Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Trenton Schultz. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, Trenton thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?
Such a loaded question! I love it. I’m always learning, that’s the mindset I go into the studio everyday with, but looking back over the 10 years I’ve been tattooing & I’ve accumulated so much knowledge in multiple ways, starting with my artistic background growing up & that was my base, I was always drawing. When I was 17 I got a cheap tattoo kit from a friend & began testing it out on myself, friends, & practice skins..I don’t recommend that! However, That experience partially transferred over when I was able to land an apprenticeship at a local shop after getting tattooed there.. My apprenticeship taught me the basics of tattooing, cross contamination prevention, but the apprenticeship can only teach so much & that just put my foot in the door of the tattoo trade. From there over the course of the next 5 years I worked at multiple different tattoo shops with many different artists & began traveling to conventions to widen my understanding of the trade. Soaking up as much knowledge from other artists over those years by watching them tattoo & asking questions, getting tattooed by them helped a lot as well before eventually opening up my own studio 5 years ago now. Knowing what I know now though, I definitely think I could have sped up my learning process by going straight to an apprenticeship rather than trying to self teach myself to tattoo in the beginning, I feel that made me develop inconsistent poor technique & eventually when I got an apprenticeship it was hard to unlearn what I thought I knew and relearn the proper techniques. Had I known what I know now, I would have been more patient in the earlier days & went straight to seeking out a proper apprenticeship. I think the most essential skills to have as a tattoo artist is consistency & communication. Those are huge for me, you can be the best tattoo artist in the world so to speak but if your tattoos aren’t consistent. Then well, you’re just as good or bad as your last tattoo… consistency is important when dealing with something that is permanent! Communication too, very important, I’m very detailed in my consultation process with my clients to make sure we are on the same page before I even agree to taking on their project. Being thorough with my communication helps prevent surprise design changes or unexpected problems the day of the tattoo, peace at mind for myself & my client to be on the same page coming into their appointment. Lastly, I think the biggest obstacle that prevents one from learning more would be simply just your mindset. Having a “always learning” mindset goes a long ways, even 10 years into tattooing, I learn new things every week. The tattoo trade is constantly evolving & if you think you know it all & if you don’t keep striving to learn more & get better then I can assure you will fall behind & become irrelevant in this trade.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
My name is Trenton. I’m 28 years old & I’ve been a Michigan based tattoo artist for 10 years now. Approx 5 years ago I opened my own studio, Backwoods Tattoo Studio in Lakeview Michigan, things have only gotten better since then! 10 years ago I got into tattooing simply for the love of creating. I’ve always been interested in creating or building something for a living, I always was drawing for myself or someone throughout school and even took CAD classes at my high school career center before eventually dropping out my senior year to pursue tattooing. Although I worked a handful factory jobs & a few construction trade jobs in my earlier days of tattooing when it wasn’t a sufficient income to live on, I always knew those jobs weren’t my thing & I wanted to tattoo full time. So I did, when my wife & I learned of her being pregnant with our first child, I decided I needed to take the leap, I quit everything that didn’t benefit tattooing & pushed my self through those growing pains earlier on by focusing on tattooing full time. Lots of long days & longer nights spent building up a clientele base sometimes tattooing 7 days a week, for weeks on end! It worked out though, 10 years later I have a successful booked & busy tattoo career, my own private studio with now another artist here & frequent guest spots coming through, a beautiful wife & two kids & I’m a homeowner not far from my studio. The grind was worth it, but it’s never done! Nowadays things are good for my studio, between my other artist & I, we offer a range of different artwork styles. From realism tattoos to neo traditional color tattoos to even our artist Matt taking on challenging coverups. At my studio we focus on creating one of a kind custom pieces for our clients. We take a ton of pride in what we do & only take on projects that suit our interest & style, if there is someone else who specializes in a certain style we don’t do then we will gladly recommend our client to them, it’s not about taking every dollar that comes through the door, theres enough of that already going on in the tattoo trade unfortunately, so I think having some integrity & pride in the tattoos we do goes along way & that is what separates myself & my other artist from the hundreds of “yes man” artists out there that will take on anything & everything that comes though their door whether they are experienced enough to do it or not. There’s enough of that in the tattoo trade & I refuse to add to that long list. That’s something we are very proud of, it’s led to great relationships with clients to winning awards at tattoo conventions & overall a steadily booked schedule full of awesome projects!
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
Yes! This one is big for me- “Burn out” -So some, not all, but some non creatives don’t quite understand that creating art is affected heavily by the artists mental state. It’s not a light switch we just flick on when it’s time to create, although at times it can feel that way when we are maybe on the edge of burnout. But essentially as artists we don’t just have a switch in our brain we flick on to make art. I wish it were that easy! As an artist we have to be in the mood to create & we have to be fully invested in the process to create a quality piece of art. Myself I mentally prepare for days before a tattoo, thinking of all the details in the tattoo & how I’m going to compose the design to fit the client & area it’s going. The gears are always turning in my head & just because I’m not physically pencil to paper yet with an idea that’s doesn’t necessarily mean I haven’t began working on it. Lots of time goes into researching & brainstorming before I even start sketching, so when last minute changes arise it can be stressful for the artist because we were so invested in what we had planned for the piece. So I wish more people understood that we are just humans & not robots, there’s no art switch in my head to flick on when it’s time to make it happen meaning we are gonna have days that sometimes just don’t work out, in that case I’ll reschedule someone for one of my personal days, that’s rare but in my 10 years of tattooing it’s happened, I’d rather be able to give a client my 100% effort rather than forcing the hand when I’m not ready, again that’s rare for me to get burnt out because of the types of projects I book are all very interesting to me!
One goal is to not get burnt out ofcourse, I’ve learned to recognize the signs of burnout before they hit & by only taking on projects that are interesting to me & suit my style help a ton with avoiding burnout because then I’m fully interested in the project. But even doing just that enough can burn anyone out. Thats why for me it’s so important to have personal time, I don’t tattoo weekends & I try to take a few short vacations every year get away from creating.
If there ones thing non creatives could learn to understand would be that us artists are humans, not robots. Creating is a mindset/mood & we have to be in it to make our best work happen! Clients can help by giving us full trust & creative freedom with their idea & having patience for the process!
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
The most rewarding aspect of tattooing for me is the joy the client gets from seeing their completed tattoo. Whether it’s the first time they see it & they love it, or it’s 5 years old & they still love it just as much, for me that’s awesome, it makes me happy to know people go out & share with their friends/ family who did their tattoo & proudly wear my artwork everyday until they take it with them to the grave. That’s a bond that I don’t overlook or take for granted. I’m very fortunate to be able to experience that feeling of satisfaction when I finish a tattoo or bump into a client at the county fair & see a tattoo healed beautifully years later!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.facebook.com/tattoosbytrenton?mibextid=ibOpuV
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tattoos_by_trent?igsh=YWEydjB2Z3J0OHU%3D&utm_source=qr
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/trenton.d.schultz?mibextid=ibOpuV
- Other: Threads: https://www.threads.net/@tattoos_by_trent