Life & Work with Ceka Kitami

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ceka Kitami.

Hi Ceka, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I opened Yokatta Studios in August of 2021 after 6+ years of tattooing in order to make a positive contribution to the industry (commercial tattooing in the US). Throughout the time I have been tattooing, I feel fortunate to have had an array of experiences that displayed the good and bad parts of a highly unregulated field. I found myself very unsatisfied as a graduate student in a masters of Fine Arts program at a prestigious University. I saw how art is used as a commodity for both the very wealthy and the university. I dreaded a future spent ring kissing my way through University bureaucracies or a life as a struggling artist. Someone in my life suggested that I try tattooing and the idea of making art that was both accessible and that would walk through the world instead of being stuck in a gallery- really appealed to me.

Tattooing is an extremely difficult field to penetrate, especially as a nonwhite woman. At Yokatta Studios, I strive to create an environment that has the best parts of the industry, creativity, rebelliousness, and adornment. We have stripped ourselves of the usual and sometimes exploitative commission structure and opted to charge rent to our resident artists. We also offer a very fair commission to traveling guest artists. This guest artist commission structure is graduated and prioritizes underrepresented artists like Black, Indigenous, nonwhite and Queer artists.

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?
Like many small business owners and especially those in the arts, the road has been peppered with difficulty, sacrifice, mistakes and triumphs. Tattoo apprenticeships are unpaid and most tattoo shops would require an apprentice to be available for 40-60 hours a week, I couldn’t possibly fulfill the hours most shops required so I cobbled together a series of sympathetic shop owners who would allow me a 3- 4 days a week work schedule with minimal hours. I then would work as much as I could three days a week. At one point, I was working during the day as a freelance makeup artist for two separate brands and working at night as a cocktail waitress. I would drop my dogs off at a friends house in the morning then drive to whatever Nordstrom or Sephora I was assigned to (sometimes a 1.5 hour drive) then work the makeup counter until 5 pm and take a nap in my car until 7 and be at my waitress gig by 8pm and come home at 4 am.

At one point, I didn’t have a day off for over 90 days. Then when I finally started tattooing full time, it was a difficult environment to be in, very competitive and sometimes toxic. I built my clientele and Instagram following one person at a time, after each tattoo I would say, “give me a follow on Instagram”, it wasn’t until I broke the 2,000 follower mark that the algorithm started to accrue followers for me. I once worked next to another tattooer who is a white supremacist, there was constant tension between us. And I was asked to leave because I turned off the fascist music he would play on the stereo. When I moved to Texas, I was fortunate enough to get a job at a very prestigious shop, but because tattooing is a client-based business, geographic relocation means you have to start all over again (by building a clientele).

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Most of my work is considered to be “fine-line”. Many people now use this phrase but do not know that speaks more of the techniques used rather than the “look” of the tattoo. Fine line tattooing was developed by Chicano people, mainly in-prisoned. The signature look was borne from the invention of homemade tattoo machines and a single needle usually made from a guitar string. All items that are available in prison. Most of the imagery tattooed using these machines was that depicting inner city life and quintessentially Chicano iconography. The commercial American Tattoo industry shunned this style of tattooing out of racism and fear that they could not rise to the level of artistry that many fine line tatters achieved. The vestiges of this is still in tattooing today. Many people hate on fine line tattooing and don’t even know that that hate has a lineage. Today people get fine line tattoos because of their “minimalism” and don’t know of its origins that are far removed from the Pinterest machine of feathers and Ohm symbols.

I am not of Chicano/ Latino descent so I do my best to not be culturally appropriative by shying away from fineline imagery and instead use it as a technique. I also do my best to prop up the communities that birthed the style that now makes my rent. One way I do this by educating my clients on the origins of fineline tattoo as well as other things that I won’t describe so as not to virtue signal. I also asked a tattooer friend who had done time in the Federal prisons to teach me how to build a machine using only supplies available from commissary in the prisons. I think often about how tattooing can aid in the flattening/ essentializing of a culture or ethnicity. My friend Jess Rodrigez was trying to help e find out if I was the first Japanese American/Asian-owned tattoo shop in Austin. She pointed out that when you google Japanese tattooer you get results for “Japanese style” tattooing usually done by nonasian and or white people. I keep this in mind when using fineline style tattooing that I do not want a tattoo style to eclipse the people who created it.

Who else deserves credit in your story?
Despite the shortcomings of the industry at large. I have had the incredible opportunity to work for and alongside some really genuinely good people and talented artists. Owen Connell taught me how to use a tattoo machine and modeled how to blaze my own trail in tattooing. Damon Conklin brought me into the fold at Super Genius Tattoo and has continued to mentor me throughout the years, he is one of the most prolific and talented artists I will ever know. The artists at Super Genius tattoo where we shared some wacky times and gained lifelong friends like Darling Tom. Mua Posala Tuiavi’i Boo-Boo and Tracy from Paka Polynesian helped me get my start in the beginning and introduced me to the true origins of tattoo that is Samoan culture their friendship and support has been unwavering. Suzanne Shepard and Andi Lineweaver who allowed me to apprentice for them at their shop Primeval ink in Olympia, Washington. I survived off eggs from their chickens for an entire summer. Jeana, Lou and David who were my San Luis Obispo anchors, Jeana gave me my first guest spot and taught me fine line tattooing. Shane for teaching me to build a fine line machine like they do in Prisons. Tamara Santibanez for the zoom group during the uprisings where I met many new friends and we attempted to parse apart the racism within the tattoo community. Tye and Becca Harris at Faces in the Dark for giving me my first job in Texas and helping me be a better tattooer. Karina Figueroa for modeling how to balance being a business owner and an artist and for the transformative opportunity to work at Modern Heart tattoo. And my studio mate Dahlia Gutierrez who keeps me motivated and young. Chris Gougue from Pacific Elements Tattoo 

Contact Info:

• Email: c@cekakitami.com
• Website: www.cekakitami.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cekatattoo/?hl=en

Image Credits
Image 1: Photo credit Caitlin Rounds