Rising Stars: Meet Tayler Millise

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tayler Millise. 

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?
I have always been drawn to art and creative self-expression, such as alternative fashion and hairstyles, spoken word poetry, and body art/modification. 

Once I graduated high school, I went on to study psychology at CSU and felt so empty and unsatisfied with the path I had chosen. While working at a local tobacco shop, I got to know the tattooers and piercers that worked in the same place fairly well and I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity I had been given to take on an apprenticeship and chase after what I had always considered to be my impossible goal. I started off going into the shop when I had time away from work and school and quickly began devoting more and more time to my apprenticeship and less and less to my education. 

I felt at home in tattoo shops, surrounded by people who had this fire inside them for art that I had never seen before. They wore the same kinds of clothes I liked to wear, listened to the same kind of music I listened to, they didn’t even turn me away when they found out I was a typical sad emo kid who secretly loved to local poetry slams and some of these people, body artists, made me feel a sense of belonging and acceptance I had never experienced in my life, I really thought if I didn’t belong there, I would never belong anywhere. Some of them took me into the little shop “family” they had created, they were the misfits and black sheep just like I had been, I just knew I had to do this, so I dropped out of school, and from that moment on I never looked back, I knew this was the life I wanted to create for myself, no matter what it took, I was all in. 

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Oh god no. 

Traditional apprenticeships are quite literally the opposite of what I would ever consider a smooth road. Although I had a connection with a few of the artists and other apprentices in the shop I apprenticed at in the beginning, I do believe it would be a disservice not only to me but other women and minorities in the tattoo industry, who know exactly what I am taking about, who had to fight tooth and nail to learn their craft, who wanted it as badly as I did, we would have done just about anything. We all would have done whatever it took, to have a chance at a successful career making art in this way… for a lot of us, even at the cost of ourselves, our values, our own well-being. I know I am not alone in this. Many of us were told this is just how it is and if you want it bad enough, if you’re made up of “the stuff” then you’ll endure, and if not, we’ll then… you quit. 

Being a woman in the tattoo community brought on so many challenges that I quite honestly never thought I would have to face in life, and certainly not in order to be successful in a career tattooing. 

A great deal of my apprenticeship and most body artists I have met was learning to endure daily, constant ridicule, harassment, keeping my opinions to myself, allowing inappropriate comments, unreasonable tasks, constant degrading, being berated, working 7 days a week with no pay, being shamed for my body, shamed for being a woman, shamed if I stood up for my values, shamed if I cried, made to change my clothes… shorter shorts, lower shirts, more skin, less brains, clean the Harleys but do it out front where all the young college boys driving by can see you better, so many weird racist remarks, the ways in which apprentices at that shop as were many others from what I hear… were mistreated and disrespected, and how it was normalized is almost unbelievable. If I hadn’t experienced it myself, I don’t know that I would be able to believe these things were happening, all the time. 

My experiences as an apprentice as well as the other minority apprentices that came up in that shop with me were nothing shy of extreme emotional abuse. 

Only 3 out of at least 9 of us throughout my time as an apprentice are still working in this industry, and the others I have stayed in touch with are still suffering the residual effects from the years of abuse they endured just for chasing after their dreams. 

I became homeless at one point in my apprenticeship, as was expected of all of us. Working more than full-time, unpaid was required of us, so it’s no surprise I couldn’t afford my apartment any longer. We were all told at some point along the way that if you wanted to be a tattooer bad enough, you would do anything to get there, and part of that means you will likely give up everything to see it through. We were all told at this shop that we would eventually become homeless in this process… I thought they were joking (yikes). I slept in my car most nights, or I’d wait for everyone to leave the shop for the night, then go back in and sleep on the purple massage table I still use to tattoo my clients on today. 

I also became pregnant with my son during this period of homelessness, and unfortunately, my admittedly conservative parents didn’t believe tattooing was a viable career choice and essentially disowned me for some time. Fortunately for me though, at this point, the owner of the shop allowed me to move into his basement living room for a while. 

Thankfully I found the strength to endure what I consider to be the hardest thing I have done in life this far and worked as hard as I could to develop the skills, I needed to do my work somewhere else and I did finally create a good life for myself and my family in a shop where these things would never ever be tolerated and with incredible tattooers who value and respect each other as well as every human being that comes into the shop. We have all come a long way from where we started and I am just so proud of us all for coming out on the other side as better people for it. 

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 artist in Fort Collins Colorado, I work with my fiancé and my closest friends at a newer local tattoo shop called Ghost Type Tattoo! I specialize in illustrative neotraditional/new school-ish tattoos. Color tattoos, and anything remotely spooky or cute. Illustrative animal portraits are what light my soul on fire! If I can add eyelashes or glitter to it, you better bet I’m going to! I think I am known best for the way I draw animals and my take on color as well as my fine linework 

I have a more new-school approach to traditional tattoos, and am most proud of my attention to small details! I put my whole heart into every tattoo I create, and do research when I’m designing custom tattoos in order to provide the best possible tattoo that I can that is unique to the person wearing it forever! 

I also think the overall energy at the shop I’m currently tattooing out of is such a nice experience for so many of our clients, where they don’t have to feel uncomfortable, and the overall kindness, and acceptance we all have there really sets the shop apart from other shops. We all came up in tough apprenticeships and wanted our clients to have a different experience of tattooers outside of that 

Any big plans?
I plan to travel as much as I am able to and tattoo in different cities and conventions. I love meeting other artists and am always so humbled by experiencing working with tattooers from outside of the weird little Mecca that is the tattoo community in Fort Collins. I love being exposed to different perspectives and travel and meeting new artists is absolutely the most effective way to gain new insights and techniques! 

Pricing:

• $150 per hour for custom work
• Flat rates for pre-drawn designs

Contact Info:

• Email: Taylertattooscheduling@gmail.com
• Instagram: @taylermillise
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ladyreaperink/
• Other: https://vm.tiktok.com/TTPdfyfQjm/

Image Credits
Justin Wojtysiak