My first tattoo was on my 18th birthday, then came patches, and then came a lot more.
Like a lot of teenagers, I suffered from depression, and the best part about being a teenager
was patches, because she was always there.
I would walk in the house after doing some bad shit, if I was doing drugs, or if I was
out late, or if I was partying, or whatever, and she would just give me the same look every
time, like, oh hey, I'm so glad you're home, let's hang out and cuddle, and it was consistent
across the board, always would happen, and that was really awesome, because I needed
that.
I had her for about 14 years, and I just knew I had to memorialize her with a tattoo, so
she's now on my arm, and with me forever.
In the tattoo industry, cat art, feline art, is really popular right now, and more popular
than I've ever noticed.
I always knew, ever since I started seeing tattoos, that people love to memorialize their
pets, and I have them myself, so I don't know, it was natural to do them.
The cat tooth thing really started after I did the cat kitty in a teacup on my husband's
leg.
I started to paint cats, and then I got commissioned to do some cat art, and then I got requests
to do another cat tooth, and then it's just these things happen, you know, they spiral,
wants to do something that somebody thinks is great, they get it, and then they tell
their friends, and the friend gets it, and then another friend gets it, and pretty soon,
you have a whole portfolio full of cat tooth.
It took about a year of doing cat tooth sporadically, to now do them basically, but I hope it never
ends.
I found you online, like, I don't even remember, yeah, I was just looking around, and I saw
the, yeah, I think you might have coined that term.
People are constantly asking me for them, and I am never tired of doing them.
I'll forever be grateful for anybody who lets me tattoo their pet on them, because I know
how much it means, and I really like to be able to share that with them, because they
usually tell me their story of how awesome their cat is, or how awesome their cat was,
and I then can do the same about patches, and my cats, now.
I think he's beautiful.
Yay!
I think it turned out amazing, like, can you see it from the eye?
Yeah, well, I partially see it.
I mean, I'm partially interpreting, yes, the top, the top third.
Yeah, just picture that the whole way through.
Exactly, I'm extrapolating, but I'm going to assume that the whole thing looks great.
A lot of them are really special, and a lot of them, some of them are just super fun,
and the person gets a cat tattoo, because they just want something that feels good.
That's what I love about tattooing, you don't have to get a tattoo that's so super meaningful,
and it's like, so serious, sometimes it just makes you feel good when you look at it.
When I'm not tattooing, I'm drawing, and I'm painting, and I'm focusing on learning
new techniques, and how to improve.
A lot of times there's deadlines, because you're commissioned for things, you're commissioned
for paintings, or you're commissioned to do a tattoo, so you have to draw the design
for the tattoo, and that can be stressful, so the best part about having the cats around
is, you know, if I'm just freaking out, and I'm over here painting, and dummy over there
in the corner sleeping, I just, I don't even need to touch him, I can just look at him
for a minute, and take a breath, and go, ah, what?
People are very surprised when they hear I only have two cats, because they hear me talking
about cats, and they see my art, and they're like, she must have like 14 cats, and no,
I mean, I have two, I think two is a great number.
And I think that's what's changed, the typical cat lady from what it was used to be one woman
alone with like 20 cats, and now it's like, no, it's anybody, you're in a relationship,
or you're single, or you have a roommate, and you have a cat, a cat, or two cats, maybe,
you know, it's not like this big thing, oh, life's tough, oh, it'd be a cat for a day,
just a day, I love it, it's so cute, oh, it's so great, I give it a very youthful look,
yeah, so it'll be like forever nine years old, that works for me, oh, it's so perfect,
thanks, bye, bye, we can actually, we can say, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
