Milwaukee tattoo artist ready to leave her mark on ‘Ink Master’
Just two years after Jennifer Love started working full time as a tattoo artist, she’s one of two artists at a new shop and she’ll be featured in an upcoming season of “Ink Masters” on the Paramount Network.
“It took me a week to decide to do (the show),” Love said. “When I asked my parents what they thought, they were excited. For the first time they were into me being a tattoo artist.”
“Ink Master” season 11 premieres Tuesday at 9 p.m. on Paramount Network. It can also be streamed on Paramount’s website. The reality show is elimination style with the winner taking home $100,000. Love competes against 21 other tattoo artists for the prize.
The show’s producers actually recruited Love to try out.
“I didn’t believe it when I saw it,” Love said. “My friend Garrett Bisbee was on last year. I didn’t know what to expect. The experience was very high anxiety, very high stress.”
Love is quiet and sweet. Tattoos on her arms show off the style she creates; call it fantastic beasts.
“My style is definitely fantasy,” she said. “I love making crazy morphs between human and animal. I like unicorns, especially if I can give them four eyes. That’s my thing.”
“I feel like it has to do with books. Dark Crystal always stood out to me. It’s creepy, eerie and whimsical,” she said.
Love moved to Milwaukee to go to the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. She said she dropped out after two years, but she kept drawing.
“Tattooing is something I always thought about, but I didn’t know how to pursue it,” she said. “It’s a weird guy-dominated industry. I’d go into shops and there were abrasive personalities, and I was too scared to say anything.”
Lucky for her, Michael Perry saw her artwork online and asked if she was interested in becoming his apprentice. She learned from him at Serenity Ink at 5029 W. Howard Ave. for six months.
He opened Sanctuary Tattoo, at 1112 N Water St., in June and asked Love to work for him there. Now she books tattoos by appointment only, no walk ins. That gives her more time for drawing.
She tattoos for one or two clients a day, which can take four to eight hours, and she draws a lot in her free time. She credits her art training at MIAD and with Michael Perry for giving her a leg up. The show is helping too.
“I’ve gotten a lot more traffic since they started promoting the show,” she said.
She loved meeting other tattoo artists from across the country, and she’s invited some of them to be guests at Sanctuary Tattoo. But she’s nervous about the show airing.
“My boyfriend wants to have viewing parties, but I’m not sure,” she said. “What if I become a meme?”