My Dear Friends of Inked Camera one camera two all right cool i’m carly jane and i’m a model and photographer based in new york and los angeles primarily i’m a tattoo collector i suppose at this point um definitely gonna keep getting more and more tattoos you know i don’t i don’t think it ever.
Stops at this point i grew up in la actually but i moved to palm springs coachella valley at like 10 small town desert town the only thing we’re really known for is coachella but you know flower crowns whatever why i have faith on my face.
And stuff like that is i came from a pastor and a jehovah’s witness family upbringing this is what happens i’m just kidding i love you know i’m so i have a connection with my faith and faith is broadly defined by all of us it’s not just god it’s this that that.
It’s whatever you want to believe in faith in yourself even in the universe totally i was around four or five and it was my uncle and um of course he served time i didn’t you know you’re a kid you don’t understand that and you know you grow up and you find.
Out later on though you know they have those collections of old tattoos or prison style tattoos like you know naked girls with big boobs and all that stuff kind of chicano so i saw that but i was like i love this this is the coolest uncle i have and he’s badass and i want to be just like him what made.
You want to get tattooed for the first time and what was that how old were you so i was around this is going to sound so bad i was like 13 14 and i was in the new age kind of scene or like with you know myspace where it was like you know pop punk and emo and and punk.
And stuff so i got a heart on my sleeve which is super corny but i haven’t covered it up because we all got it and it was a group of five of us in my friend’s little room with the machine he bought and line or something swapped me or something you know you know when your.
Your family’s so close you have a christ upbringing or you know you have to have this image of godliness and you know barely wear makeup and be pristine and be this this that and it wasn’t that i didn’t have or believe in those things or wasn’t a good kid i didn’t ditch.
School i actually got good grades you know honor roll blah blah blah but i modified myself my outlet was oh i’m gonna pierce my septum by myself in my room at 13 and flip that up and hide it and get to school and flip it out and you know stretch my ears or like.
That was my outlet was from from that it was expressing myself anti-christianity but nah you know unfortunately that sounds really gnarly out loud but it was to rebel against you know that type of constructive you have to be this image of godliness you know.
I came home with this this arm originally was a colored like candy ring pop think about like you know the original like um you know suicide girls from 10 years ago where it was like poppy and traditional or neo-trad or whatever and it was like buttercups and rainbows and.
All that for no reason obviously it meant nothing so i started that at 17. so i outlined it all came home got my ass whipped and that’s reality um you know i we exchanged some words you know i hate you baba [__] you all that you know we all have those moments with our family.
So that was that i was i turned 18 i moved to la and that’s where this new journey started for me and when i would go back to palm springs back then it was very cookie cutter and women would go oh my god like old women you know in their 60s clench their.
Purses and i’m like i’m just like i’m a kid you know so i did deal with a lot of adversity back home so i went back less and less and less your books are a part of what land you believe do you ever consider that when you’re getting tattooed.
I always say i’m done i’m done on my face i’m i’m like all right no more face tattoos carly no more face tattoo and then i’m like oh wait but what about this little one or like what about one right here which i want to do but i’m just gonna you know go go keep going up.
Um and i just got like these ones and in the last year during covid pretty much or like prior covered like during coveted um to match and um i still want more on my hairline so i don’t i can’t make any promises to be honest it’s it’s an evolution of just.
It in the beginning i would have some bookings and i’m talking uh even three even 2016 2017. it was like okay but we’re gonna hide we’re gonna cover them up but everything else is good and um now specifically well a year ago i’m getting bookings that are requesting.
And these are like huge you know these are big companies that are like looking for tattoo face girl looking for but like with cooler features or like you know they have like a certain type of aesthetic but that ended up being the reason why i got more diverse bookings in new york.
Like fashion weeks and streetwear brands and um you know commercials and music videos and stuff because they wanted the look without it being too um you know in your face or like too too sexy like just enough sexy but enough edgy.
