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3 Cocktails In
Addicting conversations between friends who have been there, done that and still want more.
We are 3 friends who got this crazy idea to start a podcast based on our friendships, family lives, professional lives and experiences! This idea kept coming up in our conversations, especially after a cocktail or two or maybe three, and we finally decided to ACT on it!
We don't claim to be experts on too many things, but friendship? Well, we've got that down. We're making our way through major life changes, searching for work that excites us, busting myths associated with 'old' people, and keeping a sense of humor about it all.
Self employed, boss - CHECK
Mom, wife, single - CHECK
Rural, suburban, urban life - CHECK
Vodka, gin, wine - CHECK
Make sure to subscribe to our channel ~ FOMO is real and it sucks.
Amy, Kitty & Stacey
P.S. Isn't our intro music great?! Yah, we think so too. Thank you, Ivy States for "I Got That Wow".
3 Cocktails In
3 Cocktails In Welcomes Tattoo Artist Georgia Bebler!
What happens when a personal journey from art enthusiast to tattoo artist combines with the electric energy of a Monday night recording session? Join us on "3 Cocktails In" as we celebrate career milestones and successes, featuring the inspirational story of Georgia Bebler, Amy's talented daughter who's making her mark in the tattoo industry. With a canned espresso martini in hand, Georgia shares the creative twists and turns of her career path, from art education to costume design, and finally to tattooing at Grand Avenue Tattoo in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Throughout this episode, we explore the nuances of tattoo apprenticeship and licensing, diving into Georgia's experiences in the industry. Her insights into the craft of tattooing, from traditional hand-poked designs to state-of-the-art electric machines, offer listeners a fascinating glimpse into an art form that continues to evolve culturally. Georgia's journey underscores the importance of persistence, an old-school approach, and the value of learning from seasoned artists, making her story both compelling and educational.
But there's more than just ink and needles. We tackle the technical aspects of tattooing, discuss modern trends, and share practical advice for those considering a tattoo, especially on sensitive areas. Georgia emphasizes the importance of patience and goal-setting in achieving success, blending her personal experiences with tips for the aspiring tattoo artist or anyone looking to move their career forward. As we wrap up, our heartfelt gratitude to Georgia sets the stage for even more addictive conversations in future episodes, ensuring you'll want to listen in again next week.
Make sure to subscribe to our channel, comment, like, and share!
Amy, Kitty & Stacey
P.S. Isn't our intro music great?! Yah, we think so too. Thank you, Ivy States for "I Got That Wow".
All right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right, all right.
Speaker 2:All right, all right, I'm a tour de force running. Get me to the top. I don't need an invitation. I'm about to start a celebration.
Speaker 3:Well, hello, hello, hello everyone. Good evening or morning Depends on what time someone is queuing up the Three Cocktails In. This is Three Cocktails In addicting conversations between friends. We are you guys. We're going to be thrown off all week because we're recording tonight, on a Monday night.
Speaker 4:Yep, I actually forgot about it, but I couldn't have gotten home any sooner because I was selling a house. I was selling a house.
Speaker 3:I'm just going to, yeah, you're on fire. On fire, I kind of am, yeah, and I want to, stacey, I want to just um, hearken back to days of yore when we were in Vegas, and so it must've been a couple of years ago, okay, and you and I were out on a walk, um, and we were looking at brand new houses that were under construction. Right, and I, I said to Stacey, why doesn't Amy get into new construction? She would rocket at new construction home sales and you said yeah and low.
Speaker 3:And here we are right.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I like my job well it's just. I like it when I sell, you know it's all right, everything is better.
Speaker 5:It's fun when you're having you know success.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah yeah, I know, yeah, but it just it just always seemed like that would be well suited to you because of because of your background and what you used to sell, and you'd built a couple of homes and your eye for design and all of that. So it just completely made sense. And here you are now, you know, just rocking it and my boss called me a badass today.
Speaker 4:Oh man.
Speaker 5:That's a compliment. Yes, that would be a good, good word.
Speaker 4:Sure Speaking of badasses. How's that for a segue?
Speaker 3:Yeah, let's do it. Let's do it, let's get a move on you gonna do it? Here we go yeah, we kind of queued up the last couple of episodes so that we were going to have a special guest on tonight, and here we are very proud to and I'll do it, amy, since, since she's your kin um, we are very proud to introduce georgia biebler to three cocktails. And hi, georgia welcome, hi.
