Today we’d like to introduce you to Katie Mizuno.
Hi Katie, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I became an artist by studying SFX makeup at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and self-teaching illustration while living in Tokyo. These were comfortable endeavors and periods of exploration that I look back on fondly, but the beginning of my career, more specifically, as a tattoo artist was much more punishing. My legs are riddled with art that I tattooed on myself in desperate attempts to learn. I walked my leg portfolio into a well-respected shop in San Fransisco, I was hired, and at that point my career took off so quickly that I barely had time to reflect back on the harshness of my apprenticeship, my nearly empty bank account, and the physical and emotional pain I endured to finally reach that goal. Once I was inking other peoples’ skin, I came to discover how meditative, challenging and rewarding this craft can be. As I traveled to various shops, tattooing became less of a job and more so a lifestyle. I was surrounded by brave clients and moved by their tattoo journeys. I befriended and tattooed alongside the artists who exemplified how to be a positive influence on our industry. Furthermore, just within the past year, my confidence practicing my craft has allowed my creativity to flourish, just as I found myself moving again. This time to Austin, TX.
I recently transitioned from my position as a guest artist at Fragment tattoo into a resident artist and I am steadily gaining clientele who are drawn to the style of my tattoos. My work now is a far-cry from the scribbles that I tattooed on my legs. Though I am my harshest critic, I hope that I can be recognized within the tattoo community as an up-and-coming artist.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Many of the obstacles that I faced early on in my career were due to the “trial and error” nature of learning how to tattoo. A majority of artists do not want to teach and often times the industry seems to pride itself on the secrecy of the craft. There are now some fantastic internet tutorials that explain tattooing, but these are very recent tools and many artists look down on this level of accessibility. Sometimes mentors are a saving grace to the students who they take on, but sometimes mentors will abuse their influence or withhold knowledge. I owe my introduction into the industry to my apprenticeship, but it was not thorough in terms of teaching me most of what I know today. Instead, I watched other tattoo artists very closely. Once I was more established as an artist and if I struggled with certain mechanics and how to implement a technique, I very humbly asked for more in-depth help from colleagues. I feel indebted to the friends who took the time to help me improve. Even still, there is a connection between the machine and hand that is unique to every artist and you can only truly understand what works best or you by tattooing with ink on skin. Unfortunately, the permanency of tattooing leaves little room for error and making a mistake that can never be erased is a burden that tattoo artists have lived with. I described some of the tattoos on my legs as “scribbles” and some of them are quite literally that. Rather than make mistakes on clients, I often opted for attempting a technique on myself regardless of whether I wanted it on my skin or not.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
My style is biophilic, organic, abstract, and geometric. I tattoo dot-work, solid black, and shades of grey using only black ink. My goal when creating a design is to have it be one-of-a-kind, shapes and patterns seen for the first time. I take inspiration from but never copy the work of others. To keep my style as unique as possible, my process includes drawing and manipulate textures from nature to create ornamental designs that contour the body and sit on skin like armor. When I adopted a geometric style of tattooing rather than illustrative, I expected a majority of my clientele to be men rather than women, however I’ve found that I receive requests from people of all sexual orientations equally. I believe this is because my tattoos portray a balance of both femininity and masculinity. Other elements that I consider include line-weight, use of negative space and the overall size of the tattoo, all the while ensuring that my design choices create a tattoo that ages gracefully over time. My preference is to create large-scale tattoos including full sleeves, back or chest pieces that transform a client’s entire appearance. By doing so, I hope that my clients gain the confidence to become a “tattooed person” rather than simply a “person with tattoos”. Though my style is not Polynesian in appearance, I design with inspiration from the history and viewpoint of body art within those cultures, a philosophy in which tattoos express respect, identity and strength.
So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
My clients will always be my priority and their experience, both physical and mental, throughout the tattoo process is something that matters greatly to me. I cannot express enough how much I appreciate their strength, trust, and openness throughout the entire process so doing right by them is what fuels me to be at my peak performance while we work together. I tend to care much more about the final product of a tattoo and I will often overwork for my clients’ projects while my income remains an after-thought.
Creating a legacy in the tattoo industry and helping it evolve is something that also matters a great deal to me. Once fully established in my field, I would like to contribute in educating the next generation of tattoo artists, particularly young people who show a strong interest in art but who do not have the means to attend a university or college and can instead enter the tattoo industry after graduating high school. By teaching, I hope to diminish a lot of the mystery surrounding the industry that debilitates hard-working tattooists, especially those who are disadvantaged in other ways. I am also aware that the industry as a whole has a history of being exclusive to clients who are darker skinned people of color and I feel strongly about doing my part to counter this by designing for and showcasing a wide variety of skin tones within my Instagram. Unfortunately, many images of tattoos online are also heavily manipulated so in an effort to promote honesty and realistic expectations, I keep edits to my photos to a minimum to more accurately depict how tattoos look on skin.
Contact Info:
- Email: info@katiemizuno.com
- Website: katiemizuno.com
- Instagram: katiemizuno
Image Credits
Portrait of me shot by Kento Mizuno
