Interview with Vancouver illustrator and tattoo artist Nomi Chi

An interview with Vancouver painter, illustrator and tattoo artist Nomi Chi http://nomi-chi.com

MUSIC: "Kahuama" by Kupa http://www.nimbo.org
INTERVIEW, VIDEO & EDIT: Chris Bentzen http://www.bentzen.ca

for Hot Art Wet City http://www.hotartwetcity.com
Brought to you by Hot Art Wet City Pop-Up Gallery - 752 E Broadway, Vancouver BC

For the first 4 or 5 years of my tattoo career was a real struggle.

I was living off of bread and margarine sandwiches,

and I'd skip meals even then,

it was really tough gaining a clientele when you're that young.

Sometimes I'd lie to people about my age,

because people won't trust a teenager,

and rightfully so, who would trust a teenager?

But you just gotta tough through it

and it makes you develop a thick skin

which you really need to be a tattoo artist.

And I think that's what you really need to be an artist in Vancouver as well.

You really need to be like aggressive in a way,

but yknow, but really able to make connections with your peers and take advantage of that.

There's a negative stigma attached to commercial art,

especially when it comes to other artists.

Like if you're doing commercial art, you're "working for the man"

or you're subscribing your art to the average person's tastes or something.

So... I don't know, I don't really consider that part of my practice at all.

I just do what I like to do,

but I mean tattoos inherently involve other people's skin and ideas,

and so I kind of have to work with that.

Um, my painting is just like more of an outlet for me,

and it helps that I am able to do gallery shows and other people are interested in it,

but it's just this more of a personal practice,

and it's just a little bit more, um, selfish, I guess.

In a good way.

Working as a tattoo artist has both negatively and positively affected my painting career,

and vice versa as well.

I mean, people will see my paintings

and they'll try to incorporate that kind of imagery into their tattoo,

which is really awesome cause you get this fusion of these two styles which don't traditionally go together.

And I think it's really pushing the boundaries of both illustration and tattoos.

But on the other hand, both practices are so time consuming,

and there's only 24 hours in a day,

and I don't sleep,

and ...I'm really tired at the end of the day,

but it's worth it.

That's what I keep telling myself at least.

The illustrator's life!

I feel like a lot of my friends in school

will have this idea that you can just go through a school system,

or you could just complete a degree

and then you're magically imbued with the abilities to be a professional artist.

But you have to have like a drive inside of you,

you really have to be able to, like I said,

aggressively kind of push your work out there,

but without stepping on your friends,

and just yknow making connections with people, and using that to your advantage.

Yknow, it's great to have shows, it's great to have galleries on your side, and gallery managers,

but at the end of the day, when it comes to help,

your fellow artists are really the people who you can rely on,

and the people who are gonna help you promote your work,

and you can stand on each others shoulders and go to each other for advice.

So establishing a network of friends who are artists is essential for any artist working anywhere.

I'm a hella introvert

and I'm scared of people

and yknow, like I said,

if I had it my way, I'd just sit in here all day and watch movies,

but I can't, this is my practice,

and just have to suck it up

and give 'er!

Yknow? Jump into it,

like I said you have to have a thick skin to be an artist.

Hello, my name is Nomi Chi and I'm a tattoo artist and I'm an illustrator. [website: nomi-chi.com]