One of the perks of being a tattoo artist is the freedom of movement one can take advantage of. There are shops everywhere these days. Conceivably, that means that as a tattooist you can go anywhere and temporarily live and work there. I've known of people who didn't live in any one place but just continuously went from guest spot to guest spot for years.
Besides the pleasure of travel, such as discovering new places and people, there is the added bonus of exposure. The more people you meet, the more connections you make, and in more communities, the better for your overall reach.
And that sounds great.
However, for me… it has mostly felt a bit more tedious than it was worth... until now.
Listen to me recount my other guest spot experiences and why this one was my most successful. Smile as I gush about the amazing legendary Esther Garcia whom I got to watch work. And who I've long admired for her experimentations in color theory specifically for expanding the options for deeper toned folks.
One of the perks of being a tattoo artist is the freedom of movement one can take advantage of. There are shops everywhere these days. Conceivably, that means that as a tattooist you can go anywhere and temporarily live and work there. I've known of people who didn't live in any one place but just continuously went from guest spot to guest spot for years.
Besides the pleasure of travel, such as discovering new places and people, there is the added bonus of exposure. The more people you meet, the more connections you make, and in more communities, the better for your overall reach.
And that sounds great.
However, for me… it has mostly felt a bit more tedious than it was worth... until now.
Listen to me recount my other guest spot experiences and why this one was my most successful. Smile as I gush about the amazing legendary Esther Garcia whom I got to watch work. And who I've long admired for her experimentations in color theory specifically for expanding the options for deeper toned folks.
Hello, hello, darlings. Micah Riot here with another episode of Ink Medicine Podcast. I've been home for a week since my trip to Chicago. I went to Chicago to do a guest spot at Butterfat Studios, and today I would like to talk about guest spotting, all that it entails, all that it can be and all that it has been for me. Specifically, I think this episode will be interesting to those of you who either are aspiring tattoo artists, people who love to get tattooed by guest artists, and also people who just are interested in various aspects of tattoo culture and how we do what we do and the different perks that we have in this job. This is definitely one of them. So listen in.
Micah Riot:
One of the things that seems to be the best about tattooing is the freedom of movement that you have. There are shops everywhere in the world, especially now, and, and conceivably, that means that you can literally go anywhere and work from there, at least temporarily. So even though a tattoo artist who works for themselves and that is most of us does not get a single paid day off in their life, we could do like a working vacation at any time, like you could go to Europe and work in Paris. You know tattoo in Paris, for example, and enjoy Paris. So personally I'm not particularly interested in Paris, but I gave it as an example because I think a lot of people are, and also I imagine that finding a tattoo shop that wants to take on guests is easiest in very popular touristy areas and big cities where there's a lot of demand for tattoo artists and tattoo work and a dense population that maybe is looking to collect different styles that aren't available to them usually, usually. So, from the perspective of the tattoo artist, besides the pleasure of travel, discovering new places, meeting new people, there's the added bonus of exposure. The more people you meet, the more connections you make in more communities, the better your reach overall right. So if you're trying to gain exposure and followers on socials, if you are trying to spread the word about your name and your style, this is a way to do it for sure and personally for me it hasn't worked that way. It kind of has felt more like a pain in the ass than not.
Micah Riot:
I've only done three guest spots in my life and they were all good experiences in their own right, you know it's. I feel like it's always worth it going out of your comfort zone and going somewhere new and getting that experience Like those are memories you make that you do not forget, like those become core memories, and I'm generally of the opinion that you don't regret things that you have done. You tend to regret things you did not do. But I think a measure of how good of an experience something was can be whether or not you would do it again, and in one case I would not do it again and in the second case I did it a couple times. I believe it was maybe three times, that I did it three summers in a row, maybe, and in the last case I actually done it once so far last week, and it was amazing and wonderful and I would absolutely do it again.
Micah Riot:
So the very first guest spot I ever did was in Connecticut, and the way that I got to that place was that I met the owner of that shop, andrew, here in the Bay, and he came and got tattooed by me and I ended up asking him to tattoo me as well and we just struck up a you know, a connection, a friendship. He's an older, older than me man. He's been tattooing for many, many years. He was around at the time when tattoo artists smoked and drank whiskey while tattooing their clients and didn't use gloves and it was an especially male environment. See, he knew that. He knew that's tattoo history and he was part of it and that was interesting to me. It was interesting to me to get to know him more, to visit his shop, see what it was like me, it was interesting to me to get to know him more, to visit his shop, see what it was like.
