Tattoo artists explain how they got into the craft

On the line beside "What I want to be when I grow up," fourth-grade Andy Estes wrote "tattoo artist."

Two decades later, that worksheet is still somewhere at his mom's house, but Estes can be found in his corner of Flesh Hound Tattoo Studio in Cape Girardeau.

"Yeah, she's still got it," he says, smiling at his station, surrounded by his custom art and designs. "I was in fourth grade when I realized I wanted to be a tattoo artist."

And so for the last 11 years, he's been doing just that. Eleven years and six days, to be exact.

"It's kind of like a birthday, the day you started your career," he says. "Or at least it should be."

But Jake French, artist at A Different Drummer Tattoo, is frank about the nature of the gig.

"This isn't just a funland joyride," he says. "This is hard work."

After 10 years tattooing, French says that it's just like any other job despite the Hollywood glamour. Work ethic, he says, is the most important element.

"There's a lot of people who see it on TV shows and say, 'Yeah, I wanna do that," he says, "But there's nowhere near as many people who are willing to commit; who really have what it takes."

Estes says that he, too, had to work hard to earn the chance to do that first tattoo. Submitting a portfolio of drawings and a written essay to a local shop just got him a year and a half apprenticeship, learning how to maintain a sterile environment.

Corey Bedwell begins filling a custom butterfly tattoo on his sister, Brandy Bedwell, Thursday at A Different Drummer Tattoo Studio in Cape Girardeau. (Laura Simon)

"They make you prove you're getting into it for the art, not just to slap a bunch of stuff on people for money," he explains.

It's not hard to believe Estes is indeed in it for the art. An easel topped with a Halloween mask, myriad sketches and oil paintings all corroborate his claim that, "If you can put it together and make it look cool, I'm in."

Like being able to put together a Boba Fett sleeve using abstraction and shading that he says has been one of his favorite pieces. It exemplified the style he's grown into as an artist; a mix of portraiture and "bio-organic" work that takes textures and elements from nature and using them in abstracted composition. He'd rather do a larger, more challenging piece artistically than a handful of simple souvenir pieces.

"That kind of stuff is really daunting for a young artist," he says. "But now I prefer to do a piece of art."

That confidence doesn't come easy, though, and he says that there's really only one way to learn.

"There are a lot of ways you can practice," he says. "But animal skin or whatever, that's not going to tell you if you're hurting it way more than you should be."

So Estes started small with patience, professionalism, and a best friend who wanted a tribal tattoo.

"You have a couple of routes you could take when that time comes [to do your first tattoo]" he says. "I offered my friend a deal: trust me to do these now, and then free tattoos 'till you die."

French says that one of the necessary skills in a tattoo artist's repertiore is playing counselor to prospective clients. A tattoo without a clearly defined vision is a recipe for trouble.

"I see it as, 'You want something, need something? OK. Here's what I can do to help you get what you want.'" he says. "I can't always help [someone get what they want], but I can tell them where to go. Because tattoos are popular now, but they stay forever."

Aesthetic trends can be ephemeral, but over 11 years and six days in the business, Estes says that he's noticed a shift industrywide in terms of tattoo quality.

"You have a lot more artists nowadays that are gallery quality. They're fine art quality," he explains. He says art like it has a capital A. "You didn't have as much of that as you did in the early 2000s."

After a beat, he cracks a grin over his long goatee.

"People aren't getting Godsmack suns anymore."

tgraef@semissourian.com

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