My first two tattoos!

Good Morning readers of Speakeasy Tattoo Los Angeles!

This is Marléna here, writing to you from a whole new year! It’s been really nice to be back at the shop after the long Christmas/New Years holiday. The team here at Speakeasy rung in the new year with a massive cleansing and re-organizing of the shop! The entire space is coming to have an increasingly open and light feeling flow to it. Scott has been taking his decorating to an entirely new level of nuance, he has even taken up simple flower arrangements

I’m currently manifesting a new wave of Get-Shit-Done and Grow-As-A-Tattoo-Artist energy. While 2019 and the holidays left me sick for a few weeks, I’m feeling extremely inspired after having done my first two tattoos last week! During my apprenticeship so far, many people have made remarks to me such as “I bet you CAN’T WAIT to start tattooing!” or “are you SO excited to finally start tattooing?”. My answer has surprised most people, as I have actually been really stressed at the prospect of actually tattooing real live people. Ever since firmly deciding to pursue tattooing, I’ve really enjoying NOT tattooing, knowing that the day would inevitably come when I had to do it for real.

I am happy to share with you, that my first tattoos went well and the process was only about 25% as scary as I had previously imagined. I felt supported by Scott, who checked in with me a really perfect amount of times. Having Scott check in and watch me tattoo was extremely helpful, as he was able to immediately observe the little things I was doing that were hindering me slightly. So far, the main things I want to focus on improving while tattooing are: general rhythm, figuring out the right corrective eyewear to wear while tattooing, and remembering to breath! There are a lot of little things to focus on, eventually the most functional habits will become second nature, but for now I like the process of figuring it all out in real time.

That’s all for this week!

Thanks so much for reading!

-M.M