Speaker 6:Thanks so much for having me, guys. I did bring a canned espresso martini, but I poured it so love it, it's canned yeah, so the liquor store by my house um, it's this brand called like tip top. They haven't sponsored this podcast, but they should, um, and they do like canned margaritas, old fashions uh espresso martinis, which I love, an espresso martini. So I've been grabbing those, but they just have them like up at the front okay, and they're little they're.
Speaker 4:They look like little, like a can of diced chilies.
Speaker 6:They're about they're kind of like a grown-up fuzzball, um kind of I like to think about them well, I don't know that you'd want to have a whole can of that, would you?
Speaker 5:You?
Speaker 3:know. Yeah, I mean that makes sense. If you go to wherever, whatever coffee shop you go to, and you get an espresso, it's going to be a little shot. Basically, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that makes sense. Well, georgia, we love having, we love having experts on our show and we love digging into topics that we know a little bit about, or topics that we are intrigued with, things that we want to know more about and or things that we want to share with our audience. So, amy, so Georgia is Amy's daughter. Amy said let's have Georgia on.
Speaker 6:Georgia is a uh and well, an amazing artist and an up and coming tattooist. Thank you, yeah, I've been um tattooing for a little bit now. I've been working in tattoo shops for the last three years and I'm yeah, I'm excited to answer your guys's questions about the tattooing awesome, okay, well, where.
Speaker 3:Where should we start? I mean, I kind of feel like we should start back at how did you get into this, but I'd like to maybe track back even further what was so, because you're a gusty, so we gotta put that out there oh, yeah, um yeah.
Speaker 6:So I originally tattooing was not on my radar at all. I have always been very much into art I'm sure that my mom can attest that pretty much every Christmas, every birthday, art supplies were like the top of my list. And then I ended up going to Gustavus originally went in thinking I was going to do art education and then ended up double majoring in studio art and theater. Actually, I did costume design for a number of years, design a little bit after graduation, um, but kind of found that it wasn't for me. Um, just in terms of like, uh, very contract work based, it's something where you're moving every three months unless you can afford to live in Los Angeles or New York, which I could not. I don't have a lot of interest in um, so, yeah, then kind of bounced around, did a bunch of different stuff.
Speaker 6:Um, worked retail. I helped my dad out with his business for a number of years and then I started working at the front desk of um, the tattoo shop I'm at right now, grand Avenue Tattoo. I'm repping our merch today, okay, yeah, and so I got that job, kind of. I just they had posted on Instagram that they wanted somebody to work very much part time there for the front desk. I did not think I was going to get that job at all. But I said you know what? This will be? Good job interview practice. So I just kind of walked down there and I dropped off my resume and I talked to the owner of the shop and then about a couple of days later he calls me back and says hey, can you come back in? We just want to talk again. And I came back when he told me that he wanted me to come in and he had gone home for the day, because he completely forgot. But then the third time I came in, they said OK, you have the job.
Speaker 6:So I started out by working at the front and initially the owner of the shop was very clear with me. He said this is not an apprenticeship opportunity. I'm not teaching somebody how to tattoo right now. Or I mean he was teaching somebody else how to tattoo at that time. Um, and I said that's totally fine. I'm just, you know, doing this part-time, kind of figuring out what it is that I want to do. And then about 45 minutes into my first shift, I was like I think I'd really like to tattoo and so I just kind of stuck it out working the front counter and trying to learn as much as I possibly could from the people I was working with.
Speaker 6:And then kind of over time. Like you know, I started bringing in paintings that I had been doing, you know, pretty consistently, showing them to the owner of the shop. He was still very much like you know, I'm happy to look at these, but I can't teach you how to tattoo, I don't have the bandwidth for that. And then eventually there was a spot that opened up and he said okay, I'm going to teach you how to tattoo. So that is how I got into it by being very persistent and just kind of staying in one place for a little bit.
Speaker 4:I want to point out a couple of things from that story. One she rocked it old school.
Speaker 4:She put a resume together on paper and walked it down and and slapped it on the counter. That's old school, that's how we do things. You mentioned apprenticeship. Can you talk a little bit about an apprenticeship? What does that mean? What I mean you know I guess when I think of apprenticeships that's usually in the trades. Yeah, you oftentimes don't get a degree or whatever in, in whatever, but you have this apprenticeship. I still, as your mom. I was like tell me more. Is this where they take advantage of you for how many, how long, you know sort of deal?
Speaker 6:No, I was not taken advantage of in my apprenticeship.
