Hello all, I'm Stacey Earley, currently residing in Lexington, KY (where I grew up) after 20 years in Chicago. I didn't pay any attention to tattooing until I was almost 40 and started playing roller derby: the first one to impress me was a Kim Saigh goddess on the arm of fellow player "Varla Vendetta." Started researching them soon after that and fell in love.
My first tattoo was my derby league logo, inked in a street shop in Austin TX after we lost big at the national tournament. After that I decided to go big. I have a 3/4 sleeve, a huge "belt," and another smaller pec piece by the AMAZING Jason Vaughn (Deluxe, Chicago), an arm piece by Mario Desa, and other work by Robert Alleyne and Rachael Head here in Lexington, and am currently (slowly) getting a full backpiece from Jason Armstrong (I traded a vintage fiddle for this one!).
I have been a book illustrator and painter (among other artforms), and eventually I will be a tattooer. I moved from Chicago (and a corporate job) to Lexington to shadow in the best (custom) shop in town. After six months they restructured and didn't have room for me to hang around cleaning tubes, but I learned tons about composition and history and best practices and ethics, and did a couple of little pieces (that sucked). The ethics they taught me keeps me from scratching in my living room, but I have been mutilating my own thighs just to get a daily feel for holding the machines and pulling a consistent line. I figure by the time I'm 50 I'll be the oldest new artist in the biz.
Waiting for the "next step" and drawing my ass off, currently. Thanks for all the info here, especially the interviews.
