Check Out Destiny Momodu’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Destiny Momodu.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My name is Destiny Momodu, and I am a 21-year-old Nigerian Visual Artist/Tattoo artist from the Westside of Atlanta, Georgia. I’ve been an artist since I was maybe 4 or 5; My mother is a teacher, and My father owned a car lot and an ice cream truck, but funny enough, he was an artist who never showed his work to people but my sister and me.

Art is my life, but I didn’t call myself an artist until 6th grade; Coming we’re I’m from, and having the desire to be an influential freelance artist, people felt like that was unusual. I always felt like an outcast growing up; even when being in large social groups, I would still feel distant or even alone. Once I graduated high school, I believed maybe I should try being an art teacher a year later; I dropped out of college and quit my job as an educator assistant and invested my last paycheck into a tattoo machine and some tattoo supplies and, the rest was history.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The road has not been super smooth, but I don’t regret anything that has took place in my life when I was young; I felt very alone for an extended period; being molested at the age of eight and running from the thought of therapy pushed me down a dark path for a very long time I could never talk about my situation. Still, art was the only way I could show my feelings and vent without anyone knowing; as time went on, things would tend to get a little harder on my family and me once my father’s legal troubles arose, he later was in jeopardy of being deported back to Nigeria I was 16-year-old when I had to get on a stand and explain to a jury why I feel like my father should be able to stay in the United States, with me being the oldest between my sister and me, I had to be more of the backbone for Everyone; As I was getting older and still staying on the westside, I started to do art less and less and began to get into trouble and became rebellious of My mother’s Rules. She noticed a pattern, and I was 17-years-old; she then moved us to Atlanta’s east side, where we got a fresh new start.

I only had two years left of high school, and I started to get serious about Career choices. I would tend to let people influence me to think that being an artist was not a real occupation, so I pushed my arts towards being an art teacher; once I graduated high school, I enrolled in college, and a few months later, I started working at an early childhood education center as time went on I began to feel Unhappy and lost, a year after I decided to drop out of college and quit my job. Still, I did not let this problematic moment affect my craft. I put more of my emotions into my art. People always told me I should try tattooing. I was never really interested until I saw an episode of “Ink Masters” for the first time, and I didn’t like some of the work I saw. I told myself if “they can do it, I know I can,” so for the next two weeks, I was watching YouTube videos on tattooing, teaching myself how to apply the needle to the skin, how to stretch the skin, etc. Once I received my last paycheck from my previous job, I invested it all into a tattoo machine and some tattoo supplies, and I’ve been in love with tattooing since then.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Being a freelance artist and a tattoo artist can be a little bit tiring sometimes cause you still must make time for your artwork, just as well as tattooing. As a tattoo artist, it’s way more than what I thought it was. It’s more technical than just buying a machine and doing a tattoo. Its different styles, my favorite type of tattooing right now is realism and new school; sanitation plays a significant role in tattooing, and application is critical as well. You may feel like, at times, you’re doing surgery on the skin; even your mental state matters as a tattoo artist. The number one thing you need the most is confidence. You need to have a certain amount of confidence every time you do a tattoo. Then apply that confidence to everything you do in life.

What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
What I love the most about the city is the people it’s so many hidden talents within Atlanta that are not getting noticed and the spotlight they need. What I dislike the most about the city is the crime and violence within our community and some law enforcement that either does nothing about the corruption or sometimes even adds to the chaos.

Pricing:

• The minimum is 100 small tats and up
• Quarter sleeve 350 and up
• Half sleeve 450$ and up
• Whole arm 600$
• Custom tattoo and or portraits 500$ and up

Contact Info:

• Email: Destiny.momodu@yahoo.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/lew.world/
• Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/lewworld_