We were lucky to catch up with Oren Studer recently and have shared our conversation below.

Oren, appreciate you joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

At an early age, I had a natural talent for art, which my mom carefully and lovingly nurtured. On rainy days, she would cover the kitchen table with a large roll of blank newsprint paper, where my sister and I would color for hours. As time went on, and my skills improved, many friends and family members would tell me to pursue a career in art.

Even as a kid, my dream has been to earn a living making art in some capacity. In elementary school, I wanted to be an illustrator for Disney, in middle school and the beginning of high school, I wanted to draw comics. After my first heavy metal concert the summer between 10th and 11th grade however, I decided I wanted to be a tattoo artist. Seeing all of these people walking around at that show covered in vibrant art, and seeing an art form that seemed to be inextricably linked to the music I loved, I was hooked.

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?

After high school, I wasn’t confident enough in my abilities at the time to pursue an apprenticeship. I instead worked a bunch of dead-end jobs. Within a few years, my dad took his own life and I grappled with that loss through drinking, drugs, and partying. Eventually, I realized I couldn’t party forever and I needed to do something with my life, so I enrolled in the Art Institute of Minneapolis. I spent three years studying graphic design before dropping out because I spent more time at the bars than in class. I split to California from my hometown in Wisconsin after leaving college. I worked at a record store for a little while, and made the decision to get sober after struggling with addiction for most of my 20’s. I ended up working in a warehouse for a number of years, then the pandemic hit. Sitting at home during lockdown, I realized I hated the career I had found myself in, and I used that time to start drawing again with the intention of finally pursing tattooing.

I left California the summer of ‘21 for my hometown after the end of a relationship. I left a good paying job, turned in the keys to my small duplex and drove across the country back to Wisconsin. I had an overwhelming sense of defeat after working so hard to turn my life around and make something of myself for the past 5 years. Back home, and waiting to start a new job in yet another warehouse, I found myself in a restaurant with someone about my age who was heavily tattooed. After commenting on one of their pieces (an emblem of a band I enjoy), they sized me up and asked if I was a tattoo artist, to which I replied I was not but had always wanted to be. They told me the owner of the shop they worked at may be looking for an apprentice at the end of the summer, and to swing by with my portfolio. So, after I got off of my first day of work at the new warehouse, I loaded up every scrap of art that either I or my folks had held onto and made my way to this tattoo shop. I have never been more nervous for anything; either before or since. After going through my pieces with the shop owner Chris, and Cassie, the artist who had invited me in, he said he’d be in touch with his decision in two weeks or so. After seven sleepless nights, he called and told me we wanted to take me on as his apprentice. I finally had my foot in the door to follow my dream.

For the next two years, I worked some soulless day job to pay the bills and I would race down to the tattoo shop every day after my shift ended to learn the industry and the craft. My nights at the shop were filled with endlessly drawing roses, tracing flash, learning the importance of sterilization, and blood borne diseases. In the beginning, I would break down, then set up my mentor’s station, I would watch him tattoo, and then go back to my roses. Soon enough my mentor lent me some old rotary machines to begin tattooing. I tattooed pieces of foam at first to learn about needle depth, and then moved onto fake skin to practice shading. Cassie and I eventually made our way to the Milwaukee Tattoo Convention where I would buy my first tattoo machine, a Cheyenne Hawk Pen. I think I lasted maybe 48 hours owning my own machine before trying it out on myself. I attempted a skull I had drawn with a rose protruding from the top jaw. It turned out better than I expected, but it was clear I was not going to grasp tattooing as quickly as I had assumed. My first tattoo on another person was on my girlfriend (whom I had met just before leaving California), a small smiley-face on her wrist. It turned out surprisingly well, on one line could you tell how badly my hand was shaking from nerves. I spent much of my time at Sacred Image designing flash with Cassie, talking death metal with Chris, and asking both Chris and Cassie endless questions on stencil placement, limb position, or any other situation I had not yet encountered.

Last summer, I moved back to California and I have been continuing my apprenticeship at Tattoo Madness in Roseville, under a new mentor, Tito. My apprenticeship has been a humbling experience so far. While I may be a decent artist, this new medium has been a challenge to navigate. It has forced me to go back to drawing and its fundamentals. I have also begun to paint to work on my color theory, which has been fun to explore. I have seen my tattoos improve much in the last year as I study more than just tattooing itself. The biggest hurdle lately though, has been attracting a following and a clientele, while still working a day job. I have relied heavily on my girlfriend’s network of friends and fellow burlesque performers to get my feet wet again along with the walk-in clients who drop in. But the introduction into my partner’s world of burlesque has been invaluable in finding a creative community hellbent on supporting all artists, regardless of what their flavor of creativity might be. I have also attended various conventions and art shows with my new shop to promote ourselves, our tattoos, and prints of our hand-painted works.

I work six days a week, regularly 14 hours a day, between my day job and my apprenticeship. But, I have never pursued anything in my life as fervently, or as relentlessly, as I have tattooing. I am so grateful to each and every person who has trusted me with their ideas or their vision and has allowed me to help make it a permanent part of their image. I take great joy in hearing their stories, and turning what they see in their minds into a tangible piece. In a sense I am helping people to feel better about themselves, and doing so through art, which is the most meaningful thing I could do with my life, and has also given me a very clear sense of purpose.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I touched on it briefly, but really what drives me is finally having a keen sense of purpose. I have spent most of my life trying to figure out who I am and where I belong. Especially after getting sober, I had to rediscover who I was at my core, and I found that the answer has been with me the entire time. This is all I want to do with my life, and I will do whatever I need to do to that end. The long hours between two jobs are exhausting but the exhaustion is insignificant against the completion of my apprenticeship and one day soon jumping into this career with both feet. Eventually, I want to open my own shop. It’s a far-off goal, but it pushes me forward every day.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

For me, creating is a compulsion. At any given time, an idea will cross my mind and I have to get it out of my system. I’ve been at work, and had some thought that would be hastily sketched on a break, detailed on lunch, and then continued with reckless abandon at home into the early hours of the morning before my next shift. I’ve woken up out of a dead sleep with an image burned into my head that I need to put to paper until I’m sated. I’ll obsesses over ideas until I get to a place where I can work them out. What usually follows is a sense of relief that it’s out, and now I can go back to a kind of normalcy until the next one comes, but every once in a while I’ll create something that I makes me step back and really take in my work. That is far and away the most rewarding thing for me, that one piece in a hundred that gives me a sense of real accomplishment.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://tattoomadness916.com
• Instagram: @o.s.tattoos

Image Credits

Image of myself: credits to Loren Sweet