I got it two years ago and i did it in two sessions and were it took three to finish this inside but i went in at the philly convention in 2019 i went full day one day boom and then the next day boom and we ran out of time and he was fast he did this in six hours and his name’s carl he’s from kentucky.
He’s amazing and fast and consistent like for me this is consistent um it was a reminder of so many different chapters because a lot of different tattooers worked on it and a lot of i worked at some point and people don’t know this about me um i worked in shops on hollywood.
Boulevard when i was 18 19 i did tried an apprenticeship and this is a decade ago when it was like traditional or nothing this is a machine and you need a coil or nothing you know or and if you’re cute or pretty you were getting sexually harassed and sexually abused.
So it was a way different dynamic back then um you know when you try and you try and try and get defeated and defeated you know so um these people i surrounded myself with that would go and fill it in or do the this filler or this or that weren’t good people.
And weren’t good reminders and memories to me i did it as a start over a clean slate and yes black is a clean slate and people thought i lost you know my fan base and i hate calling it that because i see it more as a the people that support me um they thought i was losing it because.
It’s big in europe but it was it was two years ago it wasn’t big yet so they were like oh my god your sleeve was beautiful how could you do that or you’re not the same type of model look now now you’re not getting the same bubbly or like girly um bookings and stuff but i did it for.
Me to close a chapter and to start over and now i have a clean slate and i feel better i feel stronger and i feel like i can push forward from that this get strength confidence out of looking at it and seeing that you’ve left that chapter yes.
Not just the confidence from leaving that chapter but the confidence of sitting through that pain because a lot of people don’t understand but black work isn’t for everyone because it’s also really painful you know um ash sucks it’s it’s a lot it’s bold.
Doing that and surpassing like eight seven hours of just shovel shovel shovel i had to go inside my mind and really meditate and transfer that pain and that energy to something else called healing and i know that sounds insane but i healed through that pain phoenix.
Someone energy just tattooed to being a tattooed person sorry um yeah so i think once my chest piece was finished and then or like you know whatever sort of finished this arm was more kind of completed and my legs started.
Piecing you know you collect more and more little pieces they start to turn into whoa my legs don’t look like that anymore or whoa my stomach doesn’t look like that my chest doesn’t look like that i knew i got my first face tattoo in 2012 or 11 for a girl it was still really bold and in my.
Industry i would get some backlash but it also made a lot of of me who i am when you’re like more tapped like heavily or like heavily tattooed which i feel i’m not and that’s probably like a distortion just in comparison to people that are like.
You know and like you have completely like two three bodysuits you know so um in my eyes it’s just like you can’t go through your journey without acquiring those experiences and those experiences are what makes you you and makes you become this heavily tattooed person through those lessons and a lot of time it’s like.
Memories and a diary of like this was what happened or this tattoo was from this period or this chapter la or detroit or whatever new york and all that stuff so i regret nothing i regret none of it even the [__] twins i love them all i hate them all i.
Look at my face on my these face tattoos and i’m like i can love my face tattoos when i cover them in makeup i feel ugly and that’s like self-distortion of seeing yourself in certain things you know what i mean and then taking that away if i had to do it over no because it.
Wouldn’t have made me who this weird eclectic mutant is you know um it would not have made me me i would not do it over i would not have gone anywhere or this or that because everything eventually just realigns back to where you have to be to.
Begin with which is right here in the seat today telling the story you
It’s been a wild ride for Karlee Jane. Raised in a conservative household, the model/photographer started getting tattooed in her teens as an act of rebellion. We asked Karlee about her tattoo journey, the motivations behind blacking out her left arm and much more.
Welcome to Heavily Inked. In our newest series, we’re going to speak one-on-one with tattoo collectors and artists about what it means to be a heavily inked person. We’ll get deep as we go through the motivations behind their tattoo choices, the way they’ve been treated in society and much more.
Karlee Jane: https://www.instagram.com/karleeejaneee/
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