Check Out Magi Trofi’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Magi Trofi.

Hi Magi, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
I started as a little girl with undiagnosed disabilities growing up on Sugarloaf Mountain with an alcoholic mother and a rough upbringing in partial isolation.

Amidst the turmoil, fine art, reading, and writing emerged early on as my solace, a sanctuary where I could express my emotions and find refuge from the chaos around me. My passion for the arts grew, and by the time I reached 3rd grade, I wanted to pursue becoming a professional illustrator and manga artist.

By 5th grade, my artistic aspirations expanded to include tattooing, a form of self-expression that resonated deeply with my rebellious spirit. I faced many hardships at school and home, which led to an early drug addiction (I have been completely sober for many years). However, I got accepted into AP Fine Art in my senior year, which inspired me to work hard and graduate high school with honors.

At college, I got a heat stroke and was kicked out of my first Art course because of it. I went to the hospital and soon found I had Hashimoto’s disease, the first of many diagnoses to come. I also experienced some traumatic life events around the same time, and it was a recipe for disaster. Those things affected me pretty negatively and I decided to drop out and focus on working through my CPTSD and improving my mental and physical health. From then on, to avoid living with my mother for the most part, I stayed with my dad and later stayed with coworkers.

I worked fast food jobs to pay the bills and ran a local Black Metal music label with my ex-fiancé in Denver. This helped me build many connections and would later lead to the biggest commission I’ve ever received, designing a band T-shirt design for a local band in Denver. When I was 21, my relationship with my ex-fiancé became physically abusive and my world was shattered when my mother unexpectedly passed away from a drunk driving accident. I moved a couple of cities away and spent a long time grieving before I was able to make art again.

Eight years later, I was a single mom of a rainbow baby fresh out of an abusive marriage, working in financing and completing fine art commissions on the side. I made an appointment with specialists seeking answers to the physical and mental health struggles I had faced throughout my life. As a result, I was officially diagnosed with FAS, ASD, and ADHD.

It was both liberating and empowering but tied to a lot of grief. It provided a framework for understanding my challenges and unlocked new paths to healing. Around the same time, my then-partner offered to take on more of the financial load for me to pursue my dream of becoming a tattoo. I will forever appreciate the support that I had in the very beginning. We agreed that it was time for me to leap. Little did I know, I was going to become an apprentice at the shop where I got my first tattoo at. A full-time artist for the first time

I am now a tattoo intern with my own LLC a little over a year later. As I am growing and learning while progressing in my career as a tattooist, I am still creating fine art, selling prints and originals, and designing stickers. I get to meet amazing people, share my art, and help people along the way. I’ve come a long way and faced many hardships, but I’m so proud of my accomplishments. I’m living my dream, and I couldn’t be happier career-wise.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It has been pretty rocky! There were quite a few points in my life where I wanted to open up commissions more or even pursue a tattoo apprenticeship, but I had to put my art career semi-on hold repeatedly until I was 29. Abusive relationships, grief, being a single mom, financial hardships, and harsh work hours made it difficult to take the first steps for many years. Becoming a mom unexpectedly, being the sole provider for the family, living in poverty, and then later having to escape that abusive marriage was one of those times.

Shortly after my mother had passed away, my maternal grandfather passed as well, and I received a small inheritance. I had planned to use it to jumpstart my career and pursue a tattoo apprenticeship, but I found out I was pregnant around the same time, which completely changed my plans. I worked overtime in the fast food industry to save up for the baby to come and used the inheritance so I could be home with the baby for an extended maternity leave from work. Unfortunately, my ex-husband was an addict and alcoholic and refused to pursue help or work.

I couldn’t trust him to be with the baby by himself. Once my son was a toddler, I was gearing up to pursue my original plan, and I opened up commissions. I wanted to do fine art from home at least part-time, and started to look into available tattoo apprenticeships. Sadly, my ex-husband had been blowing through my inheritance without my consent and ended up wasting it. Before I knew it, my inheritance was gone. To keep our home, I went back to my fast-food job and put my art career on hold again. My ex became increasingly abusive, so I took a couple of years to save up so I could divorce him and get my son and me out of there.

