Freshly Inked Interview with Katie Shocrylas

There's a simplistic beauty in black and grey tattoos, but there's some kind of childhood nostalgia in the imaginative and colorful work of Katie Shocrylas.
Her tattoos have a way of catching your eye and drawing you in with bold, stunning colors.

As a Fine Arts major, she learned important traits like organizational skills, determination, commitment, and creative development.
Her pieces tie together realism and illusion. 

Did you always know your talent would turn into a successful career in tattooing?

I didn’t. For a while, I wanted to be a painter or an art teacher. I hoped to do something creative but until I discovered tattooing, wasn’t always sure what that might look like.

I think around the age of 3 or 4, I would to scribble on paper and describe it as “energy.” 

I don’t personally have any of my drawings or paintings from when I was a child, but my Dad definitely does! He recently sent me a photo of two drawings, one of toucan and another of banana slug, that I made when I was 5 or 6. I guess my love of drawing animals began early.

My interest in this particular style of tattooing sort of evolved naturally, based on how I see the world, and what I like to look at- I love using color for expression, especially in juxta-position to how something looks in real life. 

I think color illustrative tattooing encompasses a huge range of styles but ultimately, to me, it’s a way of rendering combinations of potentially non-realistic elements in a “realistic” manner. For example, a tiger with mushrooms growing out of its head isn’t something that actually exists in the real world, but it can still be depicted in a way that looks like it could.

How have animals influenced your work? 

I have a great respect for, and fascination with, animals and the inner lives they lead- the way they perceive the world, think, feel, and communicate with each other and with us. Visually as well, animals are incredible, intricate and beautiful. I grew up with dogs, cats, and horses, and have always felt more like an animal person than a people person. 

I don’t think I can choose a favorite, but recently I took a slightly different approach to a double cat portrait/memorial piece that I was really happy with the cat is sort of “split” with light emanating from inside. It was a lot of fun to make.

I love the aesthetics of 80's pop culture! Everything’s just a bit exaggerated and often has a slightly dark undertone.

Vibrant, thoughtful, and imaginative.

How have you channeled your emotions into your work? 

My work is a juxtaposition of my own emotional world, I think - I have a tendency towards being fairly dark-minded and serious and creating bright, magical tattoos is an outlet for the lightness that I strive to put into the world.

I’m very interested in how art and psychology intersect, and specifically, in the healing properties of creativity. I went back to school for Art Therapy because I wasn’t sure I wanted to continue tattooing as a career- it eventually led me back to tattooing, but the experience and knowledge I gained while completing that program is invaluable to me.

How do you want to use your knowledge of art therapy to help others?

I really think that everything I learned while studying art therapy makes me a better tattooer- I’m naturally very introverted and sort of awkward, so I definitely became a better communicator and learned how to navigate my own empathy and emotions surrounding other people’s experiences. I think that tattooing can be considered art therapy for some people, so my hope is that I am already able to provide a safe space for my clients.

I learned a lot about composition, design, and color theory while I was in school. I was also pushed to my limits, creatively and mentally, and got to experiment with different media and imagery. I think all of this helped provide me with a solid foundation for a career in the arts, even though I didn’t realize it at the time. A lot of the work I did in school was large-scale, monochromatic, and quite dark, so it’s interesting to compare what I do now to what I was making back then.

The Prevail Project is a platform that profiles women entrepreneurs in creative careers. I was really excited when Lauren Carbis, the project’s founder, approached me to be featured in it. Lauren and her team take a lot of time and care to get to know the women they feature, it was a really wonderful and humbling experience.

Ideally, a trip to the park with my dog, Timber, followed by a hot bath and few episodes of whatever my partner and I are watching on Netflix; normally my evenings usually include more drawing than relaxing, but I think that’s the nature of doing something creative as a career. I’m a night owl so am usually up pretty late. I like the feeling of the city being mostly asleep around me, I think that time helps me balance how hectic and sometimes overwhelming my days can feel.

Stick with it, even when it’s hard. Learn to grow from constructive criticism without taking it personally, but also how to recognize and not take on non-constructive criticism.  View everything as a learning experience (even when it feels like failure) and don’t compare yourself to others.