Speaker 6:Many people have been. But yeah, so tattoo licensing varies from state to state. Some states will have you go to like a year long kind of trade school for tattooing. Other states don't require licensing at all. Minnesota is kind of in the middle where every tattooer has to have gone through an apprenticeship and what the health department defines that, as is 200 hours of supervised tattooing time 200 hours of supervised tattooing time. A mentor has to sign off on those hours. Who has been licensed in the state of Minnesota for I think it's five years, I don't know for sure and you have to take a bloodborne pathogens course. So that's what it is on paper. What an apprenticeship looks like in my experience was really taking the time to watch other people tattoo, learn about kind of tattoo history and a lot, a lot of painting flash like tattoo designs, before I ever even got close to tattooing skin, and that process for me has been about a year and a half. Um, I think it took about a year and a half to kind of get through that, so, um where?
Speaker 3:so if, if you were gonna go to school for this, where would you go?
Speaker 6:um, I, that's a really good question. I don't believe that minnesota has any tattoo schools okay and kind of what. Um the other, the one place I know where you do have to go through tattoo schools is in Portland, oregon. Um, they have made that a specific requirement, so it's a. It's like a trade school, um, I don't think it's. They're necessarily connected to other trade schools. It's not like you're going to Dunwoody and getting a tattoo degree, um, but it's something where it's about, I think, a year to maybe two years and you do that. I will say what I have heard from people who got licensed in states where tattoo schools were an option or a requirement is that a lot of those tattoo schools are taught by people who have been tattooing for maybe, you know, three to five years, versus, like, people who take on apprentices generally have been tattooing for 10 or more years. So apprenticeship is kind of a little bit looked at as a better option because you are learning from somebody who has more knowledge. Yeah.
Speaker 4:So apprenticeship is very much like an internship, so to speak. You're in the midst of it, you're watching it be done, you're learning what to do, what not to do, what you might like to do. You mentioned Flash and as your mother, I can just tell everybody there was never a time when Georgia was not drawing. Poor Georgia has always been my go-to Georgia, georgia, I need X, y, z poster, you know a little card or whatever. One Christmas with the cousins, the young, young cousins, georgia, what was it? It wasn't an Etch-A-Sketch, it was a whiteboard.
Speaker 4:Oh, it was a whiteboard. I look over and Georgia's doing a one-minute caricature of each one of the cousins. That's so spot on. I'm like I could get you. I can make you so much money. We should go to the run fair. You should go do this. You should have.
Speaker 6:You know, I'm looking how to monetize, I think it was an eight talent and now it's figured it out 14 when that happened, by the way. So just try to labor, just so everybody knows. Let the record show.
Speaker 4:That you know. No, that's not a thing. Would have been cash, honey, cash, yeah, so talk, okay. Flash. What is flash?
Speaker 6:Yeah. So when you walk into a typical tattoo shop you'll see a lot of. It's usually like an 11 by 14 sheet of paper just all the pictures hanging up on the walls and before the days of, like you know, doing custom tattoos it would be. You know, you walk into a shop, you point to whatever's on the wall and you say I want that one. And those are all flash designs. I actually have some here.
Speaker 6:If people want to take a look, show and tell these are some ones that I've painted, so we've got you know they'll look. Oh gosh, I almost spilled my drink, something like this. Yeah, so it's just, a lot of these are based off of, like vintage or you know, stuff that was maybe originally drawn or painted in. Like the 40s is kind of where, like a lot of that got popularized, um. So then I just painted like my version of it. Um, but yeah, I have painted over the past couple years and it's I like it a lot, yeah.
Speaker 3:So how did you? Well? So first of all, he, I'm guessing, would not have said okay, Georgia, I will teach you, if he didn't see talent in you, Right, yeah, I mean, I would guess that not everybody can like I am not artistic at all, I can't really draw anything. It would be a stretch for me to say I think I want to be a tattoo artist, Right.
Speaker 6:Yes, I think that you don't have to be an incredible artist to be a tattooer and to be a good tattooer. I think that a lot of it is more um craftsmanship, like being able to take direction, kind of follow the conventions because I know a lot of people who are great artists and they do really cool art, but they can't take criticism, or they you know they wouldn't be able to handle having a client say, oh, what you spent a long time doing looks great, but can we change?
Speaker 5:XYZ but yeah, they're asking a certain level, yeah does anyone not change what is done? I swear every time and Amy's done it too where she gets a tattoo and then changes it. I've heard that from a lot of people or they add to it or they color it differently oh yeah, I mean, I think that that it's not uncommon.