Micah Riot:
And so I went to Connecticut for I think it was a week, maybe a little bit longer, and I worked at his shop for some of those days and I also took a little time and rented a car and drove up to Vermont to see some friends at the time. So the reason why being there was not all that great was that it wasn't a very it was. You know, connecticut is not a super wealthy. That part of Connecticut is not a super wealthy town, and it was still the time when tattoo culture wasn't super widespread. So you know, the tattoos that people got, a lot of them were small, simple, and there were walk-ins. A lot of them were students from the schools around there and I spent a lot of time just kind of sitting my ass wondering what the day would bring. And then when I did tattoo, they were really small, simple, not that super interesting and not very challenging pieces.
Micah Riot:
And although I'm grateful to get any work at all and always was and, as a younger tattoo artist, was very grateful for walk-ins working in walk-in shops, at this point, given that I've been in my private space for over 10 years, I really prefer to do work in the styles that I like to work in and with people who know what they're looking for with me specifically. And so my second time doing a guest spot was at Classic Tattoo up in Grass Valley, which is no longer there because the people who ran it at the time are now in their own private studio and I get why. But at the time it was a walk-in shop and I got my chest piece done a classic tattoo. So I got to another shop because I knew Cory Norris was there. Cory Norris is the owner. He's very well known in tattoo industry. He's like a neo-traditional style dude. He's amazing at what he does. His work is absolutely gorgeous, and when I decided to get some bigger pieces, I didn't really want to do them in the Bay, because it's actually really hard to get into someone's books here in the Bay and there's a lot of ego and it's hard to get to know people in a more like chill environment.
Micah Riot:
So I, because I spent a lot of time up on Grass Valley, which is only a couple hours away from here, I was like, oh, I'll just get my work done here, it will be more chill, maybe I won't have to wait as long and I have an excuse to come up and keep, you know, keep coming up to this area, which I love and have a very close friend living in, so I always have a place to stay. So I looked around at the shops that were there, chose Classic. So I looked around at the shops that were there, chose Classic mostly because Corey Norris owned it. I really wanted to get a piece by him, but I kind of figured it would take at least a couple years of waiting.
Micah Riot:
And so I walked in one day and a man was standing in the middle of the shop kind of sweeping the floor as people were tattooing around him, and I said, hey, dude, is when, like do you know when, corey Norris's availability opens up and he goes yeah, my availability is probably about a year, you know, in the most humble way ever and I was like this dude's for real, I like this dude. And so I was like, okay, well, can I get on your wait list and while I wait, I might, you know, do something else with somebody else here in the shop. And so he ended up doing my back piece, which you know took a couple years, and I got my chest piece done by another person who was working there at his shop, alicia Har, like the only woman who was working there, and I spent a lot of time at that shop and probably about a year into me getting tattooed there, I reached out to Corey and I was like, hey, I'd love to guest spot at your shop and in that case, for me it was so much more about spending time with the artists there and getting some of that community feeling, because by that point I was already working on my own and feeling lonely, like I had very little feedback from people, I had very little interaction with other tattoo artists and when you know, when you're in a bubble, you like you don't progress as much, like you don't get inspired by what other people are doing, you don't get to know different types of technology and machinery that's available, you don't try things out, because you know it's hard, it's scary to commit to something new, like buy new type of needle or machine, um, and then like kind of not know what to do with it and, you know, waste your own money or and also resources. So I was excited to just go and hang out at the shop with those guys, um, and Corey was like, yeah, of course you know, anytime you want, we have space, which you know I was not expecting, because I just assumed that, like he I don't know what I assumed, but I assumed that I wasn't good enough to tattoo at his shop and apparently I was.
Micah Riot:
So a couple of summers in a row I don't remember if it was two or three, but started to feel like a routine. I went out there and I lived with my friend and I tattooed and I went to the river and the site. This was summer. So I went to the river and I just kind of took a break from my usual life and it was wonderful. Um, most people I tattooed a classic were also walk-ins, also little simple things. But at least I had a book out. You know, I had a printed book of my work and so people could see it. So I did think I did get to do a couple of things that were more my style and, because it's only a couple hours away, I actually have some of my own clients up in that area, closer to that area, so I had a couple of folks that I already knew and had tattooed before come and get a session with me at that shop. So, yeah, I loved working at Glossick and love getting tattooed there, love my back piece.
Micah Riot:
And that brings us to my last experience having a guest spot and that was just this last week, as I said, at Butterfat Studios in Chicago. Guest spot, and that was just this last week, as I said, at Butterfat Studios in Chicago. And the way that that happened was that I wanted to go to Chicago to visit some friends and I was like I want to go out there for a week. I don't want to just be a tourist and hang around the city all week, I want to work. And so I looked around for a while until I realized that Butterfat Studios is in Chicago. It's a studio that I've followed since I was like a baby tattoo artist.
