Rising Stars: Meet Edison Roman of Reseda

Today we’d like to introduce you to Edison Roman.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Hello. My name is Edison Roman. Currently I work as a tattoo artist. I also paint and draw with different mediums. I grew up in a small agricultural town in the Central Valley of California known as Mendota, “The Cantaloupe Center of the World”
From a young age I would draw and copy my favorite cartoon characters as a way to beat boredom and enjoy my time alone in my room with my favorite cartoons in the background. Since that would make me stay inside and off the streets my mom noticed and would buy more art materials for me. When I got to high school, my art teacher would encourage me to create drawing with more details and larger in size. I was also able to submit an art piece to a local fair exhibition and receives an honorable mention. As well as one of my drawing being printed in a Chicano art magazine titled “Lowrider Arte”. Up to this point art was always a hobby.
After high school I moved out to Fresno. As I went to college I continued to take art courses and ultimately decided to pursue a different career path. Business, accounting would be what I thought I wanted to do.
Art fell to the wayside for the next ten years as I worked I. The restaurant industry while pursuing said career.
Eventually I made my move out to LA after deciding that an accounting career wasn’t for me. With no direction and no plan I found myself exploring and growing in this new place. When showing a good friend of mine, Morgan, my drawings from high school through some photos. She asked why I wasn’t doing anything with my art? To which I shrugged and said, theirs no money in that. A few days later she asked me again if I had though about tattooing.
To which I shrugged and said, “nah”.
When I went home that night I just happened to be on YouTube and my curiosity about tattooing got a hold of me. I stayed up till 6am the next morning watching whatever I could about tattooing and when I closed my laptop, I knew I wanted to be a tattoo artist.
So I built a collected some old drawing, and created a few new ones and put together a portfolio to go out in search of a tattoo apprenticeship. I was able to get into a tattoo studio in the city of reseda where I stayed for about 2 1/2 years. About one year as an apprentice and 1 1/2 as a professional artist.
I could never imagine how in love I would be with the art of tattooing and how it would completely fill my life and bring me so many wonderful experiences. Soon after leaving that studio I found my current workplace,Kustom Kulture Tattoo Studio. There I met the managers/artist Jade and Nacho and Ivan, another tattoo artist working there at the time. They welcomed me with open arms. From there we became an unstoppable team. A group of talented Stryker that venture out of tattooing to pursue other creative outlets while enjoying the journey, working together, and encouraging one another.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I knew from the beginning that I wasn’t going to have a smooth ride along this unpaved road. There is no one way to become a tattoo artist.

One of my first obstacles was to keep myself away from the hard “partying” lifestyle and stay focus on my goal to learn and master the craft.
In the some tattoo spaces, there’s distractions around every corner. It’s easy to make your money and blow it. Working hard and partying hard would lead me down a road I did not want to go down.
Finding the right studio and set of artists from who to share and learn with, was key to my growth. Another obstacle was finding other like minded individuals. Staying in a space where you felt unchallenged, I risked becoming complacent, and letting my fire or passion for this craft burn out. Becoming uncomfortable with putting my name out there and meeting new people in the industry and in my community would make my body want to curl up. Once I learned to talk to one artists and then two. I quickly learned to own my artistry. To show up and present myself in every space as my genuine self.
Finally the challenge of balance in my life. Tattooing will suck you in. Not only from just the artistry but in the entire process. From the moment you meet your client and the ideas start to flow to when the tattoo is finished, and the both of you are ecstatic about the results, it’s one HELL OF A RUSH, time doesn’t exist in that space. But every other part of your life continues while you’re in that zone, time that can be spent with loved ones, with friends, on self growth, getting to know who Edison really is. It’s a challenge I am privilege to have.
I am more excited and grateful than ever to be able to ask myself, “what else brings me joy and raw experiences into my life? What fills my cup?” What makes me feel alive?

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am currently a tattoo artist on the San Fernando Valley. Reseda to be exact.
My specialty is anything realism, or dark, or cute, or fun and witty, I also paint and create merchandise such as stickers, prints, shirts and hats to experiment and grow as an artist.
I believe that what I am most proud of and what sets me apart is my genuineness to give you the best of me. Whether it be the execution of your tattoo, or the eagerness to understand your ideas and develop them together.. My ability to connect with others allows me to show up as myself and create and enjoyable experience for the both of us.

What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
What do I love about this city? It’s the people, they’re my community. I see them smiling, helping each other out, enjoying what they can out of life. They are real people, and so I love to meet them and talk to them and get to know what they’re all about. And through tattling I get to do that.
What I like least about this city? The driving, so many preventable accidents. People are pressed and rush everywhere to take care of what they have to. Make public transportation better out hear and more affordable, less cars, less traffic, less accidents.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://kktstudiola.com/edison-roman?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAdGRleARqkMFleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA8xMjQwMjQ1NzQyODc0MTQAAacQ4E9OokMwxkJIPqMSchTwwCS0yjAoZc7oErm0MoeFSGT8Z7zc1ZadNYeqgg_aem_Z77dgLgvcno4keUm1WaVxw
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/edison.ink?igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr