and pass on the opportunity that I was given. We are such an incredible team and I couldn’t be happier with the environment we have created within our studio. It’s truly our dream tattoo studio and so proud of what we have created.
Our motto is conscious and compassionate body art in a friendly and inclusive environment. I believe the experience at our studio is a unique one that you won’t soon forget. We focus on custom tattoos and are appointment based but we will take walk-ins whenever we have the time.
I feel so grateful for the opportunity I had to have taken this path. I wouldn’t be here without my husband Jason. I feel honored to work beside him and our tattoo child Cat, both of whom are amazing artists. The 3 of us are the Needle Peak Tattoo family and we are constantly pushing ourselves and eachother to keep growing and evolving as both artists and humans.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
The most rewarding part of being a creative for me is sharing my art with other people and connecting to people through my artwork. It’s a very vulnerable thing to share your art with other people and even more so publicly on social media. I think most creatives are very self critical so getting the nerve to publicly share your art take a lot. It takes time to build that confidence and get over the fear of being judged. There’s a lot of self work that goes into building that confidence within yourself. The catch 22 is if you don’t put yourself and your artwork out there you definitely won’t be seen and you won’t be able to make a living doing your art. I try to look at it like this, specifically with social media where I feel the most vulnerable, by putting my art out there the people that like my style will find me and the ones that don’t will just keep on scrolling, and when I do get the validation from those that connect with my work it’s so rewarding. I still get nervous and hesitate sometimes and it can be discouraging when the artwork you think will get noticed doesn’t but you’ll never find out if you don’t try.
The absolute best reward however, is my actual clients that I get to share my art with. Whether it’s my own personal designs, bringing to life my clients ideas for a custom piece, or immortalizing a significant moment with a small and simple but well done tattoo, experiencing the joy the client feels afterwards because of my art, no matter what it is or how big it is, will always be the absolute best part
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
Well most creatives are usually small business owners or self employed and I think if a person hasn’t done that before, especially as their sole income, then they can’t really understand the amount of work that goes into working for yourself or running a small business. I see people complaining about prices when it comes to art and it’s obvious they don’t understand everything that went into making or creating it. And that goes for any small business. There is so much that happens behind the scenes before the product or service gets to the customer, all of which is being done by either 1 person or a small group of people. A small business owner or self employed person is working 24/7, they don’t get to just clock in and out and go home and not think about work. (I am actually doing this interview at 11pm right now on my “day off” to help promote myself and my business because I haven’t had time in my work week to complete it).
Running a business by yourself means you are the owner, manager, practitioner, assistant, bookkeeper, social media manager, content creator, receptionist, cleaner, supply runner, anything and everything that needs to be done. There’s also licensing and business taxes to keep up on, emails to respond to, pictures and videos to take, websites to build, I mean it’s honestly never ending. There are no true days off or only certain hours you work, and most of us don’t have any benefits, no paid time off or paid sick days, no health or investment benefits.
With tattooing specifically our clients don’t see how much time goes into corresponding back and forth, giving free consultations to talk about their ideas, the hours and hours of researching to prepare to create a design, time dedicated to learning new techniques to improve your skills, sketching and re-sketching and refining their design before we even get to the tattoo part, which is the only part we actually get paid for. On top of that we are spending a ton of time doing all the other stuff that is required to be self employed. So yes, that time needs to be factored in when deciding your pricing, because our time and energy, the toll taken to our bodies, our skill level and dedication to our craft should be compensated.
When I’m at the studio I am tattooing all day, there’s hardly ever much time to work on my upcoming appointment designs while I’m there, so all of the drawing and designing I do to prepare for my appointments happens at home in my “off” time. This works for me because I absolutely love what I do and I can’t believe that I get to draw for a living and have my dream job but it’s still a TON of work and our clients don’t really see any of that. Honestly you gotta really love it to get yourself to do that much work so if a creative is doing it then they are incredibly passionate about what they do and they absolutely deserve to be compensated for it.
Contact Info:
- Website: Www.needlepeaktattoo.com
- Instagram: @natisse_tattoos
- Other: Studio Instagram: @needlepeaktattoo.com Tiktok: @natisse_tattoos