Today we’d like to introduce you to Elise Pimentel.
Hi Elise, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I learned how to tattoo in a very traditional way, I found an artist that I admired, and I started putting my work in front of them. I started asking them what I could do to help around the shop and basically annoyed them with my help and presence until they decided to offer me an apprenticeship. In my years apprenticing my mentor basically taught me to run an entire shop. Counters, financial work, bookings, ordering supplies, piercing, stocking jewelry and needles, cleaning and tattooing. The work was hard, but it was rewarding knowing that I was putting work into something I loved so much. I worked long days and worked a full-time job outside of the shop to support myself while I built myself up in the shop. They were literally some of the best years of my life. Like so many people in this industry, I started to find and feel the rockstar aspect of it – the cash, the nightlife, the after-party, the drugs – the dark side was sucking me in.
I entered my apprenticeship just out of a long-term traumatic relationship, fresh off of my childhood trauma, looking for a way to reinvent myself. It brought me confidence, strength, independence… and I used those in all of the wrong ways.
By the time we opened our first shop and I graduated my apprenticeship, I was an absolute mess, and my mentor was ready to wash their hands of me. But I was caught up at that point and I couldn’t stop; I didn’t know how, and I felt that I physically couldn’t. Inevitably, in 2012, I ended up leaving the shop, leaving tattooing, leaving everything that I knew and loved – another casualty to my addiction and the life I couldn’t break free from.
In 2016, a series of unfortunate events, a mixture of the law and utter desperation ended in my ultimate separation from drugs. I started over again with quite literally nothing, and I was terrified of the industry.
I started to gain the trust back of my mentor, and we began working on a friendship and relationship again. Somewhere around 2018 or 2019 I started helping out here and there around the shop again, and I find ally decided that I was strong enough to try again. My artwork was stronger and better than it’s ever been (imagine that) and the passion was greater than I’d ever felt. I learned how to do permanent cosmetics (specifically eyebrows), and it only fueled my passion to tattoo again. The rest, I guess, is history and passion. Today I get to connect with amazing human beings with the coolest stories and help them create something dear to them. The energy that we exchange in our sessions is such a beautiful thing, and I can’t imagine doing anything else. I feel like tattooing is one of my purposes; it’s one of the reasons that I’m here, and it led me on the most defining and building experience of my entire life to become the person I was meant to be.
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?
I think it’s safe to say that there have been bumps and struggles along the way. Aside from the addiction issues, healthcare has been a major issue too. We’re not exactly the most healthcare-friendly country in the world, and when you don’t have plans offered by a major corporation, it can be very expensive. Slow seasons are also pretty terrifying, too. Because like you always know it’s going to turn around and pick back up, but it’s the waiting that sucks. And right now, we’re dealing with this recession, and our supplies are incredibly expensive, and our clients are already dealing with the inflation of everything else in their lives. We typically say that this is our livelihood but it’s other people’s luxury, and that’s a difficult pill to swallow at times.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m a mostly custom tattoo artist specializing in my own adaptation of traditional style tattooing and blackwork. I’m known for my use of bright, balanced color and my use of contrasting line widths. I am the most proud of my colorful, neo-traditional-ish work, and I like to think that the energy and connection that my client and I create together while creating a tattoo is what sets me apart from other artists. But I also hope that every artist feels that way about their sessions, so I don’t know how different that makes me at all.
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
I was a quiet wallflower who painted, loved music, and taught myself to use photoshop when I was 13. I spent the better part of my teenage years teaching myself a wide array of graphic design programs, coding languages, and then building websites to display my work on. I was into post-alternative/grunge and emo/screamo/pop punk music, and I still am so catch me on that Alexa channel at your next appointment ✌🏻
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/Elisepime
- Instagram: Wildivye
Image Credits
Beau
