Today we’d like to introduce you to Afterglow Tattoo
Hi Afterglow, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
The four of us have had very different paths and life experiences that have led us to where we are, but there is something we all have in common. It’s the reason we’ve found ourselves together running our cute little tattoo shop, Afterglow Tattoo. That is a background as an artist, a love for the arts that sparked within each of us from the time we were kids, and an unrelenting drive to never EVER work a 9 to 5 (the power of not waking up and reporting to a boss each day is strong). We each highly value and truly love getting to live creative lifestyles as working artists, making our own schedules, and having control over all the little things it takes to run your own business, and man are there A LOT of little things.
Rebecca, Violet, and Bianca have similar backgrounds, moving to Atlanta as teenagers and becoming immersed in the beautiful and deeply embedded art scene that we have here in Atlanta. We were each working as artists, Rebecca working as a muralist for Living Walls, Bianca sculpting nature dioramas for museums, and Violet being involved with organizing multi media community arts events. We all naturally came to tattooing separately, not even really knowing each other at the time. When the pandemic hit it opened up a period of stillness, in which we all had the time to deep dive into learning a new medium. We were drawn to tattooing because it offers so much freedom, you get out of it what you put in and we all have a lot of energy to give.
Hosang grew up in Korea. He discovered tattooing when he was 14 and became obsessed with the culture, so much so that when he was 20 and in college with an internship in graphic design, he quit. Tattooing is illegal in Korea, so it’s no easy feat to become a successful tattoo artist there. The desire to overcome despite the difficulty is really what drove him, and what led him to a new country where he arrived not speaking the language. He has built himself a very successful tattoo business and is now a co-owner of his own shop.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Arriving to where we are now has been anything but smooth. The way we all started to work together was at a really special moment in time at an unconventional little shop called Temporary Tattoo. We had a space on the westside, that was like a tattoo shop speakeasy kinda vibe. You pulled up to a scraggly building with no sign next door to a mechanic shop, that looked like it could possibly be vacant, but when you walked through the doors you were in a DIY space that despite its many quirks and shortcomings (remember that one time we didn’t have heat or AC the whole year), was obviously a labor of love. Things changed rapidly there, we had 11 artists working together in this space, and life took us all in different directions. At the end, the four of us were left wanting to continue on to make something better with everything we had learned at our time doing Temporary. We didn’t realize how poetic the name would become when we came up with it, so we made sure to put a ton of thought, deliberation and good juju into naming our next venture: Afterglow.
One of our artists at Temporary, Danielle Brutto, had owned this precious building in the heart of Reynoldstown for over a decade. If you’re familiar with the neighborhood you’ve definitely seen it and maybe even have been there. It sits on a little island of its own in the middle of Stovall and Flat Shoals across the street from Parkgrounds. There used to be a fried sunny side up egg sign hanging over the door and it was the host to many punk shows over the years. Danielle had decided it was time for her to pursue something new, moving to the big apple, the timing was kismet because we needed a new space. After 8 long months of going through the process with the city to rezone the building from residential to commercial use (thank you Jennifer Marten, you are an angel) we finally were able to move in May of last year.
If you’ve been to our shop, you know (because we’ll never shut up about it) how much we’ve put into our space. We have curated every detail and done the majority of the labor ourselves to make it into a funky, warm and cozy, inviting space that just feels good to hang out in.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Afterglow Tattoo isn’t a traditional tattoo studio. It’s not exactly what would come to mind when you think, tattoo shop. Our goal with creating our space is to cultivate an environment that feels very inviting and inclusive to anyone who desires to come. We want people to feel comfortable and welcomed when they walk in. We hope to be more than just a place you come to get drawn on, this is a space you’re coming to transform your body, which can be a vulnerable thing. People get tattooed for lots of different reasons, and we want our shop to feel like a safe place where you can relax (through the pain).
Some of us have experience working in different shops under less than desirable shop owners, where we didn’t have full creative control over our art or our schedules. Owning our own studio as a 4 way collective gives us freedom. And we really value passing that along to our artists, they can come and go as they please and do whatever style they want. Working as a team to run the shop where we divide and conquer all the tasks that go along with it, allows us to run our own individual tattooing businesses the way we want alongside each other. It’s a dreamy set up.
The four of us plus our beloved resident artist Gracie, all offer very different styles. You can get anything ranging from hyper realism, color, fine line, illustrative, and more exploratory styles here. We also host guest artists from not just the US but from around the globe. When we bring guest artists into the shop we aren’t looking for one specific style, so there is really a huge variety rotating in and out all the time.
This is one of the aspects of our business that we are most proud of. We’ve hosted artists from Mexico, Korea, Argentina, Chile, and Italy to name a few. Cultivating community through the arts has brought us to where we are today and it’s really what our business runs on. Community is often thought of as what’s around you, but it can be so enriching to expand your community outside of your city and state, and outside of your country. We like to think that by doing this and creating a space of connection for people we’re helping Atlanta to flourish as a city in some small way.
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
Like we mentioned before, we’ve been fortunate to have been immersed in Atlanta’s expansive arts scene for a long time before opening a tattoo shop, that is something that has really helped us along the way. The community really takes care of its people. We take any chance we get to recommend our friends who are creatives and run their own businesses and people do the same for us, which really helps in organically growing our business as a shop and as individual artists.
None of us had traditional style apprenticeships, we are all self taught, and so are many of the artists who come guest with us. The best advice we can give for tattooing is to find people who you admire, who have more experience than you and go get tattooed by them. There is this stigma within the tattoo industry that no one will share information with you and that only certain people are “allowed in” which has definitely been the case for a long time but times are changing. We’ve all been fortunate to have had invaluable guidance throughout our journeys, but a lot of it is just a strong motivation to learn and to know that you will make mistakes but to do everything you can to constantly better yourself along the way. We are all still learning about tattooing, about how to run a business, and about how to work as a team all of the time.
To be successful at tattooing, yes you have to do good work, but there is so much more involved. You have to be good at making connections with people, caring for the health and safety of others, good at putting yourself out into the world whether it be through social media or some other way, and on top of your finances because being self employed is a whole different beast (hello tax season). It’s a never ending learning process.
As for advice on running a business, it’s all about finding your people. The way to do that is to never stop talking about your passions, you never know who you’re going to meet or when you’ll be in the right place at the right time for someone to offer you that little thing that makes all the difference or to make a friend who aligns with you. Sometimes it may feel vulnerable speaking about things you want and are passionate about, but when you say things out loud enough times they become your reality.
Pricing:
- Pricing varies among our artists and guest artists.
- It’s based on our levels of experience and expertise.
- Make sure to communicate about pricing and budget with your artist before getting tattooed.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afterglow.ttt/ (@afterglow.ttt) (@shadow_tattooer, @bianca.not.here, @violet.martini.tattoos, @reba.tattoos, @threedaystattoos)
Image Credits
Shannon Pitchford
Violet Martini
