Register for this event here.
Please join us on May 5th at 6:30pm the third of four virtual panel discussions facilitated by Cleo Barnett, Executive Director of Amplifier.
Barnett facilitates a conversation with tattoo artists, Vesvarut and Parker, about how they establish, maintain, and uphold principles and boundaries while navigating client relationships.
Other events in this series include:
Jude Vesvarut I am a non-binary QTPOC artist/ tattooist, magical creature extraordinaire. I currently tattoo at Lilith Tattoo, Seattle, WA, Unceded Coast Salish territories of the Duwamish People.
I started tattooing in 2012 and over the years I have worked as a tattooist, concept artist, muralist, and illustrator in LA, Vancouver, Bangkok, Chiang Mai, and Seattle.
I view my tattooing practice as both an art that incorporates symbology magic and healing work. I want to make art that is approachable for everybody at all levels, be it purely aesthetic and/or spiritual. At its roots, tattooing in many cultures have been a mark of a rite of passage, as well as a powerful medium to empower, transform, and heal an individual through designs and images. It is a way for us to reclaim our bodies and to hold on our skin what we believe is beautiful and significant. I approach my work in the light of this notion.
Being deeply inspired by nature and land-based practices, I enjoy bringing the wonders and beauty of the world into my art practice. Fauna, flora, as well as magical narratives - mythology, folk lore, archetypes are prominent themes in my work.
I work only in freehand blackwork. Freehanding has allowed me to create your concept and respond to your body in real time, which requires a lot of mindfulness. This way of working helps me keep my work fresh and the designs dynamic and flowing with the anatomical lines of your body. This means you will not see any preliminary drawings before the appointment. This is a process that requires a lot of trust, the design will be sketched on to your skin with surgical ink pen.
Tann Parker founded Ink The Diaspora, a tattooing platform that was created to challenge colorism in the tattoo industry. Focusing on the experience of a client who is of brown and dark skin who struggles to find representation for tattoos. Giving priority to documenting tattoos on Black and Indigenous queer womxn, trans, non-binary, and gender-nonconforming people. This community offers a space to discuss tattooing as an art form, professional practice, medium, social experience, and healing process. Also learn about tattoos as it relates to skill, design, and aftercare.
As an archivist, Tann creates and collects imagery for Black trans people and women to see representations of themselves in the tattoo industry, both as clients and as artists. Their advocacy through Ink The Diaspora has also jump-started the movement for vocally calling out the tattoo industry for practicing continued discrimination against clients with darker skin tones, and creating barriers to them getting tattooed. Ink The Diaspora has been featured in Allure, FASHION (magazine Canada), Tattoodo, and Bustle.