BABE #342: JENNA BOYTER - Tattoo Artist, Electric Chair Tattoos
Jenna is a St. Augustine, FL-based tattoo artist specializing in illustrative blackwork. Her style is feminine and delicate with clean, thin lines and beautiful, dreamy works of art. With only three years under her belt as a tattoo artist, she’s already made a name for herself and garnered a hefty fanbase. In fact, our very own CEO and numerous babes in our community have been tattooed by this talented lady! Jenna is dedicated to—and extremely passionate about—her craft, and we’re thrilled to see her grow and succeed in what’s clearly the career for her.
The Basics:
Hometown: Alexandria, Virginia
Current city: St. Augustine, Florida
Alma mater: Florida State University
Degree: B.F.A., Art History
Very first job: I waited tables at Creekside Dining
Hustle: Tattoo Artist, Electric Chair Tattoos
The Interests:
Babe you admire and why?
Myra Oh, in Jacksonville, is definitely goals for me as far as her demeanor and how she runs her business. Everything about how she works is definitely something I admire.
How do you spend your free time?
I love sitting in my backyard, by the pool, with my two dogs. It’s pretty nice.
Go-to coffee order and/or adult beverage?
The Kookaburra is right down the street, and I always get a green goddess with coconut milk—it's green tea, jasmine tea, and coconut. But adult beverage—maybe you could put a little rum in there. That'd be great.
If you could have coffee with anyone in the world, who would it be?
I know it’s random, but I love Dr. Phil. I watch him every morning.
How many tattoos do you have? Which is your favorite?
I usually just tell people I have one tattoo now, because they all blur together—I stopped counting. My favorite artist ever works in Australia; my husband and I honeymooned in Australia and I got tattooed by her. It's a big piece on my thigh; that's definitely my favorite.
The Hustle:
Tell us about your hustle.
I’m a tattoo artist with Electric Chair Tattoos in St. Augustine, FL. Nowadays, my clients book online and my receptionist takes care of scheduling. Typically the night before, I’ll look through emails to see what appointments I have for the next day. Normally I don't draw for appointments until the night before (or the day of). I wake up early (around 8:00) and draw from 8:00 to 10:00. From 10:00 to 11:00, I get ready, I head to the shop, we work from 12:00 to 9:00, and then I go home. It’s a long day. It's busy, but I think right now while I'm still young and super-excited about working, I just want to bust through it and work hard. Eventually I want to get to the point where I’ve dialed back a little bit and have a little more free time.
Tell us about your journey to become a tattoo artist.
I used to carry Sharpie markers around and draw all over my friends. I literally have pictures of me with a dragon up my arm when I was 15. The journey has been crazy; I feel super fortunate. It almost just fell into my lap. When I was younger, in high school, I would go around to tattoo artists and interview them and ask them the same questions you're asking me. I had a blog I would post on. If any of my friends got tattooed, I would post their tattoo and the meaning. I always wanted to be involved in it. So, then I went to school for fine arts; I did graphic design, and that definitely helped me figure out how to do all my stencils online. I think that definitely has got me to where I'm at.
How do you stay organized?
It's something I'm still trying to figure out. My husband will tell you I never stop, but when I get home I try to take a minute and have dinner and relax a little bit—but it definitely spills over a lot. I use the Calendly online calendar app. Someone recommended it to me a few months ago, and I haven't looked back. It has saved my life a million times over, it books directly onto my calendar. I used to have people double-book a lot, or I would have someone book with me and I would totally forget, and then they would show up and I would have someone else. Now, keeping that organized is so easy with the calendar app.
How do you handle difficult situations like that—or difficult clients?
When I was first tattooing, it was really hard to say no to things I would take on. I would work with someone who was being difficult and didn't know what they wanted. But, you learn that's where the problems come from. You can shut that down early and just tell someone, “Hey, you know, I don't think your project is right for me.” Or, “I feel like you need to spend more time trying to figure out what you want before we get started.” I like to know what people's expectations are beforehand, because if I do a tattoo and they're unhappy with it, then clearly it was just a problem in communicating. My coworker just heard a podcast that had my [new] favorite quote: “If it's not a fuck yeah, it's a hell no.” Basically, if you're not stoked to do it, then you shouldn’t be doing it.
How has being a woman affected your professional experience?
I think professionally it's helped me a lot. I think females feel comfortable coming and getting tattooed by another female. My style is something a lot of women want to get tattooed by. So, I think it's helped me in that way. I have seen little things that bothered me, though. My husband is heavily tattooed. If he’s in the shop and someone comes in and they see my husband, they see me, they immediately talk to him first and I'm like: “Hey, he doesn't work here. It's me.” Things like that are funny. At a convention, one of the male artists was passing out invitations to a tattoo party; he went to hand one to me, saw me, and then turned and handed it to my husband. Things like that bother me, but it's not a problem because I'm busy as hell and I love it.
What's the gender ratio like in your industry? Do you see it evolving?
It's way more common nowadays to see a female tattoo artist; at the last convention I went to, I would say almost every other booth was female. I went to Orlando and got tattooed, and the guy who owned the shop said he had never met a female tattoo artist before. The two guest artists who were tattooing were female (and so am I), and they were like, “Yeah, well, now there are three badass artists in the room.” I was like: “One ... two … oh, shit, I'm the third one! They're talking about me.” That was really cool.
What are some common misconceptions about your job?
I think people don't realize the time that goes into it. We get a lot of people who will walk in the door and say, “I want to get a sleeve done today; I'm leaving town tomorrow.” That's not going to happen. In our generation we want things when we want it, and we're not willing to wait for it sometimes. That's hard to explain to people.
What does your approach to work-life balance look like?
With everything being so close on your phone, it’s hard to turn off. Usually I try to get home and leave my phone and my iPad in my bag until it's been an hour or so. I'll catch up with my husband; he and I usually sit down and have dinner together. We'll watch a show and then after that I'll pull out my phone and look at what appointments I have for the next day, and so on.
Career and/or life advice for other babes?
I think I have the problem of not asking for things I feel like want, because I don't want to disappoint someone or feel like I'm asking for too much. You don't want to feel like you're being greedy. Make sure you're looking at what you want to do and going for it, instead of staying back and thinking you have to do what you're told to do.
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