Amy Pruss’ client grabs a silky black pillow to rest her head. She needs to get comfortable—the next two hours will require that she lie completely still, sprawled across a medical table, ribs exposed, as a sharp needle jabs permanent ink into her side. Yellow. Magenta. Purple. Blue. What began as just a bold outline of a flower slowly blooms into a bouquet of color. A marriage of ink, blood and skin, her rib cage transforms into a live canvas, a piece of artwork she’ll carry forever.
A decade after Miami Ink first aired on TLC, the itch for body art is more common than ever. A boy’s club since its inception, as the tattooing profession is taken up by more artists, more women are getting into the mix.
Given the years of tradition and the rough-and-tumble mentality running deep through its roots, there’s a hell of a lot that goes into wielding that powerful gun—and an eye for detail and a skilled hand are just the beginning. From surviving grueling apprenticeships to dedicating their lives to the trade, these inked, thick-skinned women are leaving their permanent mark on the city of skin, one tattoo at a time.
-
The Dreamer
Name: Amy Pruss
Shop: Showroom Tattoo
Style: Neo-traditional
Over the hum of the tattoo gun, Amy Pruss carries on a conversation like the person in front of her is a coloring book and it doesn’t matter if she draws outside the lines. But she’ll never draw outside the lines. She blends colors seamlessly as we talk about her real masterpiece—overcoming sexism in a male-dominated industry with drive instilled by her mother. “It was never in my head that I couldn’t do anything,” says Pruss, who hails from a small Idaho town. “My mom’s ideas stuck with me. If it’s your dream, you go for it.” And since she started tattooing 10 years ago, the industry has continued to change—for the better. “When Kat Von D came on, it made a big difference. The general public saw a woman tattooing. It’s opened people’s eyes to the fact that it’s not just men. You don’t have to live by society’s rules. [Life] can be anything you want it to be.”
-
The Bold One
Name: Kelsey Lane
Shop: Broken Dagger Tattoo Parlor
Style: Traditional
“My first tattoo was a Colour Revolt song,” says Kelsey Lane in her laid-back, twangy register. From that first tattoo, Lane was fixed on learning how to pick up a tattoo gun and do it herself. “I got my first tattoo the day before I started my apprenticeship. I was just so eager to know everything about it. I brought everything I had and just kept coming back, so they were like, ‘I guess you work here.’” Lane dropped out of UNLV (where she was studying art), quit her job and apprenticed for a year and a half before getting her mentors’ blessing. “I knew even in high school that I wouldn’t ever be behind a desk—I would somehow figure out how to make money making art.” As for the competitiveness of the field, Lane hardly let it faze her. “A lot of words were said to make me feel intimidated, but when you’re confident and you know you have a lot to offer, that shouldn’t bother you. Respect the trade. Respect the people you work with.”
-
The Hardcore Kid
Name: Britney Goodman
Shop: Downtown Tattoo
Style: American Traditional
Growing up in the Las Vegas hardcore scene, Britney Goodman was always around heavily tattooed people. Back then she was just beginning to learn about tattoos, going to Faded Grey and Curl Up and Die shows at hangouts like Tremorz and the Huntridge. “A lot of tattoo culture was involved, whether it was T-shirts or album covers or stickers. It was always something that I was seeing. I would always think, I want to draw like that. I want to do what they’re doing.” That punk-rock thread has wound itself through her career, bringing together a network of friends from across the world that are also in the industry. “I met a lot of people through the hardcore scene that I’m still friends with now. Because I’m straight edge and because of other tattooers that are straight edge, we now have this clique that continues through adolescence and through adulthood.”
-
The Dynamic Duo
Name: Leah Westerlund
Shop: Classic Tattoo
Style: Neo-traditional
Temporary tattoos are one of the many hallmarks of childhood—nearly everyone has a memory of trying to pass off a fake Spider-Man tat for the real deal. So when Leah Westerlund’s ink didn’t wash off at age 12, her parents were livid—naturally. “My parents grounded me for like four months,” she says with a loud, infectious laugh. Having grown up around the arts (her father is an art dealer), Westerlund has always had creative outlets, first drawing and painting and then tattooing. “Seeing it on different friends and seeing you can transfer your artwork onto people’s skin, it seemed really neat to be able to do that,” she says. “It’s something that you can always grow at, and that’s really held my interest.”
Name:Holly Thomas
Shop: Classic Tattoo
Style: "Everything but new-school"
Holly Thomas began tattooing like lots of artists do—“scratching” or tattooing out of her house and practicing on her own body. “I finally realized what I was doing was bad, so I got rid of all my equipment and tried to forget everything I thought I knew, start over and focus on design.” And it paid off to do things right. “A tattoo apprenticeship should not be easy, ’cause if it was, everybody would do it.” As for the macho mentality of most traditional shops, she adds, “If people are messing with you, it’s because they like you. In our circle, you f*ck around with each other because you like each other.” It may look like they’re always having fun, but Thomas takes the work—and its permanence—seriously. “The best part is just making somebody happy. No matter what career you’re in, if you can do your job well, you feel good.”
-
The Collector
Name:Noel Terracina
Shop: Beloved Relics
Style: Illustrative Realism
Former costume designer Noel Terracina has always had a knack for visual arts, but her 30th birthday marked a change in that talent’s direction. She is now owner and manager of her own shop of oddities and taxidermy, Beloved Relics in Downtown Spaces, which has a personal tattoo studio in the back. “All my friends were a couple years older, and they were getting tattoos,” Terracina recalls. So at age 15, she got one in a friend’s kitchen. On her head. “Just good ideas all around,” she laughs. Now, she likens the process of tattooing to collecting art or antiques. “My background’s [in] costume design, so I see tattoos more like jewelry on the body. People are wearing $5,000 sleeves. You’re wearing art that you invested in. Instead of hanging it on your walls, it’s on your body.”
-
The Veteran
Name:Dejah Garcia Kelley
Shop: Club Tattoo
Style: "Bold and bright"
“My grandpa was in the Navy, so he had the Popeye kind of tattoos on his forearms,” Dejah Garcia Kelley says. “One was Bugs Bunny with ‘Bugeye’ [written] under it, because he wore glasses. Once I figured out someone did that, I was like, ‘I’m gonna do that.’” And with 17 years of experience, Garcia Kelley has done it all—from working on the Strip before tattoo shops were even zoned for casinos to owning her own shop in Arizona, and now working on the Strip again—this time in a casino. “I couldn’t even imagine if I didn’t get into tattooing, especially since I got into it so young. Most of my paintings are inspired by traditional tattoos. It becomes your whole life. You think about it before you go to bed, and it’s the first thing you think about in the morning.”
-
The Old-Schooler
Name:Rachael Snyder
Shop: Pussykat Tattoo
Style: "Somewhat" Traditional
“I was raised by a Southern family. My mom’s from the South … and my father’s from Korea—he was raised by Italians. So I have a pretty thick skin.” That tough attitude made Rachael Snyder successful, leading her to one of the most well-known shops in the Valley, the Bad Ink-featured Pussykat Tattoo. “I started here when they were filming the show,” says Snyder, who was up-front about not wanting to be on television. “It’s not that it’s fake, but it’s not real either … it’s like Housewives, but with tattooers.” Growing up in old-school shops, she adds, “You kinda miss that whole sailor vibe, where it’s like: ‘Get your sh*t and get the f*ck out.’” But whether her clients are tattoo virgins or covered in ink, Snyder sees them as one and the same. “You should do every tattoo like you’re going to put it in your portfolio. Every tattoo matters.”