Speaker 6:It's not uncommon to get you know, little things tweaked here and there. I do also. I am pretty lucky. I get clients who pretty often will come in and they'll just say, what do you got in your book? And then they just pick something and I say, do you want that in black and gray or do you want that in color? And they say, you know, I want color. I show them how I would color it and they say, cool, let it rip. So yeah, it's kind of a mix, but I'm always, you know, happy to make changes as long as I think the tattoo will still look good and age well and um, hold up over time so for somebody like stacy, who's never had a tattoo, unlike kitty and I, who do have tattoos yes, although kitties is.
Speaker 4:We like to come back to friends. You know how phoebe got the tattoo and she said it was the whole world. It was like kitties is bigger than that. But you've said you want to get another one. So say you've never had a tattoo, but you're intrigued by the idea. How does one find a tattooer, tattooer, tattoo, artist? How do you know what you want? How do you? How much is it going to cost? Where do you want to have a tattoo? Where should you not have your first tattoo On your body? I'm talking about Sure.
Speaker 6:Yeah, I would say, if you're someone who has never had a tattoo before but you are interested in getting one, the first place that I would have you look is actually Pinterest. You know, maybe you know like, oh, I want some kind of flowers. Just type in flowers tattoo, and then you might start scrolling through and you like, oh, I like these ones that have like a really thin line, a really fine line. So I'm gonna start putting in fine line. Yes, like you, you like your fine line tattoos. You know, kind of get pull together some pictures, some images of stuff you want. And then the second place I would say to look is Instagram. Most tattooers I know operate their business. You know their portfolio, so to say, is their Instagram page. You know you can also start by looking up like what shops are close to me. You can find that shop on Google. Usually they're going to have their Instagram attached. Look at the Instagram, start scrolling through. You might see there might be you know, four tattooers. One of them does you know realism. Two of them do kind of like classic, traditional style. One might do like all lettering, and then there's going to be that one tattooer who does the fine line tattoo style that you want, and usually you can contact people through DM or email. So that would be how I would recommend finding a tattooer. Some people are going to want you to come in in person for a consultation, especially for larger work. A lot of times it's just easier to go in person. I would also say, if you live very close to a tattoo shop, just walk in, just see what's going on, see if the people are nice, see if you like the vibe there. The shop I work at is a very we're a walk-in shop, so we get people walking in all the time. We've never met them before, they might not know a whole lot about us, but we're able to kind of figure out what it is they want and how best we can do the tattoo a lot quicker, um in person versus online, but online is also a great option, I guess I would say.
Speaker 6:Um, as far as like placement on the body goes, I there are spots that are more tender. It's kind of a balancing act because you like, getting a tattoo on your ribs is going to hurt a lot more than like the top of your forearm or the top of your thigh. The torso is a sensitive spot. Your hands are a sensitive spot. Your feet are a sensitive spot, which you know, mom, because you have a foot tattoo which is crazy, worse than childbirth. But um, it's kind of the trade-off of like, well, you know the tattoos this big, so it's gonna take maybe a half an hour of really bad pain, maybe less than that, and then I get to wear this for the rest of my life.
Speaker 6:But for the first one I would say, like, do an arm or a leg. Those are kind of the more chill spots. As far as pricing goes, that very much depends on what you're trying to get done. The shop I work at we have $100 shop minimum. So tattoos the price starts at $100 and it goes up from there and that $100 just covers like cost of labor, supplies, machines etc.
Speaker 6:So that we are not falling behind in our business.
Speaker 3:So are there tattooers that's the word you're using, right, yep tattooer. Are there tattooers that do freehand?
Speaker 6:everyone. People will kind of pull it out as a party trick. Um, I always feel much better using a stencil, yeah.
Speaker 6:I would think so yeah, um, although I do work with some people who are, you know, depending on like you know, I'm trying to find a good example. Like my arm is pretty covered in tattoos. I could go to somebody and they might look at this spot and they say I could spend 15 minutes trying to stencil something on that would fit this spot perfectly. Or I can draw it on with a Sharpie and then tattoo it.
Speaker 6:So, like drawn on tattoos is kind of the middle ground with a sharpie and then tattoo it so like drawn on tattoos is kind of the middle ground.
Speaker 3:it's pretty rare that you'll see somebody just put the machine straight to the skin without any kind of guide, um, but it is impressive when people can do it well yeah, uh, and so when you see those tattoos that look like a photograph, like you know, your mother on your arm or your girlfriend or whatever it looks like a photograph, is that stenciled Generally?
Speaker 6:yeah, mostly stenciled, and then embellished, yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, kind of the realism tattoos. I don't know a ton about it. I work with a gentleman who does realism tattoos and I mean the stencils. It almost looks a little bit like a paint by numbers, where you've got all the little outlines of like I'm gonna use this black here, and then this gray, and then this lighter gray, or you have that gradient of color. I don't know how he keeps it straight, cause I couldn't, and that's why I don't tattoo like that. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:What do you call your preferred style of tattooing?
