Interview with tattoo artist Amy Hazel
Hello Amy Hazel! Thank you for
taking the time to do this interview. Please start
by telling us something about yourself and your background. What
inspired you to start tattooing? I’ve always studied art
and been generally drawn to it, like all of us I suppose. As a
teenager I used to spend a massive amount of time making art,
drawing on my friends and myself with sharpies, looking into the
industry and watching YouTube videos of tattoo influencers and
apprentices and things like that and watching all the TV shows none
stop. I couldn’t really see myself doing anything else other than
being in a creative field, it was actually my Grandma who first
showed some support for my interest in tattooing when I was younger,
she told me the local studio was always busy and it seemed like a
good career option, and my auntie who has always shown so much
enthusiasm for anything I wanted to do creatively when I was much
younger.
Q: What was the most challenging part of becoming a tattoo
artist? What kept you motivated?
A: The most challenging part for me was, and still is, putting
yourself out there and receiving the criticism for what you’re
doing, both online and by people close to you. Aside from actually
learning the skill of course, I think building a thick skin has been
the biggest challenge for me personally. Its hard to keep motivated
sometimes, but it really helps learning to take the criticism as
fuel to do better, every achievement is really fulfilling when you
know you’ve proved the people who don’t believe in you wrong in my
opinion.
Q: What kinds of tattoos you use to do as a beginner? Would
you re-do some?
A:
When I first started I started with more trad designs, and quickly
moved on to neo-trad which I stuck with for a few years! Id
definitely have another go at using some of the concepts I had back
then, but I wouldn’t attempt the execution again!
Q: Did anyone help you to learn the basics? How long
took you to gain confidence and regular clients?
A: I did a traditional apprenticeship, but I learned under black and
grey artists, so a lot of my colour work was definitely independent
trial and error. My clients definitely gave me all of my confidence,
I’ve been so lucky to have the most wonderful clients who kept me
going, especially when I was shot down a lot in my first few years.
A lot of them have been with me the whole time I’ve tattooed! I
wouldn’t say I’m absolutely confident or comfortable even now, it’s
been 6 years since I did my first tattoo, but I think as artists we
should always be ready to critique ourselves and be absolutely
prepared to learn and grow. I think a lot of problems can come from
becoming content with your skill, but my confidence has definitely
grown tenfold since opening my own studio and having more freedom to
travel and work at conventions, meet other cool artists and spend
more time in a positive environment that works for me and my
clients.
Q: I really love your style. I think it's a great mix of
tattoo realism and some cartoonish vibe, really creative. How would
you call it?
A: I have no idea! I’d like to think I’m a realism artist. I think
that’s why I chose to incorporate cartoons as stickers rather than
just the standalone cartoons, to try and give it that definition as
realism, but I definitely have other elements too. It’s hard work
trying to pinpoint the exact style, but people have described it as
surrealism, pop art, realism etc, any of those work for me! To me,
it’s just my own style.
Q: What do you like the most about this style?
A:
Definitely the portraits! I’ve always worked with female portraits,
and it never gets old for me. I just love working with them! Every
part of it is interesting to me. I also really enjoy the balloon
lettering, the first time I did one I was so shocked at how shiny
looking and effective they can be!
Q: Color tattooing only? Would you experiment with black and
white tattooing, or a completely new style?
A: Absolutely! Believe it or not, I work in a small town in the UK,
so the majority of the time I worked in black and grey until
recently as there wasn’t much call for colour realism. It was quite
rare that I would be able to work in colour, it’s only now that I’m
getting more recognised for my preferred style that people are
travelling to come and see me to do what I love doing, so I can do a
lot more of it which is super cool. I do enjoy black and grey, and
I’m very competent with it having learned to tattoo in a black and
grey studio! One day I’d really like to try my style in black and
grey, but the opportunity hasn’t come up yet!
Q: Is it true that color tattooing is a bit more challenging
technically speaking? What are some of the most difficult parts to
work on while doing a portrait tattoo?
A: I definitely think that tattooing in colour is much more
challenging technically, it really requires a lot of knowledge about
colour theory, mixing colours, and composition. It’s not like other
forms of tattooing where you work with a few shades exclusively
(which is of course difficult to master in its own right for
different reasons), you have a massive colour palette to pick out,
different skin tones and undertones to work with, and with colour
you have to work in a certain order to avoid staining your lighter
colours. Not to mention having to clean out your needles every 5
minutes to change colours and knowing how to layer those colours and
saturate properly without overworking the skin. Colour tattooing is
very complex and time consuming, but I find it so rewarding!
Q: Tattooing is a really fun job for most time, even though,
it requires a lot of patience and practice. What happens
when you have a creative block? How do you get inspired?
A: It’s definitely a lot of pressure to stay at the top of your game
every day for every client, it definitely takes a lot of self care
in your personal life to be able to work like this. For inspiration,
I don’t really know where it comes from specifically. I don’t really
hunt for inspiration, I think you kind of stumble across it. For
example, I wanted to do something to make my work stand out when I
started doing this style, I wanted something original that would
make my pieces clear it was mine at first sight, eventually I came
up with using my signature sad smiley faces on the cheeks. The
inspiration for that came from snapchat filters, believe it or not.
I saw a filter with stickers all over the face and just rolled with
it, and it became a staple in all of my designs. Scrolling on
Instagram helps a lot, but it’s a slippery slope. The last thing you
want to do is find an artist you admire, but end up ripping off
their style, so I try to draw inspiration from things like concepts,
composition or colour choices from artists rather than a specific
style, I think that’s one of the main reasons I chose to find
inspiration from wherever it comes rather than seeking it out.
