Jenni is a thirty-year-old tattoo artist from McCook, Nebraska. With seven years of tattooing under her belt, she is still on the early side of her tattooing journey and is already incredibly talented!
There was never any doubt what professional direction Jenni would go in. From the age of fifteen, she just knew that she would be a tattoo artist. “I’ve always been a huge fan of art and tattooing was my way of showing my art to the world.” And fifteen years after making that decision, we’re thrilled to be featuring her art here!
While she tattoos many different styles, her favorite tattooing styles are script lettering and geometric patterns. As you scroll through her portfolio and Instagram account, you find that Jenni has a particular talent for clean, crisp linework. Using both smooth and speckled shading as the design requires, she is an expert at adding just the right touch to bring dimension to her work.
Trigger warning for this paragraph: stillbirth! Continue to the next paragraph if you would prefer to skip it! We asked Jenni what her favorite design/canvas was. Her answer was sad but touching. “My favorite tattoo that I have done is a memorial tattoo for a client’s daughter. She was still born and this was his way of keeping her memory alive.” What a wonderful way to remember her forever! We are so glad that Jenni was able to provide her client with this tattoo and hope it helped him heal, even just a little bit. End trigger warning section.
Every artist has a different design process, so we naturally asked Jenni about hers! About a week before the client’s appointment, she starts to design and sketch the tattoo. Jenni will keep making adjustments until she’s happy with the initial sketch and then upload it to Procreate (a tattoo sketch, design, and editing software). It’s on Procreate that she works out the little details and completely finalizes the design. It’s fun to see that Jenni uses both “old-fashioned” pencil and paper AND new technology to make her designs!
We also love that she gave us some advice to pass on to aspiring tattoo artists: “Never give up even when the road gets tough. Chin up everything is gonna be ok. Keep producing all forms of art.” This applies to so many areas of life, not just tattooing!
In addition to tattooing, Jenni enjoys drawing, playing with her kids, and her pets (one dog and two ball pythons). She dreams of one day attending a tattoo convention and doesn’t care if it’s as an artist or an attendee (Kate note: I’d love to see you in Philly, Jenni!!!). Most importantly, she loves her husband and kids dearly. “They are what makes all this worth it.”
You can find Jenni on Instagram: @inkby_jennj! Go check her out!