Speaker 6:I love doing American traditional, american traditional style that is like Sailoror jerry, ed hardy, um, kind of. Those are kind of like the two big you know pop culture examples of that type of tattooing. It would be like the kind of thing that your grandpa would have gotten that tattoo when he was in kore Korea back in the day. I really liked that like super classic stuff.
Speaker 3:What is the history of tattooing? How far back does this go?
Speaker 4:You know that she knows this right.
Speaker 6:Because she is into all things that are tattoo. Let me wet my throat real quick.
Speaker 6:Well, let me tell you, take your notes I mean tattooing as a practice has existed as long as humans have had something dark and something sharp. Um, you know it started back in like prehistoric. Like you know, we start with like charcoal and a stick and doing kind of like that very um long tradition of like tribal tattoos. Um, in the west modern tattooing can be traced back to around like the 1880s, um 1880s to 1900 kind of turn of the century you have. Um starts to get more popular with like circus performers. Um, you know you'd have the tattooed ladies.
Speaker 6:Um, and also sailors, because they're and those are hand poke tattoos, which is, you know, a lot of people call that stick and poke. Uh, today those are like you know, you have a sewing needle and a little bit of ink and you're doing it that way, all by hand. And then in I believe, the 20s ish I'm not remembering all the dates, right, this is chronologically correct, I'm gonna get the years wrong but um, the electric tattoo machine, the first electric tattoo machine, start coming out and that speeds up the process considerably. It starts to gain some traction during World War I, but where tattooing really took off in America and the UK specifically, was during World War II, mostly in the Pacific theater. Like Hawaii, california, you have all of these sailors who they get paid every other week, and so you get tattoo shops opening up, you know, by the army base or out in Virginia, you know, you open up a tattoo shop.
Speaker 6:Some tattooers would only work on payday, friday, saturday, sunday and they make enough money to do their thing, yeah, and then, like in the 50s, it kind of takes a little dip in popularity. In the 60s the counterculture sort of brings it back. Janis Joplin very famously like got a tattoo from this guy named Lyle Tuttle who is like very important to tattooing and the preservation of tattoo history. He was a tattooer out in San Francisco, kind of 70s 80s. We start, oh gosh. Sorry, I have to backtrack.
Speaker 6:And you know, post-world War II, I mentioned Sailor Jerry earlier. He was an actual guy, he is not just a brand of rum. Earlier. He was an actual guy. He is not just a brand of rum, um, but he was a uh, a sailor and then a tattooer. During that time he had struck up, um, like a pen pal relationship with a tattooer out in hong kong called pinky yoon. And pinkyy Yoon was doing like Japanese style tattooing which you know we've all seen, like the big, full cohesive sleeves with like the black background and, you know, really graceful imagery. And during that time Sailor Jerry did a put together a trade where he sent Pinky Yoon electric tattooing machines which they didn't have over there. They had. I think it's called Tabori. Don't quote me on that. If there's tattooers listening to this. I'm so sorry.
Speaker 4:What is our demographic Georgia? We have a large following of tattooers. Yeah, I hope so. You're all welcome. We'd love to have you.
Speaker 6:Yes so you're all welcome. We'd love to have you, yes, but, um, yeah, jerry sends over electric tattooing, electric tattooing machines and pinky yoon sends over like purple. I know purple pigment was the big one, but a couple different colors that, like, western tattooers didn't have access to and, like sailor jerry was able to like reverse engineer how to make that pigment. Um, yeah, and kind of like, yeah, you know, 60s counterculture is like a tattooing kind of comes back and then in the 70s and 80s, ed hardy uh, really changes a lot of tattooing and kind of brings it into the modern era and that's where the idea of custom tattoos started. Before that it was just the flash thing of like, oh, I'm gonna walk into the shop, there's a hundred designs to choose from. Everybody's choosing from the same hundred designs. Versus Ed Hardy, who had been an art student out in San Francisco somewhere in California, had should have researched before this episode.
Speaker 4:No, this is how we research.
Speaker 5:Yeah, this is how we do. If you recall, it's fact.
Speaker 6:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. In the world of Three Cocktails, in everything I'm saying is correct.
Speaker 5:Yes, but Sailor Jerry popularizes.
