Student by Day, Tattoo Artist by Night

Graphics by Cait Sweeney

Upon walking into a college student’s apartment, one may expect to find some notebooks, a vacuum, and maybe an old, uneaten peanut butter and jelly sandwich left out on the counter from the night before. SU sophomore Cait Sweeney’s apartment, however, houses a fold out tattoo chair, a tattoo gun, and a plethora of needles and ink caps. 

That’s because Sweeney, who has eight tattoos and a deep passion for creating art, is a student by day and tattoo artist by night. In the past half year, she’s built and marketed her own business, @tatsbycait on Instagram, out of her apartment in downtown Syracuse. Her journey as a tattoo artist began last summer with an apprenticeship at Madé tattoo shop in Denver, Colorado. 

“Second semester my freshman year, the seasonal depression really got to me and I was struggling a lot. The owner of the shop who I got my first three tattoos with offered apprenticeship opportunities. And I was like, ‘I don’t think I’m going to get it,’ but I need something to look forward to,’” she said. 

After sending in an application, Cait waited in suspense for about a month and a half. Finally, she heard back and the answer was yes. Not long after, she tattooed her first client—her sister’s boyfriend Sam. 

“A close mutual friend of ours passed away a year and three months ago, so the first tattoo I ever did was on Sam and it was their apartment number where they lived together,” she said. “ It’s things like that which really inspire me to keep pursuing tattooing and improving, because I love being able to put a sentimental experience through art on someone’s body forever.” 

Like other forms of art, tattooing takes creativity, precision, and skill. However, because a tattoo artist’s canvas is the human body, the art form is extremely nuanced, which is precisely what draws Sweeney to practice it.

“Tattooing is a very intimate experience, and people want to share what they’re getting a tattoo about. I love getting to know people more than through surface level conversations, so tattooing definitely opens that door for me. It’s amazing to be able to connect with people because everyone’s connected in some way, and I think I’ve really realized that through my business.”

As a communications design major with a minor in entrepreneurship—coupled with a passion for art, drawing, and social media—a career in the tattoo industry cohesively combines Sweeney’s interests.  However, as many students can attest, balancing all the different aspects of college isn’t easy, and spearheading an increasingly popular business only makes the balance more difficult.

“Someone comes to you, thinking that your job is an artist. They sign up, they get their tattoo, and they go. But for me, the process is a lot longer than that,”  she said. “I am a person before I am an artist, and sometimes, in order to make sure that they go home with a product that they paid for, I need to take a step back—whether I’m sick, or overworked, or have so much homework that I don’t know what to do with myself.”

After returning to school, Sweeney—who describes herself as a people pleaser and believes everyone “deserves art on their body” if they want it— set an intentional schedule that allowed her to grow her business and treat it with the same urgency and importance she places on her classes. She attends class on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, and takes clients on Wednesdays, Friday and weekends. Typically, Sweeney takes two or three people a day on the four days a week she commits to tattooing.

“Navigating a business and starting as a student, my social life has sort of changed,” Sweeney said. “Because I want to be able to put my best foot forward, and be able to give my clients the tattoos and the art that they expect and deserve, I am not able to go out on weekends, and I don’t want to be out super late, I don’t want to be drinking because that sort of puts my art work in jeopardy and my client in jeopardy.” 

Sweeney has been juggling her business and her life as a student for several months now, but has yet to drop a ball. In fact, tatsbycait is thriving. 

On Sept. 24, Sweeney set up a flash tattoo booth at the Keep Going Market, a student-led conglomeration of records, clothing, haircuts, and services available for sale. Although she advertised it, Sweeney planned on only a few people showing interest in getting a tattoo on the spot. However, a line formed, and by the end of the five hour market, close to 40 people attempted to get inked. For SU sophomore Mia Chase, who received a tattoo from Sweeney’s home studio in September, much of Sweeney’s popularity can be attributed to the way she markets herself as a tattoo artist and creates a space for clients that is missing in the industry.

“You can tell by the way that she interacted with people [at the market], everyone felt the same: safe and calm,” said Chase, who mentioned the discomfort and intimidation that some young women feel when being tattooed by an older male artist. When Chase was tattooed by Sweeney, her experience was completely different from any of the other eleven tattoo experiences she’s had before. 

 “There [weren't] pictures of big tattoos everywhere, and [there’s not] men scaring you and all that,” Chase said.

According to Sweeney, this environment is intentional.

“I think right now there’s still a very large stereotype of what the tattoo industry looks like and what tattoo shops look like,” she said. “A lot of people think scary, sort of dark rooms with a skull on the wall, and it doesn’t have to be like that.”

After graduating, Sweeney hopes to continue leaving her mark on the tattoo industry itself.

“I really just want to be able to open a shop that’s really inclusive and makes people comfortable, because like I said, tattooing is such an intimate exchange of energy. My main priority of opening a shop is, when you come into the shop, I want you to feel safe and at home.”

For now, Sweeney has other big plans to grow her business before she can own a shop of her own. In the next few years, she hopes to travel, learn from different artists, and guest tattoo in different shops. And for those who shy away from tattoos in general, she is looking forward to doing more art and design work through other types of products. 

“Big things coming, as the cool kids say,” she said.