Today we’d like to introduce you to Lauren Purson.
Lauren, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I’ve been drawing and painting my whole life and even as a small child, I knew I wanted to be a professional artist. I never really considered anything other than art as a career, but I also wasn’t very drawn (heh, “drawn” get it?) to most of the artistic careers I knew about. I always knew I wanted to do something different, but I didn’t have any idea what that “something” was.
As I grew, I went through a lot of different phases and interests that influenced my ideas on what kind of artist I wanted to be, but none of them ever really stuck with me. At least not until I started experimenting with my own appearance and becoming interested in body modification. When I was around 14 years old, I started dying my hair, getting piercings, and I started getting more and more interested in the tattoo community. All the bands I listened to, the artists I looked up to, and pretty much everyone that I thought was cool were covered in tattoos. I loved going to tattoo shops to get piercings (with my mother’s consent of course) and would hang out there for as long as I could. I read every tattoo magazine I could get my hands on, I watched every tattoo video I could find on YouTube, I would even sit in front of the tv with my sketchbook and watch tattoo reality shows (which by the way, in my opinion, are pretty unrealistic and do not represent the actual tattoo industry very well, but I didn’t know that at the time haha) and pretend like I was tattooing while drawing in my sketchbook.
For a while, the idea of being a tattoo artist was just kind of something fun to think about, but as time went on it became the only career option that really resonated with me. It was the only thing I could truly picture myself doing. Throughout high school, I struggled with the decision of whether or not I was going to go to college first or seek out a tattoo apprenticeship right away. I’m sure at the time my family would have preferred for me to go to college, but art school is expensive and I was never exceptionally great at school anyway, so I decided that I would go straight into an apprenticeship instead.
When I turned 18, I got my first tattoo done at a local shop and went into that same shop almost every week after that to ask for an apprenticeship. They told me no and sent me away several times before I finally annoyed them into hiring me. I ended up apprenticing with that shop for two years and worked with them as a full-time artist for another two years after that. I’ve worked in a couple of different tattoo shops since then and I’ve had the opportunity to learn from some amazing artists along the way. I am now seven years into my tattoo career, and I am currently working at Equinox Art Collective in Woodstock. I’m so grateful to have found such an awesome team of artists to work alongside and to have so many amazing friends, family members, and clients who support me.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Absolutely not! The professional tattoo industry is not very forgiving and it requires A LOT of commitment and hard work to make it. When I first started my apprenticeship, I was still in high school and had an after-school job. I would go to school from 8am-3pm, work from 4pm-8pm and then go to the tattoo shop and stay until the last artist left, which oftentimes was not until 3 or 4am, and then do it all again the next day.
My Apprenticeship was all about earning my keep and proving that I was worth teaching, so I had to be on top of everything. There was no room for error. I had no days off; There were absolutely no excuses for being late or calling out, and no time to see friends/family or do anything outside of work. And of course, being a woman made it even more challenging. At the first shop I worked at, I was straight up told that they didn’t want to hire another girl because they had “too much drama” with females in the past. Which is why I had to basically force my way into the apprenticeship in the first place.
Female tattoo artists are just as common now as male artists but it was a male-dominated industry for a long time. Unfortunately there are still people out there who still have the mentality that women are somehow inferior in this industry. All throughout my career, I have been harassed, belittled, not taken seriously, and my abilities as an artist have been doubted because of this. So there’s always been that added pressure to prove myself as an artist.
But I think one of the biggest issues I’ve faced is how many toxic environments I’ve had to get through to be where I am now. It took me so long to find the right shop where I felt like I could truly thrive as an artist. That’s why I’m so grateful to have found the shop I’m currently working at (Equinox Art Collective) I finally feel like I’m in a supportive environment where I can focus on tattooing and becoming the best artist I can possibly be. The tattoo industry may not be everything I fantasized about as a teenager, but I’m just as much in love with it as I was back then. It taught me so much about myself as an artist and an overall person.
Equinox Art Collective – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Since I’m a tattoo artist, I technically work for myself, so I guess I would be considered “the company” in this scenario. As far as specialty goes, it’s hard for me to claim a specific specialty because I like to incorporate different elements from all kinds of tattoo styles into my work. My tattoos are detail-oriented, but not quite realistic. They’re stylized, but not super cartoony. I guess the closest styles I can compare it to would be illustrative/neotraditional for my color pieces and I definitely prefer to work in a dot-work style for my black and grey pieces. For subject matter, I love tattooing animals, florals/plant life, jewels and lace, and anything dark/witchy/spooky.
I guess what I’m most proud of as an artist is how far I’ve come in the industry. I still have a long way to go and I’ll never stop learning and growing as an artist, but when I first started tattooing there were times where I doubted myself a lot. I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to be good enough to hold down a clientele or to move on to other shops and work with such talented artists. I’m proud of myself for sticking with it and for getting to where I am now. I’m not sure what sets me apart from others. It’s gotta be something though since my clients keep coming back to me, haha. I don’t know, I guess I’d say it’s my ability to incorporate and combine different types of styles into one tattoo. Everything I do is custom, and like I mentioned before, I don’t specialize in anything specific. I’m pretty well rounded in many different styles of tattooing so I can take certain elements of different styles and put them together in one cohesive piece, but to where it’s still recognizable as my work. I think that’s what makes my tattoos unique.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Everyone’s version of success is different, and I feel like one person’s success is incomparable to another’s because everyone has a different version of success. For one person success might be getting a promotion at work or opening their own business. For another person, it might be working through a mental illness and just getting out of bed that day, or completing a simple task. One is not comparable to the other, and success is not something that happens once and then everything is automatically better after that. Remaining successful requires constant effort, even when it’s not easy, even when it seems like there’s no point. It’s okay to feel discouraged and to take some time to regroup, but you have to keep putting in the effort and work towards your goals to be successful. I sound like an inspirational poster, but I mean hey, it’s true.
Contact Info:
- Website: equinoxartcollective.com
- Email: laurenptattoos@gmail.com
- Instagram: Instagram.com/laurensanartist
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