My Dear Friends of Inked I’m kind of like anti-social when walking in the stream just like don’t look you know just keep going because i just feel it always and people stop me and ask me questions all the time and most of the time you know i’ll just politely answer say thanks and stuff but people are extremely aggressive people will try touching you and ask crazy.
Questions like are my tattoos real i literally had that sitting outside the shop this week asking if my tattoos were real like it is a regular question of course does it hurt all of those things and it’s just you know people are not educated so i don’t want to be rude and just be like you know piss off but it’s like okay.
Yeah they’re real and yes they all hurt my name is sarah i live in phoenix and i am from wisconsin to summarize it i grew up on a farm on my grandpa’s farm and pretty much was a tomboy growing up very religious family and that’s kind of how it started.
My graduating high school class was like 200. people drove their tractors to school does that put it into perspective yeah when i was a senior there was a couple people in high school that already turned 18 so then they were able to get tattoos so when i saw them i’m like oh i need this because i was grew up.
Very sheltered and you know that was bad to be tattooed and i seen that i was just super attracted to it i’ve been drawing and painting my whole life and body art is cool you know you sit in high school and you’re like just drawing on yourself with a sharpie and.
I was super attracted to it from there and when i graduated high school i just started hanging in tattoo shops just i wasn’t even working but i acted like i worked there having people fill out consent forms and yeah that was my first exposure to it i didn’t even think in a million years.
That i would be this tattooed or be an artist for sure that was not anywhere in my mind so my parents divorced when i was eight so my mom’s a little bit more laid back so she secretly took me for my first one just something small that meant a lot to me on my ribs and so i could of course hide it.
And then i started accumulating a couple more still being able to hide it and then my dad saw and hated that but i was still addicted to it it’s an old english letters classic and it says miracle in slovakian because my grandpa’s from slovakia and i actually have a heart disease i’m okay now so no one freaked out but i was.
Terminally ill as a child so it was kind of a blessing you know it meant a lot to me of course so i definitely wanted to keep getting more and more there’s something about it even though of course they do hurt it’s so satisfying just seeing it right away it’s so gratifying you know you’re just like oh yes and then like the more.
Visible ones like the more exciting it gets and so i started slowly and spreading and here i am i wish i had a plan i had no plan um once i just i just started getting that one that meant a lot and then from there i was just like.
Yeah lay on a kitchen table and get this done yeah this sounds good you know i did not plan these things out like i should have but it’s all part of the experience and builds character as you develop more tattoos as a person i guess when i started getting them invisible areas like hands or neck especially my.
Face you know they hated that and i didn’t have too many face tattoos at the time before i was an artist so they didn’t they were worried about me finding a job and things like that because i originally was in college and i went for radiology and i got my cna license for nursing.
And it was just not for me and then i just had every job under the sun after that yeah i feel like i was i don’t want to say this on my mom’s aunt dad’s side but i was slightly suppressed of what i wanted to do and kind of what they wanted me to do their idea of well more my dad’s idea of.
Success is going to school having a degree being in the medical field having benefits have your family have a house just you know that you know be set and be good like art really was not in his mind he’s like you can’t make money doing that and it’s just funny because we joke around about.
It now because you know i buy a brand new car and i moved to arizona and i’m booked out and he’s just like oh yeah my daughter’s a tattoo artist you know so it kind of came full circle um it was rough in the beginning and what i wanted to do but it it’s getting easier.
Was there ever like a moment in your life when you feel that you went from being someone who’s just tattooed to being a quote unquote tattooed person i think neck and face tattoos i have most of my head done as well i grew my hair out i still have some of it shaved on the.
Sides but definitely when it is from here up where you’re constantly looking at people in the street they see you oh you’re tatted you know it’s crazy i guess i i don’t see myself like that i wake up in the morning and.
I’m just like getting ready and i never see myself as heavily tattooed i feel like i’m myself just comfortable and i don’t even think about it when did you first tattoo your face what was that first one um i guess if you would consider this.
Your face it says self-love right here so that kind of like dug also a little personal now all my tattoos are meaningful trust me um just for fun but this one and then i accumulated this one here i stayed on the hairline because i didn’t want to go crazy you know but then when i started to go actually on my face i did the dots.
And then i did the one line on my chin which i later on added on then a little on the sides and then i just kept evolving i think i’m done on my face i can’t guarantee anything because years ago i said never do my face never do my hands and never do my neck well.
Ta-da i did it anyway so honestly i said to be totally honest that’s how i would say that i was like i just want to keep going you know i started filling up little parts of my arms and things and i think i avoided i didn’t want to do these.
Things because of my family out of respect for them and i know i was already killing them the few that i had so i really try to like keep it under control for my family but i’m living for myself they’ve lived their life they can look how they want i’m sorry i love you but no like i’m just gonna go for it.
So all the black work that i have has been blast overs of other tattoos my whole cast was a cover-up my arm was a cover-up i’ve had my forearm done probably four times before it became almost black now at least four times on this side my whole stomach has come up my whole back piece is it’s not black.
But that’s also cover-up i blacked out my whole leg from the knee down i covered up probably like six tattoos when you mentioned earlier like did you have a strategy about getting no i didn’t some of it was just not great work or some of it i just feel like it wasn’t me anymore and i was more attracted to this.
Style and then there was a couple just like marijuana tattoos and it’s cool but i’m becoming a grown woman and i don’t need a weed nug stick and poke on my shin i’m not gonna lie so time to go out with the old in with the new yeah yeah i get fixed fixated on something and i’m like now i’m impulsive i need to.
Do this now who’s got availability like this actually down my face was an impulse i was just going through some stuff and my buddy at the shop i was tattooing at that time and he’s like yeah let’s do it i’m like uh these are like some like little designs i like it doesn’t mean anything at all.
And we just put it together and yeah my parents didn’t like that one but i love it sometimes i’m like i wish i could just start totally over and just create like a beautiful body suit but at the same time i feel like it’s kind of created who i am and different points in my life and.
Learn from your mistakes and things like that so it’s like bittersweet sometimes i’m like i wish i could just but at the same time i’m like this is me it’s okay this is what happened so you’re 18. you’ve got zero tattoos are you gonna do things the same way.
No i would just save all of my money and go to every artist i’ve ever wanted to get tattooed by to go back and get all those tattoos hey tattoos are painful me having to cover that up was not great especially but yeah i don’t know.
I guess i can’t give a clear answer on that it’s a lot to think about i’d have to sleep on it you
When people pass Sarah on the street they always tend to look at her distinct facial tattoos and blacked out chest, but when she looks in the mirror she doesn’t notice them. She simply sees herself. We spoke with Sarah about the haphazard way she built her collection, the agony of cover ups and the way her parents’ perception of her job has evolved over the years.
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.
Sarah Elizabeth: https://www.instagram.com/sarah_elizabeth_tattoos/
Presented by Mad Rabbit: https://www.youtube.com/c/madrabbittattoo
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