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Executive Profiles

Style: Tattoo Artist Is Drawn to Business

If Shannon Perry inks you, rest assured that your tattoo is an original.

By Lara Hale March 22, 2016

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This article originally appeared in the April 2016 issue of Seattle magazine.

Becoming a tattoo artist was an improbable choice for Shannon Perry, the owner of Valentines Tattoo Co. (valentinestattoo.com) on Capitol Hill.

The funny thing is that I have a needle phobia, Perry says. Still to this day, if a doctor draws blood, I feel like Im going to pass out.

Fortunately, she draws a distinction between drawing blood and just scratching the epidermis.

But it was still counterintuitive, she admits of her avocation.

Perry started experimenting with tattooing a decade ago. When she realized she wanted more tattoos than she could afford, she took matters into her own hands and bought a tattooing kit on eBay.

It was this really cheap, crappy thing, and the instructions were all in Chinese, she says.

A lifelong dabbler in painting and drawing, she was also driven to DIY by a wish to create her own indelible artwork. When she had nearly covered her left arm with her artwork shes right-handed Perry took her sketches to professionals and asked them to tattoo her right arm. It was during one of those appointments with Lisa Orth, who owned Capitol Hills Alleged Tattoo before relocating to Los Angeles that the idea of tattooing as a career first came up.

She knew I did these realistic watercolor paintings and said, You do tattoos and you do art; have you thought about combining those things? says Perry.

Perry laughed it off at first, but after giving it some more thought, she called Orth and became her apprentice.

These days, Perry uses tattoo machines custom made for her on Vashon Island and in Olympia, rather than that old eBay purchase. But one thing hasnt changed: She still insists on tattooing only her own artwork. Her fans certainly arent complaining; her distinctively modern style has garnered her almost 30,000 Instagram followers and more clients than she can handle.

Perry, who charges $150 an hour, uses a seasonal system for scheduling appointments, announcing an open call for bookings via her Instagram account (@shannonperry) about every three months. In choosing the 40 or so lucky clients she can accommodate in that period, Perry culls from about 600 emails providing descriptions of desired tattoos and describes the selection process as heartbreaking. She says its hard to nail down what draws her to choose one request over another. She has some favorite subjects snakes, dainty hands, portraits, faceted gemstones but often it just comes down to ideas that make her laugh or present a challenge.

The more I can try to grow as an artist and do new things all the time, she says, thats what I am most excited about.

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