Q: Do you draw a lot? How
important is to have good drawing skills?
A: Not as much as I’d like to any more, I don’t have the time and I
choose to tattoo friends and family for free for practice rather
than use other mediums now. I used to draw a lot though, I actually
studied art at university where pencil drawing was my main
discipline. I used to draw huge realistic portraits, like A0 sized
paper, and try and get it as realistic as possible. I spent a lot of
time learning how to draw pores and individual hair strokes so that
I could do them on a massive scale. I think that experience has been
absolutely invaluable to me now, as I spent years studying tone,
colour theory and how to create realistic textures. I think it’s so
important to have a good understanding of these things if you want
to be able to tattoo realism, but I don’t think you need a formal
education, just knowledge and practice, which you can get from
anywhere. YouTube is a big help. Although I don’t draw much, I spend
a lot of time watching artists who do to see how they work with skin
tones or draw wrinkles and things like that. Anything I feel I need
to work on, I’ll take it to YouTube to see how it’s done and see
what tips I can pick up, it can all be transferred into tattooing
once you know how to use your machine the same way they use pencils
or paint. I think you can learn to tattoo without being able to draw
first, I’ve seen it done, but I definitely think it’s much more of a
process.
Q: Any creative hobbies like painting, digital art etc?
A:
Definitely digital art, I’ve only started using digital mediums
since I got my first iPad for my work, so I’m somewhat I beginner,
but I absolutely love doing it. Call me a cheater, but being able to
undo a paint stroke or line really takes the stress out of it for me
when I’m doing it for fun rather than work. I tried to learn to
paint at university, someone I was in the studio with was an amazing
painter, and he tried to teach me, but it was so frustrating for me
for some reason, I just couldn’t pick it up at all, I really would
love to be able to oil paint though.
Q: Do you have like a sketch book with ready-made designs
for some clients who simply don't know what?
A: I don’t actually make premade designs often. I will sometimes if
I have a really cool idea, but I usually choose to work with the
client one to one to make them something custom. If they don’t know
what they want I usually ask their permission to have a look at
their socials or have a conversation with them about what they like
and try and make something that I think will fit their personality.
It’s really important to me that the tattoo suits the client and
really works with who they are as a person so I love doing
everything on a custom basis.
Q: Do you have a favorite
tattoo you consider as a
"creative highlight"?
A: I definitely do have a levelling up piece, it was the
first one I tattooed in the style I do now. It’s the one that really
propelled my Instagram, since that one I’ve gained over 10,000
followers for the style, so I’ll be forever grateful to my partner,
Connor, for letting me tattoo that absolute experiment on him!
Otherwise, I’d say my favourite piece is always my most recent. I
was once told that every piece you do should be your best piece,
which is a bit of advice I’ve lived by since!
Q: Do you have any favorite artists?
A: Absolutely! For colour, definitely Amy Edwards
(@amyedwardstattoo), Sam Barber (@sambarbertattoo), Beth Rose
(@bethrosetattoo) and Alex Wright (@alexwrighttattoo) I really love
black and grey artists too, especially Neil Dransfield
(@neil_dransfield_tattoo),
Anrijs Straume (@anrijsstraume) and his
apprentice Hollie (@erotttik.funeral) My wonderful friend Rakhee
(@Rakhee_Tattoo) is such an inspiration to me and she’s been so kind
to me. She was my first collaboration with another artist, and it
was such a good experience. I’ll also be working with Jesse
(mohawkjessetattoos) and Brandon (Brandonbond11) in the US this year
who have been so nice to me so far.
Q: How do you see the tattoo scene today compared with just
ten years ago? Do you see progress? In my opinion, I think the
artists, the magazines, the events, and the seminars etc I think
all of us have a special piece of the puzzle. I see progress and I'm
really happy. Do you think we can do more? What would you change?
A: I think there is definitely so much more progress within the last
few years, I think the industry is so much more mainstream now and,
unpopular opinion, I absolutely love it! I love the public being
involved in what we’re doing, Obviously there’s drawbacks to it,
like Tattoo Fixers and scratchers tattooing without any training,
but for the most part I think it’s such a cool part of the industry
that the public care enough about what we do that we can put on
conventions and shows and have fun! But I think it’s made so much
more room for artists who do really interesting, individual styles
to learn to tattoo and come up in the industry, I think the
inclusivity and diversity within the industry now compared to 10
years ago is astounding in my experience. I’m really glad that the
public perception has changed from being something that is linked to
gangs and violence in some places, which is maybe more than 10 years
ago but you catch my drift, to an art form to be admired and
respected.
Q: Any advice for the new artists?
A: Don’t let anybody tell you you can’t do it, never forget it takes
practice and doesn’t come overnight. Surround yourself with kind
people and look after yourself! It’s so important to have a happy
working environment. Good luck! My DMs are always open for beginner
artists who need some motivational words or advice. o focus
on my own style, but I’m always looking at and studying other types
of tattooing. I have my favorite tattooers in every style, so if I’m
struggling with an element I can refer to someone better than me in
a different style and try to problem solve an answer for what’s best
for my design. Long story short, there is no right way or wrong way,
you just have to put in an honest effort at getting better and
learning more. That seems to be the only thing that truly matters.