Designing your own passion; Freshman tattoo artist draws away

Bella Arist, Reporter

     Freshman Mia Siegel drew out her very first design for a tattoo. She got the opportunity to create something that will be imprinted on someone’s body forever.

     The freshman explained, “This guy, Jay, who works for my dad, asked me to design a tattoo for him because he loves getting them all over his body.” There is a rock band named Incubus that is very important to Jay and his family. Siegel shared, “he wanted to incorporate this band into an arm sleeve because it is the band that he and his wife got married to, and basically how they met.”

     She said, “He had a bunch of random ideas of how he wanted to put the symbols of the band on his arm, but had no idea of how to put them all together.” Siegel only designed a portion of his arm currently, which was the under forearm, but is now designing another art piece for his upper bicep. 

     The artist explained, “the one I just did was a combination of a bunch of album covers from the band. For example, there was a little icon of a heart with spikes on it from one of their more recent albums, but there were also little designs from the older ones as well.”

     Siegel shared, “when I got asked to design a tattoo, it was a crazy experience because I wasn’t expecting it at all. Tattoos are permanent, so it was super cool that someone trusted me and liked my art so much that they would want it imprinted on them for the rest of their life.” 

     As for some people, drawing can be more of a difficult skill to learn. For this artist, “drawing came naturally to [her].” She said, “I have been drawing as early as I could possibly hold a pencil. Art is my passion.”

     This student is “definitely planning on going into art school.” She also mentioned that she “enjoys working with little kids, so a perfect job would be an elementary school art teacher.” 

     She shared, “Recently, I was talking to the tattooist who tattooed Jay and he said that when I am 18 years old, I could possibly be an apprentice, which is really cool and something I am very interested in.”

     As of right now, the Art Guild at this school is working on a mural outside of art teacher Mr. Jason Blevins’ room. Siegel described it as “a huge hawk flying, and then trailing behind it will be different student artwork that represents the school.”