We were lucky to catch up with Sarah Twigg recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Sarah thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Looking back at internships and apprenticeships can be interesting, because there is so much variety in people’s experiences – and often those experiences inform our own leadership style. Do you have an interesting story from that stage of your career that you can share with us?
My Apprenticeship started differently than most, I had been working towards getting an apprenticeship with my tattoo artist at the time, Chago and we had grown close and begun a great friendship. It took me almost 2 years to convince him to apprentice me and within those two years we had kinda fell for each other. I was more interested in the apprenticeship part at first and I really didn’t want a relationship getting in the way of my goals, but he convinced me we could make it work. So we moved to Durango Colorado together and I tried to get an apprenticeship at his shop but there was no opportunity. Not really vibing with the town itself anyways, we decided to get a travel trailer and move into it full time to travel and do guest spots. That’s when my apprenticeship started. 13 states and many guest spots later, I had done everything I could in every shop we went to to be involved, learn the way they do things and pitch in and help with things like cleaning, setting up, scrubbing tubes, helping organize and other apprentice tasks. I gained so much experience through this trip, figuring out how each shop did things differently. So many artists were willing to help me with my designs, give me advice, or just share tips and tricks on various tattoo things.
Im also a keen observer of personalities and attitudes and I was able to categorize tattooer profiles and the morals and ethics that coincided with their approach to tattooing. I noticed how sometimes a persons ego really got in the way of their capacity to provide a cultivated experience for their client, and how clients often left with a bad taste in their mouths after a negative experience with some of these artists and how the artists didn’t seem to care about it. I also noticed how these particular artists made it somewhat uncomfortable to work with them in the shop and created an atmosphere of animosity sometimes, that even the clients could pick up on. On the opposite spectrums I noticed that some tattooers who lacked confidence but were very talented didn’t instill confidence with their clientele or peers. Seeing both sides of the spectrum really opened my eyes to the fact that tattooing isn’t just your skill level and talent, its your attitude and approach to clients, ability to cultivate personalized experiences for your clientele, ability to take constructive criticism from your peers, follow through, effort, organization, morals and ethics, determination and consistency, and in my opinion most importantly the passion and care to create something that is going to impact another human being for the rest of their lives. We are totally in control of the memory each person associates with the tattoo that’s on their body for the rest of their lives, and if you consistently provide a positive experience you’re more likely to be successful.
using all of this experience in my apprenticeship we eventually got hired at a very traditional and masculine street style shop. This was a shop that promised camaraderie and a family type atmosphere, which is what Chago and I were seeking. Of course, things aren’t always as they appear and this turned out being the most challenging part of my apprenticeship. I was told things like “women don’t belong in the tattoo shop” and ” that’s not real tattooing, only traditional tattooing is real tattooing” “you slept your way into this industry and we all know you’ll leave him as soon as you get what you want” plus a plethora of sexist comments about my body. I got banned from tattooing multiple times for things like not blending my blues right in my 3rd month of tattooing. Not wanting to seem like because my mentor and I were in a relationship that he favored and took it easy on me, we stayed extremely professional at the shop and he went along with any punishment the owner of the shop seemed fitting for me. He reprimanded me for anything, and I got just as much hazing as the other apprentice at the time. Even more at times just to put up a front so I could keep whatever respect I could. No matter what though, after we had had enough of the owners violent mood swings, emotional projecting and totally sexist, homophobic and inappropriate behavior, we decided to leave and move to Monterey California. All throughout this experience I never got visibly upset or quit. I was always the first one in last on out and also held another full time job at a bagel place from 5 am to 1pm then the shop from 1pm to 9 or 10 each night. I left having gained the respect of all of my peers and I value this lesson and teaching me how to stay strong even in the face of adversity and keep consistent in your treatment of people despite the actions of others in your environment.
In Monterey we were promised again, a safe and respectful family like atmosphere at this shop which we quickly learned we had to create on our own. Business was slow. We were only doing one or two tattoos a week. Nobody knew the shop existed and the owner kept making comments about how people thought he was creepy and that’s why it was so slow. He told us we couldn’t buy a neon sign or do any advertising lest we think we owned the shop. It was a struggle, a struggle to pay rent and get experience. This lesson was extremely valuable because it forced me to network. Become a salesman with my tattooing as the product. This is an extremely valuable skill I still use today. We were out every night at bars or events handing out cards and making good impressions. We eventually went from about 8 to 12 tattoos a month to over 60. This is where another valuable lesson took place, one that I use today as the co-owner of our own shop. Valuing your team.
As we worked harder and harder for this other guy, he demanded more and more and he started to outwardly spend recklessly, bragging about how he could afford his own house soon due to the hard work we were putting in. He stopped buying supplies for the shop and told us we should hoard supplies ourselves if we were so worried.
Throughout our time working there we watched him consistently dismiss his clients, sometimes not even bothering to show up to their appointments, other times having nothing (despite scheduling weeks in advance) drawn and making them sit in the lobby for hours as he last minute half assed drew them something on the spot, then charging them for the hours they were sitting idle. If he was low on cash he would charge his unwitting client double the usual rate and if he had enough money that week he would cancel on his clients last minute to play video games or take a nap. He would forwardly flirt with not only HIS female clients but anyones, occasionally stepping behind privacy screens to “check out the tattoo” when he was really checking out the client, causing many clients to feel extremely uncomfortable and unsafe. All of this threw us over the edge. This is not how we wanted our hard work to be represented and there was no appreciation for the success we granted this shop or its owner. There was, in fact the opposite. He demanded we stop traveling and also that we pay his taxes for him “since that’s the money we made” when in fact it was the money that was in his own pocket.