Speaker 6:Ed Hardy popularizes the idea of a custom tattoo, where people come to him and they say I want a tiger that is blue, and I want you know a chrysanthemum, and I want it, you know this size and I want you know these things incorporated. And he says, yeah, I will do that for you, which is a huge part of tattooing today and I mean that's a lot of what I do right now and it's a really cool kind of element of it. And now, yeah, I mean tattoos are super popular. They're no longer considered job stoppers or things that only criminals and degenerates get. Now moms do.
Speaker 6:Yes, some of my favorite clients are moms, school teachers. We got a couple seminary students who keep coming in. Everybody gets tattoos. A lot of people get tattoos and it's super cool. One of my favorite parts of my job is getting to meet tons and tons of different people that I never would have had the chance to talk to without it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's cool.
Speaker 5:I have questions. Can you do any color? Just to speed around Any color, any color, can you get any color? Yeah, is there any color of ink you can think of? I mean you can do any color.
Speaker 6:Pretty much. Yeah, I generally recommend doing black outlines around a tattoo, Just because the black pigment is like a little bit denser. It kind of acts like a fence. Something that's been really popular in the last five years has been red ink tattoos, and I've seen them come back and they, you know, the tattoo might be two years old but it looks like it's five or six years old because that red ink spreads further.
Speaker 5:But as far as like putting any color in the tattoo, you can totally do that and do anything, and that was going to be my next question Do they fade or, you know, like you said, spread some.
Speaker 6:Yeah, yeah, that's totally normal. The reason why that is is that so the when you're putting tattoo ink into the skin, you're putting it in about like the second layer of your skin and as your skin ages it loses collagen. So there's less kind of structure keeping that line as small as it originally was. So they do spread out a little bit over time. Fading is pretty normal too, especially if you're somebody who's out in the sun or if you're not wearing sunscreen. But yeah, that is part of the process. I will say a well-applied tattoo will continue to look nice and will continue to look cool even as it ages or fades or you know sort of loses that structure. Um, a lot of those like classic designs are kind of built around this idea of like it's not going to look fresh for the entirety of its lifespan. So you know, the artist puts it in. That's something that I think about when I'm designing. A tattoo is like this looks cool right now. Is it going to look cool in 5, 10, 15 plus years?
Speaker 5:Do you know what's the ink made out of? What is?
Speaker 6:it. Black ink is made out of just carbon and water and, I think, a little bit of an alcohol base. Tattoo ink is all vegan. It is primarily just like a dye, like kind of a powder or some sort of substrate with like an alcohol base in it. I would say if anybody's like, if anybody listening is nervous about having some kind of reaction to tattoo ink, it's pretty rare to have it happen. It is almost impossible to have a reaction to black ink because it is made out of carbon, and so are we Good to know, mm-hmm.
Speaker 3:Have you had anybody walk in and say here's what I want, and you say I'm not going to do that?
Speaker 6:Yes, I would say 99% of the time. If I turn down a tattoo, it is because I don't feel like I have the skill level to do it justice. I am lucky to work with a lot of people who are very good tattooers, though, so I usually just try to refer them to somebody else. There are things that I won't tattoo. I'm not gonna tattoo anything hateful. We have never had any of that come into my shop. You know fingers crossed we won't. But sometimes people do want like swastikas or you know something horrible, and you have to say no, you need to leave.
Speaker 6:Yeah, I don't tattoo faces. That's just kind of a big commitment for both me and the person getting the tattoo. I'm a little bit selective on what I tattoo on, like necks or hands, especially if the person is not already heavily tattooed. If you're pretty heavily tattooed, I usually feel pretty good about tattooing a hand or a neck. If you don't have any other tattoos and you want your first tattoo to be on your hand, I will probably talk you into doing it on the top of your forearm.
Speaker 3:Yeah, just from because of a pain perspective or just because of how visible it is it's more than it's super visible the eye tattoo.
Speaker 6:In St Paul we are smack dab in the middle of three or four different college campuses, so we do get a lot of people who are very young, you know, maybe 18 or 19, and they want, you know, a big, bad-ass tattoo right on the back of their palm. They don't have any other tattoos and it's just like that.
Speaker 6:You know, that's a big commitment and that's something that that person's going to live with for the rest of their life. So I generally try to talk people into somewhere else. I mean, I think it looks sick to get a palm tattoo, get a neck tattoo. I probably won't be doing neck, I'll do my hands at some point, but I know you like that idea, mom.
Speaker 4:Nothing on the face. Nothing on the face.
Speaker 5:Probably not. So, typically can you just come in and get a tattoo, I mean, or should you know? Should you make an appointment? Are you going to want somebody that's thought about it instead of like 11 pm on Saturday night?
Speaker 4:you know, just running around it's coming this weekend yeah.
