Life, Values & Legacy: Our Chat with Beth Mintzer of Echo Park

We recently had the chance to connect with Beth Mintzer and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Beth, thank you for taking the time to reflect back on your journey with us. I think our readers are in for a real treat. There is so much we can all learn from each other and so thank you again for opening up with us. Let’s get into it: What do the first 90 minutes of your day look like?
I wake up usually around 10am (I try to get as much sleep as I can, sleep is so important!!)
I take my dog Juni on a 20 minute walk where I listen to an audiobook.
Then I feed her, make myself a matcha or coffee, and breakfast. Lately I’ve been eating a lot of farmer’s market kefir for breakfast. I spend the rest of my 90 minutes checking emails and drawing!

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m Beth, a tattoo artist living in Silverlake, Los Angeles. I specialize in black and grey, fine line illustrative designs. I went to Chapman for film and studio art, and after a couple jobs in the film industry, I was able to switch to being a full time artist. I’ve been tattooing for 5 years now, and am a resident at Angel Kisses in Echo Park. I love drawing home objects, and take lots of inspiration from antiquing and museums. I tattoo a lot of lamps in particular – Tiffany stained glass and fabric fringe lamps. A lot of my clients have come to me with a reference of their childhood house lamp, or the lamp that was passed down to them from a grandparent.

Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. What part of you has served its purpose and must now be released?
I think my perfectionism has pushed me to improve in my skills as a tattoo artist. I wanted to be a tattoo artist so badly and really believed that it was the right job for me, that I was able to use my perfectionism as a motivator and tool to improve myself. It drove me to keep going, when I was still learning and felt like I had to catch up to the skill of the other artists I admired. But today, perfectionism is something that I’m learning to release.

Perfectionism has also prevented me from starting some projects in the first place, out of fear that it won’t turn out the way I want, and will subsequently be judged negatively for it. Or it’s stopped me from sharing my work online with the world, out of fear that it won’t be understood or appreciated in the way I was intending, and seen as a bad artist.

In the last year, I’ve learned that perfectionism is a result of feeling shame from our past experiences that made us not feel good enough. Our art is a reflection of ourselves, and it’s easier to protect ourselves by hiding and not exposing ourselves to vulnerability and criticism. It is still something I am working on, but after reflecting and practice, I’ve been slowly letting go of the strictness & fear that goes along with being a perfectionist in art.

Having such rigid ideas of how my art should turn out inhibits the creative process. I’ve been working on letting go of the identity of a perfectionist, and appreciate all phases that go into creating designs. It’s not going to necessarily look good or right from the start, but just the act of starting the process gets the ball rolling and gives me new ideas of what to add or change. Then my design comes to life and I can be done once I feel happy with the result. Tattooing is also an inherently human art form – it can only be done on people by people. We aren’t perfect, so why should the art be? The ‘mistakes’ and uniqueness of art is what people are drawn to and relate to.

If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?
I would say to my younger self to just keep going. Keep making art, keep learning, keep living life that inspires you to create. Don’t let the fear or failing get in the way. Even if what you’re making you don’t think is good, just creating is good for you mentally. It clears your head, is a way of understanding the world around you, and through the practice and time, you will have no choice but to become a better and more confident artist.

I think our readers would appreciate hearing more about your values and what you think matters in life and career, etc. So our next question is along those lines. Is the public version of you the real you?
I would say kind of! I have a terrible poker face, so what you see is what you get! I am definitely more shy and uncomfortable in front of a camera. So posting myself on social media can be difficult because of this. But social media is a big part of my job and how my clients and I connect. I am working on being more myself online as I am in real life, so my potential clients can get to know me.

Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. When do you feel most at peace?
Doing crafts with friends, and my dog is in my lap. I would love to do that every day.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://bethmintzer.com
• Instagram: @lampladytattoos
• Other: Tiktok: @lampladytattoos