Check Out Cori Cowden’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Cori Cowden

Hi Cori, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
How I got to where I am today is kind of a weird boomerang of a story. As a young kid through high school, I loved to draw, paint, and do other crafts, and I took art classes for credits too. After graduating high school, I went to the University of Michigan – Flint where in the beginning I wasn’t sure what I wanted my degree to be focused on. I considered elementary education and mathematics, but I ended up taking photography classes and fine art classes. From there I decided to pursue my bachelor’s degree in visual communications with a concentration in photography. Through my university years, I would concentrate on photography projects surrounding the tattoo community by visiting shops, taking photos of artists, and photographing my friends and family who had tattoos. In 2013 I graduated U of M, but was left with a big ‘well, what now?’ Soon after, I ended up in a career for almost a decade climbing up the corporate ladder and became a team lead for a reconciliations department for a company that handled patient accounts for hospitals. The idea of having an artistic job was long gone by this point. During this time, I created an Instagram to showcase my drawings and paintings. I also started drawing potential tattoo designs. Sometime in 2021, I changed my bio in my Instagram to say: Seeking tattoo apprenticeship. I didn’t think anything would come of it as I wasn’t really putting in the work to find an apprenticeship. I would go to shops to get tattooed, ask artists of their own journey, go to tattoo conventions, chat with people and their experiences to get an idea of where to start. In early 2022 I got a message on my Instagram from a tattoo shop owner, Hanna, asking if I was still looking for an apprenticeship. I told her yes, but that I had a full-time job, a family to take care of, and didn’t really have any time except the weekends so maybe I’m not really looking. She told me that I could come in on the weekends and would give me drawing assignments to do at home. So, with my art portfolio in hand and a deep breath I went to Hive Tattoo Studio in Flint and I have been there ever since.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It will never be a smooth road for anyone looking to get into tattooing. I would say I got the golden ticket as far as getting into a shop, but it will never be an easy journey overall. Some struggles in the beginning were simply being brave enough to ask other artists and shops about how they got into the industry and getting a physical portfolio together when the time came to show people. Also building my social media presence has been a fighting journey. You have to consistently post and be engaged on social media, and admittedly I am not one of those people. Comparing myself and my work to another artist’s is also brutal. Seeing the growth in someone else’s tattoos and seeing their books filling up with appointments can get discouraging, but at the same time you are routing for your fellow artist. One of my ongoing struggles is simply facing the fear of tattooing someone and having to accept that this tattoo is going to be on them forever. And for me, that has given me solid anxiety the past year and a half that I am learning to control. You can practice tattooing on silicone, fruit, animal skin, but nothing will be the same as having a human canvas. It is very intimidating to essentially ‘practice’ on someone and they keep the tattoo forever; but that is how tattoo artists get better, by allowing brave people to be tattooed by someone early in their tattoo career.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I have been tattooing clients since September 2023. I specialize and lean more towards creating traditional and American traditional tattoos. This means bold lines and bold colors, think of a style like in a coloring book. I gravitated towards traditional due to the high contrast and how overall easily readable these tattoos look. Honestly, I’m proud that I have been able to make it this far with the amount of push I have been through in this field. I pushed through our biggest weekend of the year last year after only doing a handful of tattoos, pushed through working mostly 7 days a week (have I mentioned I still have a full-time day job?!), pushed through the negative thoughts and feelings and just taking everything day by day. This job is literal blood, sweat, and tears, and to have made it this far is still wild to me.

Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
The most important lesson along my journey has been to stop overthinking everything. Artists are their own worst critic, and we can point out every little wrong thing we see, even if nothing is wrong with our finished work. Some tattoos I’ve done I have looked over photos after my client has left thinking how I could have made the tattoo better. Next thing I know, they’re scheduling with me for another tattoo. My mentor, coworkers, fellow tattoo artists, and clients that have encouraged me along the way has been overwhelmingly positive and cannot thank everyone enough for the trust and support.

Pricing:

• $100 hourly rate
• $75 small flash tattoos

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/corbobart