“It’s just part of my journey for feeling at home, in my body, and feeling like I’ve claimed this vessel I’m currently operating in.”
when I’m tattooing someone I feel pretty
00:01
grateful I mean this person’s giving me
00:04
a limb on their body not only that
00:06
they’re also paying my bills for me to
00:08
draw on them which is amazing like who
00:10
gets to say that tattooing for me is
00:12
always a super gratifying experience hi
00:26
my name is Shane Owen I’m a queer male
00:28
tattoo artist living in Los Angeles
00:30
California
00:31
I started apprentices at 16 years old
00:34
tattooing is what I’ve always said I
00:36
would do I said I would drop out of high
00:38
school and start my apprenticeship
00:40
actually played a lot into me
00:41
discovering my sexuality my piercing
00:43
mentor was a trans man I do have an
00:46
attraction to trans man and I don’t know
00:49
that if it was like rooted to that or
00:51
whatever but looking back I was always
00:53
just as queer as I am now you know I was
00:55
never just a gay male so to say I do
00:57
identify as a queer gay male just cuz
01:00
that’s how I physically live you know
01:03
it’s much deeper than I’m very queer
01:05
very gender fluid tattoos have been a
01:07
huge part of me expressing my queerness
01:09
and my transness and just kind of a way
01:11
for me to claim my body I used to do
01:13
like a full face of makeup two hours
01:16
every morning full bee she was ready
01:18
would not leave the house without that
01:20
in crop top and like stilettos just cuz
01:23
that’s how I expressed my gender at that
01:24
time I didn’t have a bunch of face
01:25
tattoos to kind of like stand out and
01:27
clean myself my face was really big for
01:29
me and it’s still an ongoing process
01:31
it’s not even finished you know by the
01:33
time I’m done you won’t really see much
01:34
of my body but my face specifically I
01:36
want most of it to be covered and like I
01:38
said it’s just part of my journey for
01:40
feeling at home in my body and feeling
01:43
like I’ve claimed this vessel I’m
01:45
currently operating in
01:52
[Music]
01:57
my name is Eric I’m a drag performer
01:59
known as Alison so I got this one
02:01
because I’m big into anime always love
02:04
the expressions of anime characters
02:05
crying is my favorite one a lot of my
02:07
looks and drag are very anime inspired I
02:10
like Shane’s work because his is very
02:12
unique and different compared to a lot
02:14
of tattoo artists I’ve noticed he used
02:15
this color in a different way than I’ve
02:17
normally seen it which I really love and
02:19
that’s why I want to get tattooed by him
02:20
I am preparing Dalia’s tattoo here I’ve
02:24
got this sheet of drawings I’ve done and
02:28
we’re gonna do these mushrooms here just
02:30
cutting it out I’m gonna make the
02:31
stencil she’s getting mushrooms because
02:33
she’s a trippy bitch you know and I just
02:36
gotta kind of basically cut it out trace
02:38
it make the stencil throw it on her you
02:41
know easy new drawing day of I’m giving
02:44
you the best I can and that moment
02:46
opposed to letting your drawings sit for
02:48
a few weeks you know there’s gonna be
02:49
things where I’m like oh I wish I would
02:50
have changed those who changed that and
02:52
obviously that’s never ending because
02:54
I’m an artist and I’m always gonna be
02:55
critiquing myself I do actually draw up
02:57
mushrooms in my art pretty frequently I
03:00
just like really organic subject matter
03:03
really trippy kind of weird things my
03:06
arts very like Art Nouveau Meets Dark
03:08
Crystal
03:09
just making stencil here I’m basically
03:11
going to run this through a little
03:13
machine technology’s kind of changed how
03:15
we do things because I used to have to
03:16
do this by hand
03:18
I would have to draw this whole drawing
03:20
and trace it on top of this whole thing
03:22
here and it would just kind of double
03:26
the length of your drawing you know I
03:27
had to draw your whole thing twice this
03:29
is what I’m going to lay on them and
03:31
it’s gonna basically be my map that I’m
03:34
gonna follow to create the rest of the
03:35
tattoo
03:36
[Music]
03:43
right off the bat you can see I’m a bit
03:45
of a lot you know I have my full face
03:47
tattooed and that could be a hard pill
03:48
to swallow for some people some people
03:49
maybe don’t know that attention or just
03:51
aren’t into that it’s a bold move to
03:53
make you do kind of have to disconnect
03:55
yourself with my physical body to get to
03:57
know me because there’s a lot going on
03:59
and you have to look past that for sure
04:02
I’ve fully been denied jobs because I
04:04
was gay I kind of want to be the face of
04:07
you know changing that because I mean
04:09
there’s not really many of us in the
04:11
industry I was pretty lucky also to
04:13
develop my style at such a young age if
04:15
you see something I did you definitely
04:16
know like hey that’s a shame tattoo
04:20
—
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