Daily Inspiration: Meet Izzy Ridgeway

Today we’d like to introduce you to Izzy Ridgeway.

Hi Izzy, 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’ve always wanted to be a tattoo artist ever since I was a kid. I loved drawing on people and doodling on my homework to pass the time. I did lose interest in it for a bit in high school as I was dealing with major depression and anxiety, however, it was always at the back of my mind.

Finally, when I graduated my dad introduced me to an artist he knew named “Morbid” Mark Dalton to start my apprenticeship. Suddenly my life went from drab and depressing to exciting and worth living in again. I had such a good time during my apprenticeship and learned so many cool things. I also helped build Mark’s shop, “The Scurvy Dog Tattoo Project”, where I still work today.

I learned about the values and closeness that the tattoo community has and, while not all of it is glamour and fame, I have come to absolutely love it. It was this community that helped push me to be as good as I can be and where I also won my first-ever award for tattooing! (Second place best color for my embroidery work) I will be continuing to work my hardest to get better and better every day to be the best tattoo artist I can be and continue to have fun along the way!

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It has definitely not been smooth sailing to get where I am today. When I was an apprentice it was incredibly difficult work and constant burnout was something that was a regular for me. Even now, being a tattoo artist for 3 years I still need to remind myself to take breaks and breathe.

Being a tattoo artist may seem like the best job in the world, and don’t get me wrong I absolutely love it, but it comes with a pretty steep price. I also dealt with addiction problems for a really long time and that was a major hurdle to get over before I was able to be the best tattoo artist I could be. But now I have sobriety and my sanity to keep pushing me to go to greener pastures.

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?
As a tattoo artist, I specialize in embroidery-style tattoos mostly but I also love doing neo-trad and anime tattoos. I am incredibly proud of my embroidery tattoos as I didn’t really believe in myself when I first did it but my friend was adamant that she wanted one so I had to push myself to figure it out. And I was able to do just that!

The first ever embroidery tattoo that I did was able to land me an award which is pretty rare. Usually, you need to grind and grind on an art style until you get any sort of notoriety with it and I feel incredibly grateful to be so lucky.

Can you talk to us about how you think about risk?
I feel like getting into tattooing is a major risk alone. Your paycheck relies on the economy, how good you are, and how well you talk to people. You are also putting art on someone that will last a lifetime so you can’t really afford to have a bad day of tattooing and that is a lot of pressure at first.

The more you tattoo the more you realize that you are changing people, hopefully for the better and sometimes that can be a heavy burden to bear but you do get used to it as time goes on.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @Ridgewayisis
• Facebook: @Izzy Ridgeway