no clue what I was doing, but I knew I wanted to try.
She had to tell me where to put my hands, and how
to stand, but the pictures ended up being beautiful.
It was a great beginning experience. I’ve shot with
Shannon a few times after that, including her shooting
my wedding. Besides the few sets with Shannon, I
hadn’t really done much in the way of modeling until
the beginning of 2014. I don’t know if it was because I
didn’t have the guts, didn’t have the time, or a mixture
of both, but I’m incredibly glad that I’ve gotten back into
it. I’ve gotten a ton of tattoos added to my collection
since my first shoot, and I love to show them off. It
takes so much patience, time, and pain to get all that
work done, why wouldn’t you want to show it off, right?
What advice would you give new models about how to
prepare?
Starting out in this whole business is totally
intimidating. There are so many beautiful tattooed
women out there and it gets hard to imagine that you
can stand among them. I’m lucky enough to have
met a few amazing people in the tattoo and tattoo
modeling industry who have given me artwork to be
proud of, and advice to learn from, to make me feel
more confident in my modeling. I’m very thankful for
that. My advice to someone starting out is that you
must believe in yourself. No matter what. There were
definitely people telling me I wouldn’t be able to do it
when I first started out, but you have to stay positive
and do what you want. I don’t know if I’ll ever really be
comfortable calling myself a “model” because I’m just
me—a girl who has a passion for (and happens to be
pretty covered in) amazing artwork, that loves making
magic happen with crazy talented photographers for
others to see. If you want to call me a model, then you
can also call me incredibly flattered.
When did your interest in tattoos begin? And how long
was it from then until you got your first one?
My very first tattoo was a rose and a butterfly on my
ankle, just like the one my mom has on her back. I got
it pretty close to the day I turned 18 by an old friend
that worked at a shop in Vallejo. I knew I wanted to
get a few tattoos, and I had some ideas of the things
that meant a lot to me that I wanted to get, but tattoos
are like potato chips for me, once you start, you can’t
stop! I was totally hooked after that first one. For years,
I had to keep it pretty conservative with the locations
of my tattoos. Things I could cover because I hadn’t
locked down a career yet and didn’t know if where I
ended up would allow visible tattoos. I bravely started
half sleeves while working as a banker, knowing I had
to wear suit jackets to work everyday. They just kind
of grew from there. Thankfully, my job now is one I’m
going to stick with and it’s completely tattoo friendly.
I’ve only worked with a handful of artists, and I’ve
known most of them and their skill level pretty well.
If you’re going to trust someone to put something on
you that will last forever, you should probably FULLY
trust them. So when I go to get tattooed, I generally
just give the artist an idea of what I want and let them
use their creativity to make it amazing. Let’s face it,
they know WAY BETTER than I do when it comes
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