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

Hi Renee , thanks for joining us today. Owning a business isn’t always glamorous and so most business owners we’ve connected with have shared that on tough days they sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have just had a regular job instead of all the responsibility of running a business. Have you ever felt that way?

A few years after moving to Texas I remember feeling very frustrated with the tattoo industry, I repeatedly worked at street shops and as fun as it could be at times I felt very worn down by the long hours, having to be there weather it was busy or not and just doing what ever came into the shop. I have always pushed to do anime tattoos in some way but the popularity just hadn’t hit yet. I started to feel like after 8 years maybe this industry wasn’t for me anymore and genuinely felt unhappy about my job.

I ended up putting myself through school to pursue something else I’ve always wanted to do which was game design. I fully intended on quitting tattooing once I finished my degree and moving out of Houston or maybe Texas completely. I truly loved game design it had always been a second passion of mine and I feel I was very good at it, I focused on 3d modeling props and environments . I worked really hard between tattooing and school, it was a really exhausting few years. Once I finally graduated I spent the next year working on my portfolio to start applying for jobs. In the background I was also still pushing and building my anime clientele and things had started to really kick off in that department.

Then Covid hit, and it was around the height of that time that I realized maybe now is not the best time to throw my career away and move to a new state, things got shut down here and I remember having to reschedule a bunch of people making me realize just how busy things had gotten for me. I spent the time at home working on drawings and doing 3d side jobs from home. I feel like the whole Covid panic made me stop for a second and realize how much I had built here finally, Covid affected so many things negatively and it was a very weird time for me because while so many were struggling it was one of the best years of my life, my clientele had boomed, I finally decided to become a business owner, and I just felt like I was thriving. It was a very scary time to decide to finally open my own place but my gut kept telling me it was the right move.

Ever since I truly started working for myself business has been amazing and I am definitely here to stay. My clients have no idea how much they saved my love for this career, I was half way out the door but they pulled me back in the best way. I love game design and I don’t regret for a second going to school. It was something I had to try so I could put my mind to rest and make sure I had no regrets. I also don’t think I could work for someone else at this point in my career I am very happy where I am at.

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?

At this time I am going into my 12th year as a tattoo artist. I started out at regular walk in shops and back in an era before social media mostly, Instagram had just come around when I finished my apprenticeship and it was not used in the capacity that it is now. It has been interesting to see how much the industry has changed, in my opinion for the better, in that span of time.

My road in this industry has never been easy and I am proud of the shop and clientele I have built. I am originally from CT and spent the first six years of my career building my clientele there. I then moved to Texas and had to start over, It was a jarring experience to feel like I had to start from the bottom again but once I found my footing here I started to really push for the style I wanted to focus on. I’ve had people say things to me like “you’re so lucky you get to tattoo anime all the time!” as much as I’m sure they don’t mean it offensively luck has nothing to do with it. I pushed for this and worked hard for it. I followed and studied artists work who I admired to help me improve, I always have and still do spend a lot of my own time learning and drawing anime and when I didn’t have the clientele for it I built it by drawing pieces I wanted to do and doing them for really cheap deals so I could then advertise my preferred style more.

The thing that would set me apart from others in this field is the fact that I care immensely about what I do, I spend a lot of time on each drawing, I always try to change up things even if its the 10th time I am tattooing a character as to give my client a custom piece. I also care a lot about having a comfortable shop space for my clients and having good bedside manner which I feel is really lacking I this industry to this day.

Does your business have multiple or supplementary revenue streams (like a ATM machine at a barbershop, etc)?

This past year I have been moving into selling merchandise, mostly art prints of my work, stickers and resin art. It has been a fun and refreshing way to produce some extra revenue. I think its important to try things like this as a tattoo artist because we can only physically tattoo so much and take it from someone who has done it for more than a decade; tattooing can be pretty unkind to your body. A lot of tattoo artists deal with hand, wrist, neck and back pain. I really make sure to take care of myself physically to help keep these issues at bay but they are just a part of our industry. This got me thinking how can I make some extra revenue that doesn’t involve more physical demand from me tattooing. A coworker of mine and I have been attending local art markets and selling our merch and have online shops as well which has been really fun and profitable so far. It also allows me to draw for myself again, I love drawing for my appointments but its nice to draw something with complete freedom at times. I also enjoy multiple creative outlets as it keeps me motivated and fresh. I would recommend any artists try this not just tattoo artists! get out there and sell your art its fun and a great way to meet other artists!

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Authenticity and consistency are my strong suits, along with being a hard working perfectionist. I think these things are what help build my clientele and keep people coming back. Consistency is so important in this field and I also try to be very transparent with my clients so they understand why I do things the way I do, weather that be my booking process, why I am taking on less appointments at the time or what I would like to work on in the future. The support from my clientele has been amazing and I really owe my career to them because what is a tattoo artist without clients? we are nothing. I try my best to be fair with who gets appointments which can be very hard to juggle the busier I get, I have had some people get frustrated or impatient because they repeatedly tried to get a spot but it just didn’t work out for them but I try my best , I don’t let people bribe me into getting a spot and I don’t cherry pick which I feel a lot of bigger artists do.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://mommybucciarati.bigcartel.com/
• Instagram: @the_bebop