My Dear Friends of Inked I mean I was 17 and I got a ton of tattoos but before I turned 18 like friends basements and people that were learning how to tattoo and I have a couple they’re not bad but I would not mind if they were covered up at some point in time and then 18 I just like went all for it and started getting tattooed.
I am Aiden white I tattoo I do regular tattoos cosmetic and medical I grew up between Philadelphia and South Jersey life wasn’t the easiest didn’t have a lot of money growing up didn’t have the easiest life but we made it work I think it’s a good thing it kind of helped build me as a person and learn to appreciate a lot learn how to Value.
Things which is very important I’ve never been handed just anything in life so that was just a really good foundation for me going into my adult life because I just have a different appreciation for things more I don’t need a whole lot in life I like to just travel have experiences be around good people appreciate what I have in front.
Of me and not take the small things that seriously it was good it was it was not good it was bad but it was good for how it shaped me as a person I don’t remember the first time I saw a tattoo but I remember the idea in my brain that I thought I could mix art and put on someone’s body and I could do something.
That’s going to last forever and that’s a job and I was really young I was maybe I think like 10 or 12 when that Epiphany popped into my mind that that’s a thing and you could like build a career off of that I didn’t know the extent but um seeing tattoos at a young age it always really interests me I always knew I wanted to be tattooed I always knew.
This is what I want to do I just always constantly focused on artwork Growing Up So if there was you know really bad things going on around me art if something you know messed up happened I don’t have anyone to go to or if I’m going through like my medical stuff art so like it you know it was always there tattooing is something I’ve always.
Wanted to do I’ve always connected with this creative side of of me and who I am as a person and so honestly like going through all the rough stuff growing up it just drilled that more into my soul like this is what I want to do and I know this is what I want to do and I don’t want people to feel bad I want people to come to me and feel better and.
It’s nice because it’s like a bonding experience and a lot of people get tattooed when they’re going through something so it’s nice to just kind of you know be a part of that too rather than the bad side of it I got my first tattoo when I was 16 and my mom said hey if I take you to get your first tattoo will you promise me.
This is the only one and of course I lied and I said yeah this is going to be my only one I’m never getting another tattoo again meanwhile I have all these ideas of what I want to get done um so she took me I got my wrists tattooed that very popular saying at the time stayed true I like it though because it.
It does still give me a reminder of like don’t lose yourself you know like it’s just stay who you are don’t change for the people around you and as old and trendy as that saying was at the time I’m still really happy with it I’m glad that I got it done because I’ll look down I’m like all right you gotta humble yourself a little bit like Don’t Stray.
Too far don’t try to be someone you’re not don’t try and put on a show for anybody um so I just I stay myself and like it makes me happy I think my mom was in denial about me saying this is my only tattoo I think she knew in the back of her mind like there’s no way she didn’t at least have that idea but I was so.
Good at just bullshitting like yeah this is the only one I’m gonna get I promise if you let me get this one I won’t get any more I did a really I did a good performance when when we talked about it and I still feel like this spot in the back of her mind is thinking oh no she’s definitely going to go for it but you know she didn’t know I.
Got tattoos between 16 and 18. so I think that also helped my um performance to her as well when I got the face tattoos that’s really what like we’re not talking like we are no relationship no contact we’re not eating each other’s lives and so yeah that lasted a few years and we had to like work through some things and I had to.
Show hey I’m a grown adult I always worked really really hard I always had really good jobs and the jobs before I had tattooing were all creative jobs anyway I did like marketing and graphic design and advertising like sales and business management all these things that actually really helped shape when I started tattoo and so over the last.
Couple of years really showing how far I can take tattooing and what I can do for people and how it can help me and even like the different categories of tattooing the standard tattoos the cosmetics medical um she’s like super proud of me now she loves the tattoos she even wants me to give her a tattoo now so she’s like she.
Has none but she was like yeah I want a matching tattoo with my boyfriend so we’ll we’ll talk to her at some point maybe we’ll do it here and we’ll film it so we can be like this was you 12 years ago and this is you now so um it’s like a nice evolution of where we started and where we are now when I first started tattooing I.
