Today we’d like to introduce you to Lorelle Vu.
Hi Lorelle, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I got my first job as a sales floor team member at Target when I was 18 years old. I loved my time there but I didn’t want to stay there forever. One of my coworkers learned how to do permanent makeup and quit Target to pursue that full time. I had her tattoo my eyebrows and I was so intrigued. I was saving up money for a car at the time, but instead I used that money to take a permanent makeup course to learn how to do ombré powder brows and lip blush.
It was a really tough learning curve, but I gained a lot of confidence after getting hired as an artist at a permanent makeup salon. They taught me so much! Working at this salon taught me a lot about both the artistry and business aspects of the industry. These skills helped me tremendously as an independent artist after my time at the salon came to an end.
A lot of permanent makeup artists were getting into body tattooing at that point, so I thought that would be really cool to try as well. I was no longer in the salon environment and had my own space to work in at a Phenix salon suite, so I started tattooing friends and family for fun when I didn’t have clients. I didn’t offer it as a service or plan to. However, after a while of just tattooing friends and family, they started telling me I was getting so much better and that they would pay money for my work. Tattooing was so much fun for me because I got to do a different design every time, unlike permanent makeup which is so similar for each set of brows or lips. I wanted to learn more about tattooing and do more of it, so I started tattooing some of my permanent makeup clients to start my portfolio and opened up my books for tattoos.
Wanting to learn more, I quit my 9-5 in May this year to take tattooing more seriously. The timing was great because I gained a lot of exposure in June due to Friday the 13th, which is a popular date that people like to get tattooed. With so many people looking for tattoos around this time, it helped me to kickstart my journey as a tattoo artist. I got a lot of inquiries through Instagram for all sorts of tattoos. This gave me the opportunity to tattoo more and learn what I liked to do.
Fast forward to now, I’m six months into taking actual clients rather than tattooing only friends and family. It has been such an amazing year and I’m so excited to continue to grow. After getting more consistent with tattooing, I have discovered a love for color tattoos, especially characters! It’s great to get to come into work and tattoo something different every time, and I am so lucky to have the best clients who are so nice to me and share my excitement for my art.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It’s been an emotional roller coaster getting to where I am today. I’ve had a lot of ups and downs throughout the years that made me want to quit over and over again, but every time I thought about quitting things magically started working out again.
My first studio location was a Phenix salon suite that I shared with someone else, but after a few months she told me she was moving so I needed to look for another place to work out of. I couldn’t afford a place all by myself and planned to just take a break, but luckily I ended up landing a job as an artist at a reputable permanent makeup salon. I worked there for eight months before making the difficult decision to leave due to personal reasons at home. It was tough working there because I didn’t know how to drive yet and the studio was a few cities away, so the Uber costs were expensive and some days I had trouble securing an Uber ride and would wait up to an hour for a driver. I found a studio closer to home and shared a Phenix salon suite again with another permanent makeup artist, but the industry was getting really slow and I was barely getting bookings anymore, so I had to get a second job. My calendar was not as full as it once was and I thought about quitting permanent makeup when another studio posted that they were hiring an artist. I was lucky enough to land a job there and my manager helped me to book more appointments again. She has been so supportive and now I work independently alongside her at her studio!
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I love tattooing pretty much anything! I really enjoy a challenge, so new ideas are always nice, but my favorite things to tattoo are colored cartoon characters or florals. I get a lot of love for my character tattoos, even messages about them from people I don’t know! I’m really proud of now attracting work that feels more like my vibe. I’m always open to anything, but after taking so many models to build a portfolio of more things I want to do, I now get requests for designs that align with what I enjoy doing, especially colorful tattoos!
What matters most to you? Why?
What matters most to me is my family. I am so grateful for the flexibility and freedom that tattooing gives me. Because I get to create my own schedule, I can now spend more time with my family. I get to have more family dinner nights, and I can watch my two year old nephew grow up without missing any milestones. I have a family member who has regular doctor visits, so I’m lucky to be able to take her to all of them. I was able to surprise my little sister and take her out after school on her birthday this year. I can book as many workout classes with my sister as I want. Being my own boss has had so many advantages, but being able to decide when and how much I work is definitely the biggest one. This is the best my work/life balance has ever been, and because I am never burnt out I can give my clients my best work!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://LorelleInk.com
- Instagram: https://Instagram.com/LorelleInk