Micah Riot:
In fact, esther Garcia, the owner, is the person I've been following that long and like looking at her website for years and dreaming about being tattooed by her and being inspired by her work for so long yeah, 15 years and so I am very much a fan and I decided I would email and probably would not hear back. I've imagined that she was busy and unavailable to people she doesn't know, which wasn't the case. I got an email about two days, like two mornings, after I sent mine, that said that she was happy to hear from me and that I was welcome and it made me so happy and excited and, yeah, I got really excited for my trip. She also said that she's happy to post for me on the shop's Instagram, which has a fair amount of followers, and I was like, yeah, okay, let's see. Let's see how many people I need to book. Oh, I have one repeating client who lives in Minneapolis and he, like before I even made the plans, he's been saying like, if you come and tattoo anywhere closer by, I'll totally come see you. It's just kind of hard to get out to California and of course that's the case, it's true. Told him that I was coming and so he was one of my clients.
Micah Riot:
I decided I would work five days and take on one client each day because I didn't know how long things would take me and I didn't know if I'd have access to the shop outside of shop, like official shop hours. So I was just like I'll take one client a day and do longish kind of sessions. And so I had this one client and then I had my friend who I was visiting, who also wanted to get tattooed, and then one of one of their best friends also wanted to get tattooed. So that's three, you know, and I had five spots. So I essentially was like OK, I have a couple of spots left and I made a posting and people flocked and I got more requests than I had spots open. So I ended up actually doing three like new clients. I booked two for the two days I had open and then somebody else emailed me and wanted, and so I did a morning session with the other person, like a 9am session.
Micah Riot:
So overall I filled my time really fast, really easily, and I think it was because of it being a private studio so there were no walk-ins, right. So I had to set all of my schedule ahead of time. I had to set my appointments ahead of time and know what I was doing, which is exactly how I prefer to work and because they posted my work like the owner posted my work and my little Instagram reel ads that I made on the shop's Instagram, that's what got me the attention and I think that's in fact, when Esther emailed me back, she said that the type of style I do like detailed color work is rare and hard to find in Chicago, that you know a lot of what people do is like black, like fine line or other types of black work mostly, and so my style was rare and wanted, which felt really good to hear, and apparently it was absolutely true, because it was so easy for me to fill my books. I think that next year, if I do this again, I will try to go for a few extra days. I think five days of work was great, but I would have loved to have had like four days of work and then like a couple days of break, or a day of break and then another like three days of work, something like that. So, depending on availability of space, if they have artists traveling out of the city so that there's space for me, and how long the space would be I would like to go for a little bit longer and just like not be, you know, working every day for five days in a row and then like basically leaving and having very little time to relax.
Micah Riot:
I was super lucky with a neighborhood. I booked an Airbnb that was like a five minute walk away from the shop. Love that. I walked so much all over that neighborhood. I went to two different farmer's markets. I fed myself mostly from food from farmer's markets and also had some amazing meals out. I had a beautiful meal of Ukrainian food which was like food that from my childhood, because Ukrainian and Russian food is very similar, while also being like a little up leveled, which I love. Like I'm a fancy bitch, I do love me a fancy-ish meal. And then the other really amazing meal I had was a makasa, which is, for those of you who are not familiar, it's a sushi meal, japanese meal, and it's when you are basically sitting in front of the chef and they keep handing you little bits of food and each bite is more amazing than the last and you don't really know what's coming. But it's all going to be absolutely fucking incredible and it was. It was in like the top meals of my life for sure, and I got to share it with my friend who I went there to see and we just, like both were so stoked about it. So, yeah, I had a really beautiful time in Chicago. I got to connect with really incredible humans.
Micah Riot:
I tattooed some really cool people. A couple of my like the first couple of days of clients where got their very first tattoos for me and they both committed and went big and colorful and bold and it was just really exciting and I felt really like honored to do their first tattoos and they were both very open to my style. So kind of both were like whatever you want to do, I'm open, which you know. It's like it's so amazing, so amazing for me. When people ask me to like they just love my work and they want me to do what I do on them and they're open to how it's gonna for me. When people ask me to like they just love my work and they want me to do what I do on them and they're open to how it's gonna look in the end. I well, yeah, I said I walked a lot. I walked around downtown, I walked around Logan Square. Yeah, I'm really excited to come back next year.
Micah Riot:
I saw lightning bugs, which I haven't seen since I lived in Ohio and I got to experience like a summer rain, like a gentle summer rain, but also like a freaking storm, like so much water just pouring from the sky and like thunder and lightning. And those were on my list of things that I really wanted while I was in the Midwest. I wanted the storm, I wanted just some basic ass rain and I wanted lightning, bugs and, you know, the beautiful food and the beautiful people, of course, were number one. So I am very happy I went and I also learned a lot.
