We recently connected with Sinjin Lewis and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Sinjin, thanks for joining us today. Can you share a story with us from back when you were an intern or apprentice? Maybe it’s a story that illustrates an important lesson you learned or maybe it’s a just a story that makes you laugh (or cry)? 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.

My first apprenticeship was short-lived as I experienced a bad omen literally my first day at the shop when I showed up early to set up the owner for his first client. Upon walking into the shop with his client I unknowingly stepped in dog poop and tracked it all the way into the shop. About a month later I was offered an apprenticeship at the first shop I contacted with the artist that I felt best represented the style and quality of tattoos that I was looking to do myself, BOLD and colorful. I had to take that opportunity.

I started that apprenticeship in mid-November of 2020 and did my first tattoo on myself just a month later, and then on my first actual client a couple months later in February of 2021. Unfortunately my mentor would pass away a few months later at the end of May 2021. This story is sadly pretty common as I’ve learned by speaking to other people in the industry in the last few years.

I was suddenly in the middle of an apprenticeship, without my mentor (who had also become like my big brother), in a shop that was beginning to overflow with other apprentices all of the sudden, and only one master-level experienced artist who was also a mother of twins that were still in grade-school. This created a feeling of insecurity and invisibility. I needed someone to be pressing me regularly about my skills and techniques, and it just wasn’t happening any more. Eventually we got another artist in, Johny, that took me under his wing and showed me that attention that I was desperately craving as a new tattooist and apprentice. He was passionate about communicating the importance of all of the technical aspects of tattooing and why it was so important not just to be a good artist, but a good tattoo technician.

A big thing in hindsight that I would go back and communicate to my apprentice self is to KEEP IT SIMPLE, When there are so many variables floating around and so much uncertainty around a new skill, especially one as technically involved as tattooing, it can be VERY easy to get off track. Paired with the fact that I had NEVER been self-employed, and knew NOTHING about marketing, the learning curve was doubly-steep. I would simplify my designs, my approach to marketing, my schedule, nearly everything. I nearly choked by biting off more than I could chew on more than one occasion.

I am now 3 years tattooing, and 2 years out of my apprenticeship, and it already feels like another lifetime ago. In terms of a tattoo artist career and in terms of Mastery, I am still just a baby. I do not let that discourage me, rather I am learning to let it excite me with the limitless possibility set before me. There was no other job I had before this that could keep my attention for even this long. I had never made it to even 2 years with ANY company I worked for in my 10 years of being responsible for my own bills. Now I am 3 years self-employed and I don’t see any other way but onward!

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’ve been an artist my whole life. Not by choice, but simply as a compulsion. Creativity through drawing, sculpting, or music are my outlets. I loved drawing fantasy themed stuff for a long time when I was the most actively drawing as a kid. I drew lots of aliens and dragons…but never together. Perhaps I could explore that concept now.

I didn’t really have good art mentorship at this time and so was very easily discouraged when I hit walls with my skill level. I had developed perfectionistic tendencies that I attribute to me stopping drawing as much as I continued to grow. Though the compulsion never went away because I doodled in class like it was my actual job.

In high school around 2008 my best friend A.J. introduced me to a program called Adobe Illustrator in which you could make entirely digital designs. I spent the next 4 or 5 years doing a lot of miscellaneous freelance graphic projects for people.

In 2017 I moved to Hawaii to live with my parents who offered me free room and board, provided that I finish my degree while living with them. Well I continued to fool around with graphic design as a method of expression, but also because I had an interest in creating a living as an art entrepreneur and launching my own brand of some sort. I went through a few ideas before I landed on the thing I believed was a MILLION DOLLAR IDEA! I wanted to make humorous stickers of dicks and call them dickers. Well I still think that has some HUGE potential, but due to my inexperience in marketing, it has been chilling on the back burner waiting for a come-back (pun-intended).

Upon showing these humorous stickers to my friend Drew, who I had been seeing for tattoos, he exclaimed that if I could make these, that I should consider doing tattoos. To this day I’m not certain where he made that connection, but I am certainly grateful that he did.

On the transit from late 2019 into early 2020 I decided I was through with retail work and that pursuing tattoos and art was my real calling. Drew, who originally had suggested me starting tattoos, offered me an apprenticeship. I even had him tattoo my left hand (my main drawing hand) as a way to show my commitment to the pursuit. Unfortunately he had to back out of his proposition has he suddenly had much more pressing matters with family medical emergencies and having his first child. On the happy end, he has a beautiful family, and seems to be thriving as an artist still back in Hawaii.

At this time I was working a logistics job for a skincare company. I was quickly overwhelmed in this position and I finally reached a breaking point that made the decision feel more like a compulsion than anything else. Fast forward to the end of September 2020 when I found an apprenticeship in the heart of Waikiki on the island of Oahu in Hawaii…which is where I was living when the whole pandemic started. This was the beginning of my tattoo journey.