Speaker 6:Well, the shop closes at 8, so I don't have to worry about 11 pm at night.
Speaker 5:But you know, what. I mean. If you just on a whim come in, will you still do it? Oh yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 6:I love those types of tattoos. Yeah, we do walk-in.
Speaker 6:The way that walk-in tattoos work at the shop I work at is that they're just first come, first serve. With that there are some constraints, like I try to keep it around palm size or smaller, just something that I can do in, like you know, under two hours of time, with some drawing time. For those larger pieces or things that are more involved, where I want more time to sit down and really work out a drawing, I will. I do prefer to book that, but if somebody comes in and they you know I did walk-ins on Sundays let's, let's walk through what I did. I did, you know, lettering on two girls. I tattooed someone's mom's name on them. Someone else brought in a little drawing that they just wanted tattooed on them. Another person just wanted a little bit of a coverup. They wanted to cover up a name. So I did that. Yeah, I mean I, yeah, I love the walk-in thing. I love when people come in on a whim.
Speaker 6:It's fun to be able to get them, you know in and out and kind of you know, while strike, while the iron is hot, so to speak.
Speaker 4:So if you want to go get a tattoo, how do you prepare?
Speaker 6:I would say the big things are where, first and foremost, eat breakfast, eat food before you get tattooed. Um, if you don't, you are more likely to pass out, because it is hard on your body to get tattooed Um is that because wait a minute?
Speaker 4:do they pass out from pain?
Speaker 6:No, not, I mean, it's just your body's under stress. So, like know, you are in pain. Tattoos generally don't make people pass out from pain. It's usually a factor of other things going on, like maybe the person uh has their blood sugar drop, or they didn't eat all day or they were not doing well, you know. So that will can cause people to pass out, but but that's pretty rare. I would just say eat some food beforehand, you're gonna have a better time, you're not. It's not gonna hurt as bad. I don't know why the science is that way, but it is Other things to prepare.
Speaker 6:If you are getting a tattoo on your torso or on your ribs, wear clothing that you, um can you know, comfortably get to the spot that you're tattooing at. I would also say don't wear white into a tattoo shop. Um, uh, I do my best not to get ink on people, but you know, um, and I would just say just come in with a good attitude, be willing to listen to your tattoo artist, um, especially if they tell you that something is not going to work or if you're going to have to do something differently. Um, I know for myself, I don't like telling people no, um, so if I'm going. You know, if I tell a client like, hey, what you're asking for is not going to work, it's because it's is not going to work, it's because it's actually not going to work.
Speaker 3:It's not that I don't want to do it. Um, you know, I'm trying to help people out in the long run with that. Yeah, that's good. I think that's great that you guys are you're you want, you obviously want people to be happy with what they're about to do, so you're going to you're, you're advising them as, as best you can, as the expert.
Speaker 6:um, you know, rather than you know, you guys y'all looking at each other and saying, oh, than you know, you guys y'all looking at each other and saying, oh, this yahoo wants a ducky duck, or you know whatever. I don't know nothing. I would love to tattoo.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean I would love to get duffy dog. What's the weirdest thing you've ever or oddest thing you've ever tattooed?
Speaker 6:oh man, um thing you've ever tattooed. Oh man, it's not necessarily an odd one, but one of my recent favorites was a gentleman came in for his 60th birthday. He got his first tattoo and it was a parrot with a straw hat on and a pair of sunglasses and it said growing older but not up, because he's a Jimmy Buffett super fan.
Speaker 5:Oh sure, I knew as soon as you said the straw hat. That's where it was probably going.
Speaker 6:Yeah, yeah, probably the strangest, the wildest one I've seen in the shop is that there was a woman who came in and got made in Texas tattooed on the bottom of her foot, um, which I think I shook her hand afterwards because I was so impressed that she actually did it, because I mean just, oh god, it had to have hurt so bad, but she's not grateful yeah the foot does hurt.
Speaker 4:Speaking from experience, the foot the ankle hurts, the rest of them haven't hurt, so yeah wow, well, really interesting, georgia.
Speaker 3:I think it's just it's been fun for us that know you, it's been fun to watch your journey into this profession and how great it is that you found something that you really love doing and you're tapping into your true and unique talents, and that's something that we have really hit pretty consistently over the episodes here, because that's as 50s, we cannot stress that enough to people of any age to tap into your unique talents. And look at that smile on her face right. And it's wonderful to see that, georgia, you're such a talented, talented person and it's just wonderful to see you grow into this woman that you are and the talents that you are. And it's just it's fun to highlight your story here too.
Speaker 6:Thank you so much.
