The Black Sheep

Heather Kim is a tattoo artist at Minneapolis Tattoo, the pastry consultant for Hola Arepa, and is currently writing a book through Capstone Publishing located here in Minneapolis. You can look into Heather's artwork and find the shop's contact information at http://www.mplstattoo.co/ 

Heather majorly does customs work, this is one of her favorites that she has created specifically for one of her clients.

I come from a very conservative, Korean Family. I was born and raised in Chicago, but my parents were immigrants from South Korea. They came in the 1970s, it's very Confucius, idealistic sort of family--no one is pierced, like they don't even have their ears pierced, much less have a tattoo. I'm definitely the black sheep of the family. They absolutely love me, but I still cover up when I go home. Even though my immediate family is less than supportive of my career, my first cousins are the most supportive. I have 36 cousins on my dad's side and pretty much the first or second week I got my apprenticeship, they all piled in a minivan and drove up from Chicago to be tattooed by me. They are awesome and amazing. But, I have had aunties calling and yelling at me for tattooing their children who are in their thirties (laughs).
   
A Mini History Lesson by Heather:
   

Post Korean war, when they were rebuilding the cities, tattoos were made illegal. The reasoning was to weed out the yakuza, which is like South Korea's mafia. They are all heavily tattooed in order to show their ranking within their crime family. So the South Korean government made tattooing illegal to try to prevent those kinds of business dealings. But tattoos there are illegal like pot is illegal here; everyone here know someone who smokes pot just as everyone there knows someone with a tattoo.
  
What was your path to becoming a tattoo artist?
   
I have my undergraduates degree in chemistry and painting from Andrew's University, (laughs) the ever envious pre-med, pre-dent degree. I attended, and dropped out of dental school, but that was in California. Then got my graduates in painting and critical theory from MCAT (Minneapolis college of art and design). I studied chemistry because my parents really wanted me to go into the medical field to be a like a nurse, doctor, dentist, or anything. After trying that path and realizing it absolutely, without a doubt, was not for me, I sought different things I could do creatively. I became a DNA paternity tester for Dakota County, and did that for five years. That job gets depressing quickly. Then, I went to baking, and baked at a few different restaurants. I held the position of executive pastry chef at Hola Arepa from the time they opened to the time I left it, but I still consult for them. With tattooing, it's not really a true sort of path or application process for it. It's funny, I just had a friend guide me into it one day. Day one I asked her for a tattoo, day two I was interviewing for an apprenticeship, and day three I got the apprenticeship. It's a really challenging field to break into, even if you have the technical skill, or the proficiency to be a tattoo artist, it's not easy to get into. It's a combination of both technical and artistic skill, but even if you have both of those,  It's hard to get an apprenticeship. There's no rhyme or reason to getting one. Especially in Minnesota, it's more or less luck. 
  
I originally got into tattooing because of Ayako Junko, she's my friend who gave me my first apprenticeship. My favorite surprise tattoo is my lucky cat, by her. She used to be located in Minneapolis, but now she's in Portland.  
  

  
It's got a little cherry on top because of Minneapolis and the type of pastry chef I am. I'm a from scratch chef, so poor lucky cat has to do everything from scratch. I'm also really into Kimchi fermentation so it has a bunch of garlic around it.
  
What are your biggest challenges?
  

The most difficult part of my career however is the fact that I am a minority female in this industry. An industry that has less than five minority female artists in the Twin-Cities. Not only that, but I am one of only two Korean artists. So I really feel like it’s important for me to share my knowledge and skills with people if they’re interested because that's how I was able to continue and progress on my journey of becoming a tattoo artist. I think that was one of the greatest things because there were other minority artists from all over the United States, and even internationally, that were happy to share what they knew and answer questions I had; it really helped with my success and perseverance in becoming a tattoo artist.
   

How do you combine tattooing and then also writing your book?
  
I was approached by this publishing company that was looking for pastry chefs of diversity; being a female minority, I think I checked all the boxes. I'm also a little snarky, so that was helpful. But it's been fun, I've taken three days off in a row to finish it up. It's aimed for teenagers, so it'll be the worst book I ever write and I'm pretty excited about that.
  
Could you see yourself writing any other books in the future, but more aimed towards tattooing?
  
Definitely. There is not a huge amount of intelligent writing, like  the wonderful writing that is going on in the culinary world right now. There's no "Lucky Peach" for tattooing. There are some great textbooks on like women in tattooing, and the history of tattooing, but nothing like that. There is pin ups and hot rods and other really tragic sorts of things. It would be fantastic to see something out there that was a well-written sort of magazine, blog, or website that we can go to and create articles about women in tattoo, ones that don't deal with objectification or fetishing women.
  
How do you think your work is impactful?
  

Through tattooing, you get the opportunity to meet a lot of interesting people and learn things about them that you never would’ve guessed. In my opinion, people are amazing and I just love hearing their stories and how they came to be the people they are and what’s made them who they are. That’s one thing I really focus on within my work, taking the time to get to know the person I’m tattooing. I have met people of all different backgrounds, from suburban school kids to, um the other day I tattooed some, I think, awesome Jewish witches. They came in and cleared the air by burning sage, and they brought crystals with them. For the first hour, they visualized what their molecules were doing. They did like a talk through journey of how they were sending the good happy to where they were getting tattooed. But, yeah, I love hearing everyone's stories, how people came to be and who they are.

It’s funny because it’s not unheard of to have partial therapy sessions with clients because the process of getting a tattoo takes place in a very intimate, one-on-one setting. However, challenges accompany the intimacy of these personal settings. One of the most difficult parts of my work is understanding the concept of empathy and when you’re client is having trouble tolerating the level of pain. You need to realize that your client is in pain and you’re putting them in pain and you have the ability to stop it and start it so you really need to understand what you’re doing and be able to gage the person’s pain level.

I feel like my work in the tattoo industry definitely helps my clients. A lot of the work I do involves memorial tattoos although my specialty is cover up work. Before I start working with a client, we have a consultation and determine what type of identity their looking for within their tattoo. The enjoyment I get out of taking something someone finds unappealing or something that has lost its meaning and turning it into something that is beautiful and meaningful for someone is what makes my work so worthwhile in my eyes. Each piece of art I do is going to be unique to that person, and that’s what I really love about tattooing. The artwork I’m creating is going to be one-of-a-kind and nobody else will have that same exact piece.

This tattoo was a rework tattoo done by Heather, she said it was one of her best reworks she's done. The original is on the left, Heather's is on the right.

What are your recommendations for first-time tattoo clients?
  
Go to the shop's website and find an artist who's work you like, then check out reviews. Reviews can be tricky because they are very person to person, but you can get a good feel of the shop and the artist from reviews. Make sure you go to unbiased websites, like Google's reviews, not websites like Yelp where you can pay for reviews. But make sure when you go to a shop that you feel comfortable, both from the shop's environment and the artist. Also make sure you're getting something you really want, if you do not one hundred percent enjoy the artwork, walk away. It's okay if you lose the $50 deposit, speak up for yourself and get something you really want. I specialize in covering up tattoos, I'd love to see people but really, no, I don't (laughs). Just stop yourself from getting that first ugly tattoo and get something you really want.


Story Facilitators: Emmalene Meier, Chenyu Ye, Lucas Olson