Today we’d like to introduce you to Madeline Ward.
Madeline, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Iʼve known I wanted to be an artist from a very young age. I remember being in a flea market with my Grandmother when I was 9 or maybe 10 years old, there was a caricature artist I thought that was really cool so I ended up getting one of myself & he proposed the idea of drawing me as whatever I wanted to be when I grew up & I told him I wanted to be an artist so he drew me at a desk with art supplies all around working on a painting. To this day that caricature is still on my Grandmotherʼs refrigerator. My Grandma Jean is, in fact, one of my inspirations for wanting to be an artist, I remember her always making paintings & hanging them around the house when I was young & I just thought they were so pretty & wanted to make my own. I was always the kid in school who was lost in my own world doodling away in the middle of class too busy & uninterested to pay attention to much else, needless to say, I didnʼt do to well in school but I did make some pretty cool art. I knew I wanted to be a tattoo artist ever since I was 16 years old & did my first stick n poke on my brotherʼs knee; choppy, blue, barely legible & only one word “Ramones”. Iʼm not sure what exactly drew me to tattoos or tattooing in the first place but I remember thinking how incredibly cool they looked & how I wanted to be covered in them one day.
I stole my first tattoo machine from a friendʼs older brother. The guyʼs brother was a total loser, a racist, angry, mean skinhead dude who was just released from prison. The guy had made this jailhouse style tattoo machine out of a VCR tape rewinder motor, a spoon, & a bic pen… I thought it was the coolest fucking thing I had ever seen in my life so when he passed out drunk one night after being a general ass to everyone I stole it. I tattooed myself with it first, I remember making a needle by glueing a paper clip to a sewing needle. I did a few horrible & long since covered tattoos on my legs & I also ended up tattooing a couple of friends. Looking back I realize how incredibly stupid this was but I was 16 & I didnʼt care I just wanted to learn to tattoo. A few years later when I was 19, I got my first apprenticeship at an actual tattoo studio, which was in all honesty short lived. I was a high school dropout working two minimum wage jobs just so I could have enough money to eat & a place to lay my head at night. As a tattoo apprentice, you donʼt make money, you are basically an indentured servant.. aka the shop bitch. So I ended up quitting my first apprenticeship.
I never stopped drawing & I never stopped wanting to learn to tattoo, I eventually ended up getting another apprenticeship when I was living in Ohio. I was around 22 & I ended up working at a tattoo shop called Art 4 Life. What was supposed to be an apprenticeship turned into me & my brother basically running the entire shop by ourselves because the ownerʼs never wanted to actually be there so I basically ended up teaching myself how to tattoo. Did I mention me & my brother were also living in the shop as well because we were basically homeless at this point?
Okay fast forward a few years now & Iʼm 25 & I somewhat know how to tattoo at this point, I still suck but I think Iʼm doing alright & I guess the guy who I would basically credit as my actual mentor must have seen some potential in me because he gave me a job at his tattoo shop. The shop is called The Lure & itʼs in Vienna, WV the owner is Scott Dennis who is an incredible tattoo artist & someone who I canʼt thank enough for giving me a shot in a legitimate well-respected tattoo studio. I worked at the Lure for close to 3 years before I moved back to Houston.
I managed a tattoo shop for a short bit when I got back to Houston, the shop ended up being sold to new ownerʼs & I split to come work for Demon Ink in North Houston where I currently still work four years later. I came out as trans just over three years ago & began hormones & physically transitioning at this shop. Coming out as trans is one of the scariest things I have ever done in my life but also maybe the best thing Iʼve ever done for myself & something I should have done a very long time ago. However, I had no idea what to expect from the owners of the shop, my clients, or the other artist I work with. Iʼm happy to say I was met with open arms & acceptance by the shop ownerʼs Eric James & John Paul Rolden who are two artists I greatly admire & am happy that Iʼve had the chance to work with. When it comes to clients I may have lost certain clients for being myself but I feel like Iʼve probably gained more as I continue to get better at tattooing & I now have lots of LGBT clients who come to me in part because they know that I provide a safe space for them to be tattooed without prejudice which is something that is very important to me.