Enough was enough and Chago and I wanted to have more control over our environment and be able to provide a safe and fair shop for the clients we worked so hard to meet. We decided to open our own shop. Chago, having 20 years experience, was ready and I was ready to get myself and my clients out of that situation. We opened Wholehearted Tattoo shortly after I graduated my apprenticeship and became a junior artist. Knowing my limits I deferred the major decision making in our shop to Chago and focused on what I could do with my limited experience, marketing, admin stuff and advertising. Throwing events and fundraisers for non profits and building our identity in this community. This was in 2020 and the pandemic threw a wrench in our opening and getting our feet from under us but e used all the experience we had gained through the last few years and spent the time in lockdown building out our shop and getting our gameplay.
Throughout our time in Monterey we heard countless horrifying stories of inappropriate behavior from other tattooers. So many women approached us with these stories. One local owner even got charged with assault against a women, driving a community wide outcry and many more women came forward with claims against other artists and people were getting called out for their inappropriate behavior. My experienced with this gave me drive to push for advocacy against these disgusting predatory actions.
Now, 4 years later I’m more experienced and I’m able to be impactful in our community, advocating for safety in the local tattoo industry and educating people on red flags and standard practices in a tattoo shop. All in the hopes that the work I do will help a client or clients family/friends advocate for themselves or their family members/ friends in an uncomfortable, dangerous or unprofessional situation they might come across in a different shop. We have built a shop where anyone can feel safe, comfortable, accommodated, we have 4 female artists, 2 males and strict procedures guaranteeing safety, comfort and privacy for our clients who are often times getting tattooed to feel more ownership or autonomy over their bodies. I know the tattoo industry used to exist on the fringes but its my belief that we can exist in 2024 holding on to traditional morals and ethics and at the same time conforming to modern ideals of safety, professionalism, and bodily autonomy without jeopardizing the art and passion behind what we do.
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 first started getting tattooed to feel a sense of ownership over my own body. Ive been on my own since I was a young teenager and my life wasnt always what I wanted it to be. I had no control over my environment. Getting tattooed made me feel like I had some control. Obviously getting tatted at 15 wasnt a great idea, but hey there I was in my best friends moms kitchen getting tattooed on my lower back by her brother while cockroaches climbed the walls and her mom did drugs in the garage below us. lovely
As I got older and finally started to make money I continued to get tattoos by inexperienced people because I didn’t know what good tattoos looked like or what they could be. When I finally started getting good tattoos I went crazy and got as many as I could afford as quick as possible. It felt great every time. If I was ever insecure about a part of my body, id put a tattoo on it and boom, I felt great.
this seems to reflect in a lot of my clientele and my main driving point in trying to become better was the amazing feelings my clients would get after getting a new piece. I watched my clients come in feeling ashamed or insecure and by the time their tattoos were done they felt beautiful, confident and badass. That’s worth more than gold in my book. Seeing people light up and feel great about themselves, holy shit, like, I did that for them. I can do this for people, I can make them feel great.
Even with some of my lgbtq+ clients, getting tattoos can be gender affirming for them, and they can feel accepted and in control of their identities. This is an amazing thing that we can do for people and I believe decorating your skin is akin to decorating your house to make it feel more like home.
I try to approach every tattoo I do with the person I’m tattooing in mind. I really enjoy creating custom tattoos and I take inspiration from illustrative artists from around the world. I admire someone’s ability to take an idea and create a custom tattoo with it, when the tattoo has whispers of the techniques from all the artists who set the scene before us. Nobody is reinventing the wheel but I have respect for the tattooers willing to improve upon the techniques and application processes of our predecessors. I try to approach my work in the same way.
I thoroughly enjoy tattooing the female form, fantasy creatures, nature themes and color. Lots and lots of color. I also try to create a black and grey style that reflects my inspirations.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
We don’t have a world famous presence on social media or anything but it’s at least good locally. We make videos and stuff showing our artists faces and bits of their personalities. if you think about it, the average person still thinks tattoo shops are intimidating or scary and that takes a lot of potential clientele out of play, and if you do videos of your shop and the people in it, your audience can feel more comfortable and like they know what to expect. It makes it more likely that people are gonna feel at ease coming in and chatting with us.
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
We signed the lease on our shop March 3rd of 2020, and here in California the lockdown started march 17th. We were dumbstruck by the news, and awful timing. We were optimistic at first, using the lockdown as time to really set up our shop the way we wanted to. We knew we had to save money and we had a small amount saved up from years previous, but we had to do a lot of DIY projects and help from friends and family. But, as time went on and we still weren’t allowed to open things looked dire and money started getting tight. I started selling art, candles and soap and our friends and clients who could afford to help us out by buying these things did. Finally, July 11th 2020 we were able to open our door. Just to get shut down again July 14th until November. Throughout all of this, our hard work and saving tendencies really kept us afloat and we were finally able to open permanently in November. Right off the bat we were busy, flooded with people who had been waiting and saving, thinking about their next piece. After we were able to open and get business going, we were able to afford more and more updates to our shop and we really haven’t stopped growing and updating even today. As business expanded, and we started hiring people we had to keep making space and knocking down walls until we finally had to rent another space next door and expand into it.
The growth has felt slow and natural, and the team we have today is so wonderful we couldn’t ask for better people to be around, all because we built this little shop.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.wholeheartedtattoo.com
- Instagram: @Saysay_twiggs_tattoos
- Facebook: Sarah Twigg Tattoos