Through this journey I adopted the moniker “Sinjeezus.” I was raised in a highly religious household, and this was a way for me to take the power back from something that robbed me of my autonomy through indoctrination and forced obedience. It also feels balanced as SIN is this thing that is taught is SO BAD, when in fact I believe that what the church calls sins are simply a judgmental label on the uncomfortable truths about what it means to be an imperfect being. The theme of the tattoo on my drawing hand is based on the Japanese concept of WABI SABI, being perfectly imperfect. True holiness, like true symmetry is a man-made concept that relies heavily on egotism which is unsustainable and impossible. I believe that imperfections and flaws are the SPICE of life and my moniker is a reflection of that; hence the misspelling of “Jesus.”

Now I mostly provide a tattoo service for my clients while also designing the occasional merchandise because I like making my own graphic tees and stickers. I like to lean into the darker macabre themes like sin and death but in tandem with the brighter beautiful thinks like femininity, nature, and magnificent geometric patterns. I am a Gemini astrologically, and so finding balance internally is important to me as I believe that reflects in my external experience.

The tattoos I enjoy doing the most are the ones that have a lasting effect on my client’s confidence in themselves and that help them work through a difficult situation or time in their lives. I think what sets me apart from the average tattoo artist is that I am really seeking out my soulmate clients and want them to seek me out as well.

It’s really nice to get paid for my work, but I find the most enriching part of my job in the deep personal relationships I form with these soulmate clients. Those are truly invaluable. When a client comes in and leaves as a new life-long friend, that is what drives me to continue in the midst of the challenges that this profession can bring.

I love doing what are called intuitive tattoos. This is a tattoo that is done more or less on the spot for the client. They come in and instead of having a pre-drawn design, or something they have been thinking for a long time about, we build the tattoo for them based on what they need at that very moment. We have a discussion for however long it takes for us to find a theme that is incredibly important to them right then. Say you are in the middle of doing some intense inner shadow-work, we talk more about that and collaboratively build the tattoo through our discussion. As I am doing the tattoo on them, they can really immerse themselves in that particular theme and literally integrate it into themselves.

I’ve often found this to be the most enriching for us both as tattooing in its intimacy is an energy exchange that absolutely has life-long effects on them and the people around them.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

In 2023 I hit burn-out twice, once in March and once in August. I felt like I was floundering. Splashing and flailing, and expending all of this effort but not going anywhere and really just hurting myself in the process.

I had no marketing experience, I had just begun taking art seriously for the first time in my life, and I was struggling with my identity as an artist and as a brand (I still am, but I’m in a course to help with that literally right now).

Some time in September my landlord at the time (where my wife and I were living) informed us that he wanted to take over the unit by the beginning of 2024 and was essentially giving us our notice to leave. This is hilarious because a few months in the summer he tried to raise rent on us because he was going to fence in the yard for us and give us access to the storage shed. Neither of these things did we ask for or particularly want. When I told him he was crazy and wasn’t going to find new tenants for the price he was asking vs. what was being offered in this particular space, he eventually changed his mind and told us “you can stay as long as you want.” So that was a lie.

Anyways, so my wife and I struggled to think of where we would go and how to find a new place to live in this absurd housing economy, let alone in Hawaii and right before the holiday season. Unfortunately our financial management for the last few years leading up to this point was just not that great and so we had no emergency savings and were not confident in our ability to find a place to live on island that was going to give us the most bang for our buck.

With this realization, we came to the conclusion that moving all the way back across the country to Florida because we had a lot of family and friends here that would provide a soft landing despite the distance of the move. We had to sell and give away nearly all of our belongings including our $5000 king-sized bed which nobody purchased so we just had to leave. That really hurt. Due to the limited options for housing with family, we ended up moving in with my mother-in-law to stay in my wife’s old bedroom.

Unfortunately there was no longer a bed in there, just a love seat that pulled out to sleep on. We have been staying there since October of 2023 and are at the present looking for new housing after saving up for the last 6 or so months. Even in that short amount of time, we have both learned a lot about ourselves, our relationship to money, and I have learned even more about being in business for myself.

The really great thing about being in uncomfortable situations like this is that it can provide VERY fertile soil for creative problem-solving and growth. My business and my mentality have gone through some major shifts in this time and so despite the surface level discomfort, there is spiritual nutrition here. Nothing is on accident and imperfection is still perfection.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

My best source of new clients is word of mouth from myself and other clients. I am not shy about sharing myself in person. I will talk to just about anybody in most public settings, and being a tattooed person makes it very easy to talk to other tattooed people. I am also happy to talk to non-tattooed people about their first project that they have been procrastinating on.

I’ve always enjoyed talking to new people as a form of self-entertainment – making new connections is also just one of my compulsions. Being back in Florida has not been as hard as I anticipated because I have found it very easy to go out and meet new potential clients.

This also works so well for me because with tattoos you are not just selling your art, you are selling yourself as a person that is trustworthy to be sticking someone with needles and being in their personal space for hours on end and leaving them with a memorable experience to go with their new permanent art. The tattoo can be gorgeous, but if your clients experience with you was dog shit, then their tattoo will forever be tainted with said experience.

I am going out at least once weekly to meet new people and sow those seeds in my immediate area. If nothing else I do it as often as I go out to eat. Sometimes I’ll see someone with tattoos working at the car wash and strike up conversation with them. It almost feels too easy – which I am grateful for!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sinjeezus.com
• Instagram: sinjeezus
• Facebook: Sinjeezus Tattoos & Art
• Youtube: sinjeezus
• Other: TikTok: sinjeezus