Speaker 5:I really appreciate it. Your mom said something you know how you you. You could see where you wanted to go, but you didn't need it right away. You figured it out what your goal was and you made it happen over time, instead of, you know, applying for the tattoo artist position everywhere and try to get it that way. You know you took your time and saw the goal and then worked toward it, and that's, I think, hard for some people. You know to figure that out. Be patient enough to wait for it.
Speaker 6:Totally, totally, and I think that that is absolutely something that I have learned from going through this experience of, you know, working in a shop and wanting to tattoo and then learning how to tattoo is that it takes a lot of humility and a lot of patience and and a lot of consistency, and I think, like being consistent and making you know, know, kind of seeing like I might not be at the finish line tomorrow, but I can take this one step towards it, or I can. You know, I can't, I don't have any control over, um, you know what's going to be happening in a year, but I have control over what's happening this week. Um, I think just trying to stay in that sort of mindset has been a learning experience for me and, yeah, it's been cool. I'm super grateful for it.
Speaker 3:That's really good advice. So, if I can just state back what you just said, you said I can't necessarily control what's going to happen in a year, but I can control what's going to happen this week or what effort I can put forth this week. That's a really good way to look at goal setting or just like where am I going, what do I need to focus on? Because people get so overwhelmed by whatever the thing is, feeling so big.
Speaker 3:I had just had this conversation with Bo. When he gets under mounds of his laundry, right, so let's bring it right down to just normal everyday shit. So the kid's got way too much, way too many clothes. He'll go through every single piece in his closet before he does laundry and then he's buried under this mountain. And when you get buried under weight of something like that, you have to think about what. What can I chip away at Totally, rather than looking at the entire mountain. And I'm going to go share that with him Because I think that's it's a very digestible way to look at, a healthy way to help ourselves reach our goals.
Speaker 6:Totally, and I think that like yeah, I mean like when I Especially when I was really wanting to learn how to tattoo and had not Did it, you know, especially when I was really wanting to learn how to tattoo and had not did it, you know, I didn't know that I was going to be able to. It was never guaranteed for me and that was something that I'm sure my mom can attest to bothered me quite a bit um.
Speaker 6:We are not known for our patience no it's not for us but you know there were a lot of times it had to. You know I would be in this headspace of like, oh man, like I really just want to learn how to tattoo. Where am I going to go? How am I going to learn how to do this? How am I going to pull this off? And I couldn't. You know there's no moving that goal post when you don't have the way forward.
Speaker 6:So it was like, well, I don't know what's going on there, but I can paint two sheets of flash this week and I can bring them in next week and I can show them to my mentor. So, kind of breaking stuff down like that and just kind of accepting that you might not be able to make like some crazy jump, it's like a very gradual, gradual path to success.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, well, and maybe the fact that you didn't know for sure that it was going to happen makes you go after it even more. Right, yeah, yeah. It makes sure that every day you show up and you put in in a hundred percent of your effort, totally and, I think, best chance.
Speaker 6:Yeah, and I think that that is so, so important for um I mean tattooing in particular. Like I, four days a week, I do permanent body modification on people. Like I have to take that seriously. And it's a really cool, like a really magic thing. I don't ever want to not take that seriously, so I think it's good that it was not handed to me directly, and I don't think it should be handed to people directly. I think you gotta. I think it's one of those things that you do kind of have to work for.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Well. I don't know how to do this correctly, but you get that. Oh, I don't know how to do that one yeah one, yeah. Uh well, I'm going to say it. I tell you all the time I am so proud of you, I'm so happy that you're happy with your choices. That is the goal of parenting we want our kids to do what makes them happy and get off the family payroll and you've done that, so thank you, yes, yes, cheers to that, cheers to that.
Speaker 4:When you're off the payroll, you don't have to listen to the opinions and the advice, right, no, that's correct.
Speaker 6:I'm not going to ask for it, but I don't have to listen to it, you don't have to listen.
Speaker 5:There you go, that's right, alright.
Speaker 3:Well, this is great, georgia, thank you so much for your time. Thank you so much for having me. Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 4:And, ladies, we'll see you next week where we'll be talking about another riveting, yes, addicting conversation another riveting, addicting conversation have a great week, bye, bye bye, I got that.
Speaker 1:Wow, who wants some heads up right now? We got that. Turn it up loud. I know you're wondering how I got that.
Speaker 2:wow, here I go. Here I go, coming. I can't ever stop. I'm a tour de force running. Get me to the top. I don't need an invitation. I'm about to start a celebration. Let me in Brought a good time with some friends. Turn it up loud past 10.