Micah Riot:
Um, esther, esther Garcia, the owner of Butterfat, is a painter and is a color nerd and I got to see her collection of inks and how she thinks about color and how she layers color, and I got to watch her work a little bit. You know, just kind of like I'd come over and kind of look at what she was doing and it was super cool, like watching legends, like people you've admired for years. Work is, you know, a special kind of honor and she, um, she's really into color theory but also layering colors on top of different skin tones. So, yeah, very passionate about that work and I am, so I'm like admiring of it and I also, you know, I try, I try to experiment too. I try to think about it and I also, you know, I try, I try to experiment too. I try to think about it too, and she's, like you know, light years ahead of me. So I learned a lot. I learned things about ink composition and pigments that I didn't know before. She gave me some resources to keep studying. She had some inks that I am not familiar with that I really liked using, using. So I'm gonna be buying some more new colors that I didn't have before.
Micah Riot:
Yeah, it's a very special thing to nerd out with a person in your field who has similar passions in your field. It's just a special thing to meet somebody like that and nerd out. And you know, know that, like other things, other people are passionate about similar things. Other people care about similar things. Other people are also trying to do more than just tattoo, make some money and go home, and that was kind of, I think, the jewel of this trip like learning and watching her work and getting some more like tips and tricks and some things to experiment with for myself.
Micah Riot:
Um, you know, like my mom asked me, you know, was it worth it financially? And I think it was. You know, I made um, I made some money for sure and um, the cut to the shop was like less than I've ever paid to shop before when I've worked for a shop. So that was very generous of Esther to allow her artists to keep more than most shops do allow their artists to keep. And but you know, my trip was expensive. My Airbnb was like $1,400 for the week and my plane flight like my flight, I think it was it was, uh, maybe 500. So it's summer, right, so travel is more expensive. So I definitely paid a lot of money and just like getting there and staying there, um, it was still, yeah, it was still worth it to me, um, because I learned so much.
Micah Riot:
So it's kind of the point, it's not. You know, money isn't always the point, but I did have to at least break even because I do not have much extra, do not have much cushion, so I had to at least break even if I could. This point it is definitely better to go somewhere where the shop has a fairly big following and where maybe people don't do the style that I do Like as Esther said, it's detailed color work and where I might be wanted and desired, where people might be excited about my work and where the shop will post about me on their socials so that I can get more exposure and be seen by more eyes and get clients. I don't have enough followers to do that myself. If I had I don't know 100,000 followers, 50,000 followers from all over, I could potentially just use my following to go somewhere and get enough clientele, but I don't. So it does take the shop being willing to post about me and have a following of their own, and so I would love to go to other places. I think that I would need lots of reasons to go somewhere. I had lots of reasons to go to Chicago, but yeah, I'm definitely more excited about guesting right now and I'm hoping. You know I like routine and I like rituals and I like to do similar things year in, year out. So I think next year I'm going to try to do this again. Maybe I'll get like a place with one of my closest friends who lives on the East Coast and she can work from Chicago and I can work there and we can hang out. We'll see.
Micah Riot:
Oh, the other thing I did that was fun besides drink a ton of coffee is go to CrossFit. So, because I've been doing CrossFit since I was about 27 and I'm 40 now. I speak the language of CrossFit, even though I'm pretty mediocre at the sport itself. I do like to go to CrossFit gyms whenever I'm in a different city just to see what it's like like, how similar or different it is, different spaces, and there was kind of a CrossFit on like every corner in Chicago in my neighborhood. Okay, it's not true, but there were a bunch like I had some choices and so I went to one that was fairly close to my house it was about a 15 minute walk and I went there. One that was fairly close to my house, it was about 15 minute walk and I went there twice while I was there in Chicago and it was freaking hot outside. It was so humid and so hot. It was like 90 degrees at seven in the morning. But I rallied, I did. It was super sweaty, it was really hard and I did not get a shirt because they only had t-shirts and I'm not a big fan of t-shirts. And that's kind of it of my experience with guest spotting.
Micah Riot:
I think that my kind of advice from this talk is that if you want to go guest somewhere and you are intimidated and you feel like maybe they would not say yes to you. Just ask, like, yeah, they might reject you, you might never hear from them, but so what? I have put myself out there very few times, thinking in both cases that I would not be asked or allowed or you know, to come and be there and work from these shops. And I was, and it was super easy and it was super chill. So, yeah, the worst thing they can do is say no or not get back to you. So just ask. And you know, you don't know what type of experience you're going to have. And even if you feel like, oh, it's tedious and you have to bring all your stuff and you know, set up a new space and you don't like newness Most of the time if you have an artist there that you're admiring or it's a city that you really want to travel and explore, just do it.
Micah Riot:
Just do it. I'm happy I did so. Thank you for listening and I appreciate you so much. Please tell a friend about my podcast. If you enjoyed it. If you think somebody in your life would enjoy it, please tell them. It's growing very slowly, and by that I mean not really at all, but I'm grateful for every one of you that listens and I appreciate you and I'll talk to you very, very soon. You.
