My Story
Born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, summers are short and winters are long—so I made the most of warm weather and spent as much time outdoors as possible. Whether it was fishing in the backcountry with my pops in tiny tin boats, canoeing bogs while chasing tadpoles and moose, camping on the Canadian Shield and getting absolutely eaten alive by mosquitoes, or gabbing around endless campfires with the whole family, summers in Manitoba were quite dreamy. Believe it or not, the ecosystems are stunning.
Winter, on the other hand, was a different story. Finding myself hiding away indoors from the cold, I leaned on boredom to spark creativity. As a city collective, I believe these cold months are what fosters the rich music and art scene in Winnipeg. So summer was for nature and winter was for art—the starting point of my career as a tattoo artist.
Any other striving artist out there nervous about society’s label of the “starving artist”? Yeah, at 18, I was too. So rather than follow my art passion I headed straight into post-secondary, enrolling in the Natural Resource Conservation program at the University of British Columbia. I packed up my tiny red car and drove out west. After graduating from the Faculty of Forestry, I worked in the bush throughout British Columbia, trekking around doing bio work focused on salmon runs, fish breaks, and species-at-risk projects. I loved getting to be outside every day, but my answer never changed when people asked me what my dream job was: “a tattoo artist.”
The start of my tattoo career wasn’t conventional. I began by teaching myself the techniques of hand-poked tattoos, and with enough kind, willing friends volunteering their skin, I got pretty good! From there, I moved to the very west coast of Vancouver Island, where I’ve been ever since. I started working at Space in 2021, where I transitioned into machine tattooing.
The beauty of having a biology background in this industry is the kind of clients my artwork attracts—nature-loving bio nerds! With a keen eye for morphological accuracy, I love connecting with clients over their passion for a particular species and getting the design just right.
Above all, I’m endlessly grateful for every client who has trusted me with their skin and been part of this journey. Whether you’ve been with me since the hand-poke days or just found your way into my chair, your support, stories, and enthusiasm for art and nature mean the world to me. I feel incredibly lucky to do what I love, and I can’t thank you enough for being along for the ride—here’s to many more tattoos, conversations, and shared passions ahead.
- Taylor
