Meet Trailblazer Lucy Sroka

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lucy Sroka.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
My life has been focused around art-making ever since I can remember.

I went to a public arts middle/high school for seven years, and then to art college for a couple more.

Throughout all of my traditional art schooling I never really felt like I found my medium. I watched other students fall in love with what they excelled at and I was jealous and questioned whether or not I should even make art a part of my career.

Then, I was encouraged to try tattooing by few people who eventually became my sort of informal mentors. I have not had an apprenticeship in the traditional way, but I’ve spent years absorbing every bit of knowledge and asking constant questions to the generous and amazing artists I know, who inform my practice every single day.

Tattoo is the best thing I have ever had the privilege to practice and receive.

I am humbled to be given the trust to help people reclaim their bodies and find themselves through self-expression and adornment.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
In the western tattoo industry, it’s not easy to be a woman— or a queer person, or a person of color, or someone who doesn’t fall within the gender binary. It gets even more unacceptable if you’re self-taught, don’t use a machine to tattoo, and have to use social media to run your own tattoo business.

Since nearly the first moment that I picked up a needle and put it to flesh, I have been told that “women can’t tattoo” or that I need an apprenticeship to “earn” my place in the industry. This isn’t an anomaly- every single person who goes against the popular trajectory and teaches themselves how to tattoo gets bullied by traditional artists at some point, and often a lot of the time. They even have a name for us: “scratchers”.

So, it takes a thick skin to tattoo when you’re breaking so many rules, but I fell in love with tattooing pretty quickly and had to accept that this was the way it was going to be. I was so sick of hearing stories from friends about the terrifying experiences they had in traditional tattoo shops; entering a scary, hyper-masculine, intimidating environment, being treated like a canvas instead of a person, getting bullied into changing the design they wanted so the artist could do whatever they wanted, being touched non-consensually, not being able to communicate to the artist that they needed a break to go to the bathroom, or take a sip of water, or just breathe.

Being a woman in an industry inherently hostile to non-male bodies is incredibly hard. But it’s so important to make room for ourselves in these spaces. Finding a community of likeminded people also going against the “rules” has helped strengthen my path. It’s important to be able to share your experience with those who understand.

Please tell us more about your work, what you are currently focused on and most proud of.
I am a “scratcher”- a tattoo artist who is self-taught and self-employed. I also tattoo without a machine.
In my practice I always do my best to provide a safe space to be tattooed, no matter who you are, and in my greater practice I strive to bring the care and ritual back into tattooing, which I feel has progressively been lost in the westernized world to the very narrow and commodified industry it exists within.

So much of the media coverage is focused on the challenges facing women today, but what about the opportunities? Do you feel there are any opportunities that women are particularly well-positioned for?
I think that there are opportunities for women in spaces that are hostile to them because they struggle to push through can give them a unique perspective.

Contact Info:

• Email: lucysroka@gmail.com
• Instagram: @holyghost___

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