Another struggle that I have faced/am still facing is financial strain. When I started my tattoo career, everything became extremely financially tight. Starting up your own business is always expensive. Securing an apprenticeship costs thousands of dollars, and I need to buy my equipment and start my own LLC. If I hadn’t had my partner at the time willing to cover our bills, I never would’ve been able to afford it. I went from having a steady income to needing to spend lots of money with barely any money coming back in, and it was so hard.

Just under a year into my apprenticeship, my then-partner left our home and stopped helping with any of the bills to focus on himself for a while. I ended up needing to sell the house to my parents and rent it from them to keep my son stable in our home instead of moving to low-income housing. I am forever grateful for my parent’s help. Not many families would’ve been able to help like that.

During my apprenticeship, I also faced a lot of physical and mental health issues to the point that I was seeing 5 doctors/specialists, trying to find a new regimen of medications, and was put on an extremely restricted diet. At one point, they were even checking me for cancer due to my family history and symptoms. I had dropped down to 89 pounds and felt horrible fatigue every day. This affected my ability to fully show up for my art and at the tattoo shop in general, but luckily months later, I am back to a normal weight, feeling worlds better, on a stable regimen of new meds, and closer to an actual diagnosis.

Luckily, I am at the point in my career now that I am steadily gaining regular clientele and my monthly income is slowly rising. I still don’t make enough to support my son and me fully, but I’ve been working hard, and my patience is paying off. My mentors are predicting that I will be a booth rent artist by March, and no longer an intern. I’m hoping that they are right!

Another struggle I face daily is the need to use social media as an artist. Not only do I need to post my artwork and interact with other creators every day to stay relevant and build rapport, but I also need to be a social media content creator for my posts to get seen.

This means lots of edited reels and videos showcasing my process, following current social media trends, etc. With my ASD, ADHD, and being a single mother, it has been quite a challenge to stay on top of it all. I have been learning how to edit videos to create more fluid and captivating reels of my work, and I am saving up to buy more equipment to better record myself while I am painting or tattooing.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am a Tattoo Intern (one step above Tattoo Apprentice) and a fine artist. Tattoo-wise, I specialize in my unique combination of Traditional, Neo Traditional, Japanese Traditional, and New School styles. I love it when my tattoos feature 80s, 90s, and 00s core themes, American and Japanese pop culture, anime, creepy and cute vibes, pastel goth, anime/manga characters, and fantasy/cryptid creatures. As for my fine art, I love to do fantasy watercolor paintings, acrylic landscapes, mixed media statement pieces, and band shirt designs.

I am most proud of my continuing growth as an artist, and my dedication to my craft no matter what life hurdles I come across. My strong fine art background sets me apart from many in the tattoo industry, as well as my love for color theory, and my strong knowledge of art fundamentals. I am also very bubbly, funny, clever, playful, and light-hearted, and I do my best to form genuine relationships with all of my clients. I am more approachable and relatable for women and members of the lgbt community in an otherwise male-dominated industry, and I pride myself in being a safe space.

I have designed many pieces that carry a lot of meaning and weight for my clients, and I am honored to be such an important part of their journey. Custom designs are one of my favorite parts of my tattoo career, and I feel honored to have been able to create such cool pieces of artwork for my clients so far.

Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you, or support you?
I’d love to do more collaborations with musicians in the future to design more band shirts! It is so fun for me, and I love being involved with the local music scene.

The best ways to support me and my art are to come and see me at the shop, follow and support me on social media and help me defeat the algorithm beast, spread the word about my art, buy prints of some of the paintings I have done, buy some stickers, commission me for a piece of art, or get booked for a tattoo! I am also planning to have some merch in the future (shirts, hoodies, and hats) and I’d love to see some of my clients repping it if they’d like.

Pricing:

• I am currently $100 per hour for tattoos.
• I sell stickers for $4 each, and I sell 3 stickers for $10
• Art Prints vary in price due to size and detail.
• Fine art commissions also vary in price due to size and detail.

Contact Info:

• Website: Linktr.ee/nymphalea
• Instagram: Instagram.com/nymphetamine_tattoos
• Facebook: Facebook.com/magilynne
• Other: Threads.net/nymphetamine_tattoos