The tattoo industry is a largely cisgender, heterosexual, male populated industry & it can be a little unnerving for an LGBT aligned person to walk into a tattoo shop sometimes let alone work in one. I have definitely faced certain obstacles that most people never have to worry about & at times it can be very trying but I push on because this is what I love & this is what I am passionate about! Iʼm excited to see what the future holds!
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Learning to tattoo & being a successful tattoo artist has not been an easy road by any means. I feel as though Iʼve fought tooth & nail to get as far as I have. I remember sleeping in the tattoo shop because I had nowhere else to go & I was just so deadset that I was going to learn to do this & make money doing it no matter what the cost. Maybe things would have been easier if I had just experienced a more traditional apprenticeship but that just isnʼt the way it happened, I definitely feel like I took the hard road on that one. Aside from just becoming a competent & confident artist, the biggest struggle I have faced is navigating this career path as an LGBT identifying person. I have identified as bisexual since high school but I was always afraid to tell anyone I worked with about my sexuality, I experienced a lot of homophobia in the workplace & for a long time I thought it was best if I just kept my sexuality to myself. I know I have questioned my gender from a young age as well but most of my life I just moved those thoughts to the back of my mind, filed away in a tidy little folder in the back of all the others.. something I could just deal with later. I didnʼt necessarily know what “trans” meant until I was about 22 or 23 & the more I looked into it, the more it seemed to describe exactly what I was feeling. Still, every interaction I had ever encountered up to that point concerning even the existence of a trans person was always very negative, something that was deemed unacceptable & something to be ashamed of. I became very depressed. I developed unhealthy coping mechanisms & hid a large part of myself from the world. When I did finally come out at the age of 28, it was because I felt like if I didnʼt deal with it I was never going to be truly happy or even be able to really be myself. Although I do consider myself to be lucky to have people around me that accept me for who I am, I still face prejudice & a general lack of understanding or a lack of desire from most to even attempt to understand what transgender means. I have literally had people that refuse to even talk to me about a tattoo & ask to speak with someone else simply because Iʼm trans, Iʼve had clients purposely misgender me, people often say the most offensive things with apparently no idea that they are being offensive & everybody seems to have their own made-up definition of what being transgender actually means without ever doing any actual research on the topic.. it can be a headache at times, to say the least.
Alright – so let’s talk art. Tell us about your work – what should we know?
I think what sets me apart from other artist is my bold, bright, graphic use of color & differing line weights, as well as my own artistic style. I draw inspiration from so many things & I try to show that I’m capable of more than just one particular style of tattooing. My biggest inspirations would have to be American & Japanese traditional tattooing, street art, anime, & 90’s nostalgia. I enjoy doing tattoos that make people smile.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
Although Iʼm mostly self-taught if I were to credit one person as a mentor who has helped me to hone my craft more than any other person it would be Scott Dennis of The Lure in Vienna, WV. Iʼd also say that Iʼve learned a lot working with the crew at Demon Ink here in Houston. Every artist at this shop is talented & has their own unique style, working with these guys & seeing them grow & pushing myself to grow as an artist has been exactly what I need to fuel my creative fire. I definitely have to thank my brother Mikey for always being supportive & for letting me tattoo a majority of his body when I was still figuring out what I was doing. Thanks bro, love you! <3 Of course, none of this would be possible without my clients so with all of the love in the world I thank each & every one of you for having trust in me to do something as permanent as a tattoo on you!
Contact Info:
- Address: 6982 fm1960 w. Houston, Tx. 77069
- Phone: 8325272689
- Email: ibleedpastel@gmail.com
Image credit:
Cameron Allsup IG: Cameron_allsup
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