Suzen Tattoozen (Eugene) is a tattoo artist who co-owns the Whiteaker Tattoo Collective in Eugene’s historic Whiteaker neighborhood. She also runs Transformation Ink, a tattoo-based charity. Known for her unique custom designs, and ornate, embellished, illustrative watercolor styles, Tattoozen apprenticed in the traditional manner of the trade.
Bio
Suzen Tattoozen is a tattoo artist; she co-owns the Whiteaker Tattoo Collective in Eugene’s historic Whiteaker neighborhood. Known for her unique custom designs, and ornate, embellished, illustrative watercolor styles, Tattoozen learned her craft in traditional manner. She apprenticed with a master tattoo artist in Detroit, Michigan, where she shadowed her mentor and then started doing color fill work until she eventually became a master herself. A good tattoo artist, she explains, should be able to draw right on the skin without first tracing a design, do fine line work, make perfect circles, and render an image bigger or smaller as well as have the technical skill to make his or her own machine. Tattoozen honed her art while co-operating a mobile tattoo business. This involved travelling the festival circuit before she established her home and business in Eugene’s Whiteaker District, where she and the Collective are very active in the neighborhood and participate in the Whiteaker Art Walk. Tattoozen balances her high artistic standards and critique of mass tattooing practices with her belief that body art expresses the “freedom of owning yourself.” She speaks to her clients extensively; she gets to know them by listening to their stories to make sure they get what they want. At that point, she designs her watercolor tattoos—a style that mimics the loose color flow of the painting method. Her designs typically incorporate color gradations and lack black outlines. She proceeds slowly and carefully as she gets to know her client’s skin. A community activist, Tattoozen co-founded Ink for Autism, a nonprofit for parents of children on the spectrum. She also created the charity Transformation Ink, which empowers women to reclaim their bodies by covering, masking, and refocusing former sex-trafficking tattoos into restored expressions of strength and beauty.
