Life & Work with Jordan Taylor of Midland

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jordan Taylor.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I’m a life long Midland resident who’s always been restive and artistic. I knew a traditional art education was not for me so I looked at alternative careers in the arts that didn’t require an art degree. I was ankle to get an apprenticeship at age 18 and have been in the tattoo industry since. In the past 14 years, I have been so much as an artist inside and outside the tattoo studio. These days, I am a woman wearing many hats. I am a mentor to an apprentice of my own passing down my industry knowledge. I am a muralist with work around the Tri-Cities area. I use my artistic skills to support charities helping my community and work with the Midland public arts foundation to bring accessible art to all in Midland. I’m a multi award-winning artist and a multi award-winning tattoo artist well accomplished a lot. I still have so much more. I am looking forward to doing for myself and for the wonderful city I live in.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Life is never truly a smooth road. Working in an in industry that heavily relies on consumer habits can be difficult at first. Starting out at such a young age and moving out of my parents house trying to do everything myself was difficult and I did have to take a two year break from my tattoo apprenticeship due to financial hardships. Who you work for and with can also make a huge difference. I struggled working for an owner that was toxic and greedy taking a toll on my financial and mental well-being. I’ve had people in my life, not support my ambitions in some actively try to sabotage them. All of these challenges, though only made me more determined if anything out of spite to succeed, and not just succeed, but go above and beyond even my own expectations.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
As a tattoo artist, I would consider myself pretty well rounded I can work in many styles in many techniques. That being said I would say color is my specialty. It is what I enjoy doing the most and what I am most recognized for. In a fast growing industry with an even faster, growing clientele interest I hear a lot that tattoo artist are hard to book with, hard to get in contact with, charging astronomical prices, and are overall rude and unapproachable. I pride myself in being the opposite. I always want my clients to feel like my booth is a safe space open to anyone. I want my clients to find the booking process easy and stress-free. getting something permanently on your body is a big deal and can be stressful and I feel like it is my job to make the client as comfortable as possible and communicate as clearly as possible so that everyone can have a great experience start to finish. I am so proud when I hear good feedback from my clients and I am very happy with the reputation. I’ve cultivated for myself.

Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
I spoke quite a bit about this through symposiums and demonstrations at high schools. College isn’t for everyone and getting into the tattoo industry if you’re creative is a great option as a trade. My biggest advice is always to keep creating. A strong portfolio is what is ultimately going to help you find the right mentor. A portfolio that is diverse has finished pieces works and progress, sketches, digital traditional, even sculptures anything that you like to create and show off. If your collection is small and sparse, it gives the impression that art isn’t an a passion for you if art is a passion you’re drawing all the time you have multiple projects going finished or unfinished it shows your thought process how you sketch and the steps you take when you create. A portfolio should be a representation of you. Although I’m not currently looking for apprentice, I do always offer free portfolio critiques for anyone looking to get into the industry because it is that important. Next is finding an artist that is willing to be a mentor. This is also very important because artist might want to be a mentor for different reasons. Someone that just wants to teach you how to tattoo so you can turn around and make some money and aren’t willing to put in more than a few months of training isn’t going to give you a good start in your career. Finding an artist that you yourself looks up to and admires is a great start. You want an artist that is looking for an apprentice for the joy of teaching in passing on knowledge. If there is an artist you look up to it never hurts to get some work done from them even if it’s just buying a print or reaching out on social media to let them know you like their work, it puts your name in the back of their head so when you are ready, you are already familiar with each other.

Pricing:

• Every artist pricing is different. It all depends on the type of shop they work in how fast they tattoo what their specialty is the placement of the body, etc. but the most important advice is you get what you pay for it’s not bad to get pricing from different artists. Just make sure you know the artist does good work.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Slightlybitterginger