It really was my pleasure to interview Jodie Heinrichs. I found her to be a genuine person and authentic. Born and raised in the countryside of Ardrossan, she has close family ties and a great love and respect towards the outdoors. Jodie is just twenty years old and has been tattooing for two years. Because of her fun personality, passion for tattoos and learning, I am sure she has a bright future as a tattoo artist.
The Interview
Were you always in touch with your artistic side?
JODIE:
I did a lot of art, especially living in a small town, small school, I was always known as the girl who could draw kind of thing. Ever since I could hold a pencil, grade one, grade three, I was immediately coined as someone who could draw. So even through high school, I spent almost all my lunch hours in the art room, just like doing my own thing, I don’t know, that was what I was comfortable with. And I was good at it. I practiced a lot.
I saw on your Facebook that you like to travel. How has traveling affected your art?
JODIE:
I don’t think traveling influenced the way I do art, but the fact that I am doing art. During one of the school trips, we did a tour through France and Italy. I think we got to see about nine or ten different cities in Italy and then four or five cities in France. When I was in Rome, I remember seeing artists everywhere and people just valuing art so much over there. Everywhere you go, I feel like people just put so much value on the aesthetics of things. I feel like that is something I wish we had more of here. I think I was in Rome when it clicked and I realized that I want to do art, this is what I want to do. I felt like I saw people over there, that they were focused on their art because they were proud of it and valued it more.
A couple of years previous to that, I had done a trip through Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria. That was a wicked trip as well. My parents really valued traveling. We were privileged enough to do a lot of traveling growing up when I was younger. And my parents own a place in Mexico so we were often there as well. And I remember me and the neighbors, our families kind of grew up together and we use to do road trips down to Spokane.
There are a lot of artists who love to create art, but I find it takes a certain kind of person to become a tattooist. The art you create is permanent and is not just erased. As an artist what inspired you to get into tattooing?
JODIE:
I feel like because I wanted to do original pieces on things. With tattoos you can’t hang them up on a wall, they are constantly walking around, they are talked about, they are asked about, they’ve got your name on it. And the fact that people are attracted enough to have something with your name on it, on them forever is incredibly satisfying if you are proud of what you did for sure. Definitely nerve wracking. When I first started, before I got my apprenticeship I was doing water colour portraits and airbrushing, so going from that to kinda learn what the heck lines were and how to use those, because you can’t just go to portraits and soft shading kind of stuff, so I had to do a complete style change which was super difficult for me. But like I said it's just a lot of practice. You sit there and tell yourself you have to draw a certain way for hours and hours every day, you are going to pick it up.
Is there any particular culture that has influenced your tattoo art?
JODIE:
Although I haven’t been there, St. Petersburg in Russia. It's like there is something in the water, the people, the tattooists over there are phenomenal. The tattooing over there ...the black work kinda symbolizes the style of being a single needle, deep in detail, or just working with black dark colours. In St. Petersburg that is all the rave.
Throughout Europe, their standards for tattoos are so much higher than here. To get an apprenticeship in Europe is a million times harder than it is here. The people over there have such higher standards for good quality tattoos. Everybody cares about the aesthetics of things so much more. So I feel it is so much harder to find a lower quality tattoo artist in Europe because they are all so strict. You're not going to find the cute little fads that we have here, you know people walking in for a little heart outline or script tattoos; you won’t nearly find as much of that there. They’ll go for quality custom pieces. I would love to go to Europe to learn more and work there for awhile.
I saw on your older Facebook posts that you tattooed your Mom?
Yes, and now she won’t stop bugging me for more. (laughs) We actually got our first ones together. She got “you are my sunshine” and I got “ my only sunshine”. I got a little hummingbird, but she didn’t want one and then a couple of months later she says oh I want a hummingbird tattoo, so I think it was a couple of months later while I was doing my apprenticeship that I gave her a little hummingbird. And now she is always bugging me to give her more. But I keep trying to put it off, I and tell her to wait until I have been doing this for a lot longer. The first person I ever tattooed was the piercing apprentice at the shop, actually, she had my first three. A spade and a heart, and I think a little dagger on her foot as well.
Where would you like to see yourself in five years as a tattoo artist?
JODIE:
Oh man, I don’t even know where I will see myself next year as a tattoo artist. (laughs) I would love to go back to Rome. I remember trying to convince myself that I have to make it over again, that I had to go back again. That or even trying to visit St. Pétersbourg. But I feel like I need a few more years of practice before I could contend with them, or make it over there. I’m twenty now, so oh yes, I am a baby in this industry. I got into this pretty much as I just turned eighteen so I jumped into it super young, which is good. But for now, I feel like I would like to spend my time in British Columbia. Europe is cool and I love it there, but my favorite place is definitely the Canadian Rockies. I love to snowboard. I’m actually an instructor at Sunridge. It was my first job at just fourteen. I love, love, love it there. I plan on making it out to Marmot this season to work there. But I don’t know if I will be able to tattoo out there. We’ll see.
Would you ever consider opening a tattoo shop in the Rockies? There must be a lot of boarders and skiers who would want to get a tattoo on their holiday.
JODIE:
I have thought about it. I would love to open up a shop in Jasper. I would probably wind up doing a lot of mountain tattoos, which totally works out, and that is a thing that you can always make different. As many mountain tattoos that have been done or will do, I probably wind up doing different ones for each person, it's something you can personalize.
Is there anything else you would like to share?
JODIE:
If you are getting a tattoo do your research on the artist. I find that bad tattoos are so avoidable, people have just got to do their research. Make sure you see what the artist is doing ...take a look at their portfolio ...make sure to see what the stuff you see is the kind of style of what you are looking for. Often people will walk in and assume that any wahoo down the street can do any kind of tattoo, they will just assume that they can do anything, and be super surprised at the outcome.
To see more of Jodie’s work, please visit her at Instagram @fromjheinrichs_tattoos
Or make an appointment with her at Tear Creations Tattoo & Airbrushing
End
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