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

Richard, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

I was 25, full time active duty air force, then sometimes in the evenings, I tattooed. After I got out of the Air Force, I didn’t think I could sustain a living by only tattooing, so I got a job as a lineman at a Golf Course, installing and laying pipe. I had been struggling for about 4 months to pay my bills and live a happy life, when there was an accident at the Golf Course where I almost lost my thumb. It got me thinking about how much money (or little) I made and how it wasn’t worth the risk of not being potentially able to tattoo, so I ended up quitting my pipe laying job that day.

Once I quit, I made that mental switch, to where this is what I was going to do, all or nothing. Nothing was going to stop me and because I quit the security of having a steady pay check, I had no other choice but to hustle at making tattoos. I worked at 2 different shops during that time, to get as many hours as I could to keep me afloat. Did that for about a year before moving back to Ohio, confident that moving back would give me a more flourishing career.

I was disappointed when I moved back to Ohio that I still wasn’t making as much money as I had hoped. I was working so many hours while still living with my parents. Small town shops weren’t cutting it for me, so I moved to Columbus. Columbus was still a smaller city than

Then my son was born and I was challenged to be a single, full time dad and make a living full time as an artist. I had to quit working at the street shop, due to the hours. At that time, Durb Morrison offered me a spot in his private studio, Red Tree Tattoo Gallery. That gave me the freedom to work hours that allowed me to be both the father I wanted to be to my son, while doing what I love, making tattoos.

If I had treated my career like I treated my role as being a father, I would be expontionally more success now. What I mean is, I took being a father serious. I nurtured my son with consistent love, understanding, patience and grace (the grace part was really hard to give myself, but 1 got better at that as the years went by.) Had i nurtured my career the same way I did my son, I honestly believe, more success would have followed.

The takeaway would be, treat your career like a kid. Every day you have to show up, nurture, teach, love, be patient and above all else, never give up.

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?

I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, but I knew I wanted to be covered in tattoos! College wasn’t for me. Luckily, I only wasted 3 months of my time before I accepted that fact and joined the military. In the military, I learned to tattoo and got enough practice to land me a job in the states after my time served. I bounced around from New England to Northern Ohio, eventually landing in Columbus, where I opened my own private studio, GreyStone Tattoo Company, in Gahanna, OH. I have 8 amazing artists working out of GreyStone, all talented in their own style of tattooing. I was fortunate to have been given my first opportunity to work at a private studio from Durb Morrison, who was an exceptional mentor and teacher in not only tattooing, but business as well. I like to think I give that to the artists that call GreyStone home.

I think something that sets me, Richard Cook the tattoo artist, apart from other tattoo artists, is experience and my willingness to admit my failures and learn from them, always trying to be a better artist and listener, so I can continue to give my clients not only some sweet art, but a lot of times what I create, gives them a form of self-love or confidence they wouldn’t have without the tattoos. So, I try to always listen to what the tattoo actually means to them and then put my spin on it.

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

In one word, freedom. Freedom to do what I want, to go where I want and all on my time table. This has been a factor that’s been so important to me my whole life. I even adopted the ink name of “Freedom feet.” I could go on and on about all the different ways freedom has been the most rewarding aspect of my career path

I love the freedom of the creativity I get to express, the freedom to control my schedule, how I handle challenges and or opportunities and above all else, how much time I let my professional life overflow into my personal life. I have to say after almost 25 years in this industry, I can proudly say I have always led a life full of freedom. Ironically, that time abruptly ended In April of this year when I was diagnosed with Plasma Cell Leukemia Secondary. I have to laugh because I had built a life based on being free of orders, schedules and proper procedures. Then over night (actually it was more like 8/9 months), I felt all my freedom had been stripped away and it was replaced with order, schedules, proper procedures, the system. I’m fighting like hell to get my freedom back and I will. I will not only live a life of freedom again, I will live a life where I feel free of cancer.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Becoming a father for the second time.

I was 31 years old, living the time of my life! I had a brand new studio apartment with all new everything, a two-seater sports car, a motorcycle and a shitzu named Gary, that i named after one of the characters from one of my all-time favorite movies, Weird Science. I was having a blast in life doing conventions, tattooing my butt off, stacking cash and partying just as hard. Until a phone call changed everything. A got a call telling me I had a 6 month old son and was asked if I could watch him for the night. I was floored. I had another son when I was active duty in the military. I wasn’t able to be a part of his early years in life and that was something I most deeply regretted and always told myself if I had a chance to be a father again, I was going to take it. I’m not sure when I thought about being a father again, did I ever think it would have gone the way of that phone call and within 48 hrs, I went from being a single dude without a care in the world, to being a dad with no experience, no family near by, nothing to help navigate what fatherhood is. Unfortunately, my son’s mother passed away 5 years later, due to alcoholism. So from the time he showed up in my life, I was kind of just winging it on my own, with very little help from anyone.

Becoming a dad obviously affected my job most dramatically, as I had to cancel or reschedule appointments, due to becoming a father overnight with no support system. My parents helped as much as they could, but they lived 2 hours away, so that wasn’t feasible or practical most of the time. Luckily, I got hired at a private studio, where I had that freedom I was talking about, to make my own time and schedule, many times tattooing with the kid sleeping in the car seat next to me, while I slowly got babysitters lined up and my sh** figured out. I absolutely fell in love with being a dad. I didn’t know what everyone was talking about when they talked about how kids cost you so much money. This kid, he didn’t cost me any money! He made me tons of money because I couldn’t go out and party anymore, I had to stay home to take care of him. So i drew and I drew and I got better at tattooing and art and I owe that all to my son.

I would consider having my son one of the greatest pivotal moments of my entire life, not just my career and one of the greatest rewards I’ve ever experienced.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.greystonetattoo.com/richardcook
• Instagram: @freedomfeet
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/richardclcook

Image Credits
Karli Moore Photography LLC