Today we’d like to introduce you to Yuri Lee.
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?
A second generation Atlanta native, youngest daughter to two Korean immigrants, all of us siblings only ever had a career option in medicine. I studied to be an oral surgeon and was in school for over a decade, working in the dental field some while bartending and picking up every creative gig I could fire up my soul that was literally getting dying to aspire in a career to make my parents proud.
As I was pursuing medicine, my father got diagnosed with cancer. I changed my career to a remote cyber security role that allowed me the flexibility to take care of my dad through what we thought would be a short (1 year ish) battle non terminal illness. But none of the oncologists could diagnosis the origin of the cancer while it spread for the following three years.
As many folks do, I also sought therapy and relief through tattoo therapy. I spent full days in my tattoo artist’s chair and he became a friend, a brother, a shoulder to lean on most of the times in silence as he would tattoo me and sometimes I’d bury my face as tears came streaming out. But towards my dad’s end of life, I rarely left the house where we had set up a home hospice during Covid.
After he passed, I spent another two years isolated with my remote job, decompartmentalizing, in therapy, trying to get through my grief. My cushy career was sucking my soul dry although I was able to take care of my widowed mother and renovate my house. I knew I had to do something creative to reignite my soul. I needed people interaction. This Covid isolation did me in like it did a lot of folks. Plus, my dad’s last sitting up conversation he had with me about not taking time for granted and essentially giving me approval to do what fulfills me, not him or my mom, “You think you’ll have time to do everything you want. But your body will tell you otherwise.”
From there if the universe could scream, it was literally igniting the way. First, I severed my non dominant hand tendons while on lunch break at home and needed emergency surgery. My dad’s last words came to the forefront from the years prior. One of my data engineering contract jobs calls me to state after me requesting time off with my hand in a cast that they no longer needed me. Now I had some free time all of sudden.
Then my tattoo artist reached out to finish my back tattoo he started two full sessions on and asked me how life has been. Then he offers to work with him, through an apprenticeship tattooing. I had been turned down many times before by other veteran artists. This was my chance!
A week after I started my 2-3 days a week apprenticeship, I get laid off my main corporate job. I told my mentor, I’ll be coming in everyday even in closed days if he was tattooing, because he would do that. I gave it my all. I came 6-7 days a week. I was interviewing at companies for another cushy job. I get to the final interview for a job that would relocate me to San Francisco but offered me more than all my jobs combined in Atlanta.
It was that crossroads again—choose the cushy job? A fresh start in a new city? Or stick with my current unpaid apprenticeship, watching my savings dwindle and see where it goes?
I turned down that job opportunity and stayed in Atlanta. From the moment my mentor gave me the green light to tattoo my friends and family, my schedule has been stacking starting with small free tattoos. My mentor has me help him start a second all female artist studio. Eventually he offered me partnership, which I was hesitant on making it public for a little while due to how it would make the current resident artists feel. But my mentor made a good point—it’s okay, the people that are meant for you and Sky Studio, will find you and stay with you.
Fast forward coming up on Sky Studio’s first birthday, our team now has 9 amazing artists—all with more experience than me and 4 apprentices. The best part of this little family that you will immediately feel when you walk in, is that we all actually have a shared passion for tattooing but that we also very much vibe together. It literally feels like a family. It’s such a rarety to not only getting to do something we all love to do, but to actually like the people you work with also I think is such a huge blessing. They constantly keep me inspired and motivated.
Venturing on this uncertain journey, has also been a very humbling and emotional self discovering journey. The belief in me from my first year clients, the mentors (all 3 of them including Rose @apexbrows for cosmetic tattooing, Kazuki @osaka.tattoo.kz for black and grey realism) along with the amazing artists I’ve traveled to for seminars and some met through virtual, my brother (I call him my brother, but he is technically my cousin) who footed the bill with my cosmetic license and schooling, and my friends, one that helped me obtain top of line pricey machines to help me have no excuse to be my best, my friends that were my first free tattoo victims, and all of my friends that are tattoo people but support me just be sharing, liking and commenting on my dreaded daily posts (gotta make content everyday, they said).
For this being our first year open to the public, I am so grateful to have come this far in such a short time but also we owe it to all of our clients and their referrals, and to our artists as we grow and learn together, nerding out on all the things everyday. Yes everyday—we are open everyday!
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It most definitely has not been smooth in terms of people and my personal growth as a newer established artist still honing and improving my craft. It’s people—people have been the biggest struggle.
Not all folks on the spectrum get each other. Trying to find a team on the right level of time that can gel together—huge.
We did finally open up our artist hires to also be selectively open to male identifying and cis male artists, especially since we were a female owned, run and majority female identifying gendered team.
As a tattoo shop, being a safe place for clients is a must as a lot of folks process traumas and hardships through tattoo therapy. But a lot of work places do not provide that safe place to their staff. Finding the right people I personally felt safe with, that could also feel safe with the environment we as a team and I as a boss could provide to, has nearly taken me growing and learning from the early beginnings of Sky. I do also think the big age difference between me and the artists made it harder for me to try and comprehend them initially, but now being able to vocalize it with some of the younger members of Sky they are very understanding of me and try their best to explain the ways of the world through their eyes. It’s been such a learning experience and I definitely feel like the old auntie that’s trying her best to stay in the know and be hip but also really just trying to be a better artist everyday. I’ve been booked full minus 2-4 days a month consistently for the last 6-7 months and that to me is really unbelievable.
The internal struggle personally as my worth as a tattoo artist is whole different struggle I don’t really talk about. I analyze my tattoos from the day’s work each day, trying to see what I could have done better and a lot of times very self critical. I have been getting more and more hate messages from other people in this industry and that’s been hard to ignore as hard as I try. But I have to remember to take it a day at a time.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a Fineline tattoo artist by trade. I love doing honestly anything with lots of details and shading. But I do get a lot of good feedback and rebookings for floral and animal tattoos. I am fascinated by eyes so anything with eyes, I love doing as well.
All of my work I’ve done, I always know I can improve and do better. But I can say for sure I’m most proud of watching the artists at the studio, honing their craft regardless of whether they’re tattooing that day or not. It’s incredibly inspirational and motivating to me be privileged to be around such talented artists that are all really good in their styles.
I am also proud as many times as I “almost quit”, I still show up every day, regardless of how disheartening it is to see public comments about me or my work. As another veteran fellow artist on Sky’s team says, “You’re doing something right if you’re getting enough exposure to get hate comments. Don’t sweat it. Let your clients and schedule speak for you.”
Talk about having sisters and brothers that have your back no matter what.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
Nothing is permanent. So be present today. Do the best you can be for today.
Pricing:
- $150 — shop minimum, but flexible to some discretion depending on tattoo and your artist
- $120/hr is my personal hourly charge. I do not charge more per hour for color because it already takes more time to do so I do not believe in price gauging.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.skystudiotattoo.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yuri.tattooist
