While my business is called Tats by “Rosie,” my name is actually Amber.
Rosie didn’t come completely out of nowhere though, my middle name is Rose. Growing up my parents called me Rosie Posie, so when it came time to pick a business & artist name, Tats by Rosie just sounded catchy.
Tattooing wasn’t really on my radar until right before I started doing it in 2022.
When I finished high school in 2011 I immediately went to Trent University and got a Bachelor of Science in Biology. After many failed attempts to break into the science and research field, I began working as a clerk at Lakeridge Ajax Hospital. From there I decided to go back to school and took Practical Nursing at Fleming College and became an RPN. I loved nursing and I loved the hospital I worked in, however the aftermath of Covid left healthcare a mess and the job quickly became far more stress than it was worth.
I started tattooing because my own tattoo artist inspired me to make a change.
At an appointment of my own in 2021, my artist was explaining that her previous job had become stressful during covid, but that her best friend own the shop she was currently working in and convinced her to take the leap because she was naturally artistic. When I left that appointment I thought, “Wow, my job is stressful and I’m also artistic, maybe I can do this too!” Thus starting the journey of learning to tattoo.
Learning to tattoo on my own wasn’t easy and I really don’t recommend it to others, but it was what worked for me at that time of my life.
When I decided to start learning to tattoo I was still nursing full-time. It was Februrary 2022, I was 28 years old with bills to pay and a lot of student debt, so quitting my stable full-time job to start an unpaid tattoo apprenticeship was not an option. I did what everyone on the internet says not to do and I bought a starter kit online. However, I was very anal about not rushing. I treated my learning journey as if I were a real apprentice and I tried to roughly follow the same sort of timeline that I learned an actual apprentice would. In my time after work or on days off I took online courses and followed along. It started with tedious hours of using a pen and paper to learn to draw a straight line or to draw a perfect circle. And then endless more hours doing the same with my tattoo machine and my latex fake skin. My nursing background made me very meticulous about making sure I had all the proper equipment to provide a sanitary space before I moved on from fake skin. It took me months to start tattooing people, but once I did my momentum picked up quickly and I’m still improving now. And while I may be a self-taught artist, when someone asks me about doing it themselves I highly recommend not to. At the end of the day, I can’t stop anyone, but keeping proper sanitation and learning to work slow and not rush into tattooing people takes a lot of self-discipline.