Tattooed myself because I wanted to know what that was going to feel like for other people and I I figured like if I’m gonna pick someone up at least let me myself up for my first few tattoos the first tattoo I ever did I never actually finished it because I got so excited that I was doing it I’m like all right.
This will like finish it another time but it’s like this rose right here the second tattoo I ever did was this another flower like on my leg that I also never finished because again I got so excited doing this and I was like I’ll just do it later and that was like six years ago so maybe I’ll finish it at some point it gave me a really good.
Insight on how to approach like what I want to do next the creative side of it what type of style I want to go for with just regular tattooing so I was really trying to experiment when I first started tattooing so some of my tattoos have meaning some haven’t none at all some are just this was me practicing here it.
Is some of them are hey this is just like meant for only me to know what it is like the empathy that’s on my face I got tattooed about eight years ago and 99 of the time it’s always positive feedback it’s always starting a really good conversation with people I remember when I walked out of the tattoo shop.
Everyone’s staring and I’m thinking is this what it’s going to be like now is everyone going to be looking at me like I don’t want anyone to look at me I want everyone to just look away but it’s always been a good conversation because of the word it’s not something like hateful or something that’s negative so it really does create a lot of really.
Good conversations with people a lot of people tend to come up to me and share their like life stories with me with them within a few minutes so I try to be that too but yeah it’s like really positive and I just also have tattoos that I like the artwork so you know not everything has to have a whole lot of meaning at least the way that I look at.
It I think for me when I started getting tattooed I started to feel like myself I started to feel like this is who I’m supposed to be this is like this is me my arms are tattooed and I started with like the upper part of my arm when I got the portrait people really started noticing because they’re like who is.
That is that your grandfather is it your uncle is this a person I’m like no it’s a [__] poet have you heard of them so yeah this tattoo was like very eye-catching to people it was my first tattoo that you can visibly see because when I was 16 and 17 I was getting once you couldn’t see so people were really looking at this and asking me all sorts.
Of crazy questions and I’m like why is this the tattoo that I’m getting the crazy questions for and then I had my um chest tattooed which is not finished and I actually hate it so this was a pretty bold one too that people were like what time is it she has this blast on her chest when we applied the stencil it was so crooked and I hated it and the.
Artist was actually really pissed off to have to wipe it away and reapply the stencil and when he did it was still crooked when he applied the second time thinking he’s really not going to be happy if I ask him and then what’s he gonna do like got my tattoo while we do it so just the whole experience was not good but it.
Gave me that experience to always consider like how someone’s feeling to not give someone off this energy like I don’t want to redo that I don’t want to do this like I’ve been stuck with this for 10 years and I hate it and I just want it gone so um I look at it every day and it’s there so I just always think about that.
Experience I never want anyone to feel that way it’s not good after that I really took my time with figuring out who I wanted to get tattooed by like what type of person they were what type of work that they were doing like so I was already kind of doing that but I just took way more time doing it moving forward and I stuck with.
A lot of the same artists over time um just and I felt comfortable so some people just did repeated work on me and some people I went to just once or twice but all positive experiences after that I’m really grateful for the pathway that came about from everything I can’t imagine a different scenario I can imagine things going differently I’m.
Just a very strong believer of everything happens for a reason whatever that reason is yeah like I went through a tough relationship with my mom and I went through some things but I’m I’m really glad I did everything I did so I wouldn’t change it I wouldn’t go back and do anything differently this is the best of Trio I love this.
Oh my God yeah you guys should do a do like a your own bit yeah rtnz intersection yeah the chaotic three of you
When she was 16, Aidan’s mom took her to get her first tattoo with one condition—that she promise this was the only tattoo she would get. As you can clearly see, Aidan didn’t stay true to her word. We spoke with Aidan about her tattoo collection and what it means to be heavily inked.
Aidan White: https://www.instagram.com/aidantattoos/
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