Meet Gitta Mikk | Tattoo Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Gitta Mikk and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Gitta, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking.
Everything in this industry (tattooing) is risky. It’s the wild west out here; one of the few industries left where you can (and often must) make your own rules and do things your own way in almost every aspect of the work and how you run your business. It’s also do or die in this industry. You have to sink a lot of resources and time into starting on this journey, no matter how you start and like any entrepreneurial path, at some point you have to go all in with no certainty that things will work out.

For me, a lot of the risk in the things I do tends to stem from the way that I am doing them.
I do things differently, and from a business standpoint that can be really good OR it can be really bad.
I came up into the industry in a way that the traditional tattoo community abhors (self-taught), and then when I was ready to open my own studio I decided not to create a space that felt like a traditional tattoo shop (Bleed and Bloom is an lgbtqia+, bipoc, and neurodivergent, and all-body-type safe space, meant to feel more like a spa, and is a private studio in a quiet neighborhood), and decided to offer things that had never been done before (memberships and tattoo tutoring).

I had no idea if this approach to a tattooing studio was going to be successful. I did know that I would receive pushback from members of the tattoo community who believe things should be done a certain way and get very upset when they see people straying from that path or creating a different one entirely. But I believed in the space I wanted to make and the ideas I had to make tattoos and tattooing more accessible and I dove in anyway.

Luckily it has worked out that there are enough people out there looking for something like what I offer that I have so far been successful as a business. I do receive hate online from artists who disagree with what I do and what I advertise but it will not stop me from running things the way I believe in.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I have always been a weird little outsider all throughout my life. Something I imagine a lot of artists identify with.

I have a fun little grab-bag of neurodivergent traits as well as being a part of multiple lgbtq categories that I didn’t even know the names of until I was in my late 20’s.
I absolutely love these things about myself but they did separate me from so many of the people around me in ways I couldn’t identify until adulthood. I learned throughout life that many things apparently separate us against our will, whether it is race, gender, appearance, mental quirks or upbringing, and that I was not alone in feeling alone.
I also moved around a LOT. I haven’t lived anywhere for longer than two years since I was 14! This made it hard to build a sense of home or community but I’ve gotten to see so many different sub cultures in the U.S.

I worked first as a mechanic and also went to school to become an illustrative designer. Throughout that time I doubled up and worked as a professional painter and sold paintings and prints (you can go see that stuff on IG at @gitta_mikk )

All of this was crucial to my learning what I wanted to bring into the world. I found the common thread to be my connection to people who felt an otherness and isolated in their otherness, and I painted paintings that expressed my own isolation in my emotions and otherness and really enjoyed being able to connect with people through that.

This also is closely tied to my efforts to be an active ally for black, indigenous and people of color in the ways that I am able to make an impact. They often struggle to find a place to be tattooed (especially comfortably) or find information about how tattooing is different for them with their skin types. And in addition to that, I try to be a resource for people trying to get into the industry because I know how difficult it is (again, especially for non-white people and women).

This has informed and influenced everything I do in my life. My journey to find my place was coupled with a mission of helping other people find a place as well and find community. And I now work hard to act as a pollinator in the social circles where I have set down roots for the first time in my life. My tattoo studio is designed to make people feel comfortable being themselves and feel safe while getting tattooed. I also love making friends through this job and being able to connect those friends to each other.

Some other interests I have include playing/watching Dungeons & Dragons, being a chaotic wild witch, making my back yard into a nature conservatory, watching as many horror movies as I can get my friends to, avoiding direct sunlight and dressing gay and doing colorful graphic eye makeup.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I love the butterfly pavillion!! It is probably my favorite spot to take people, for all the plants and the magical-ness of the butterflies. But there are also so many amazing spots in Denver. I love La Foret (though I have to save up to go there) because it is so beautiful inside and the food is incredible. I also would drag you to at least one of the horror themed bars like Heartbreak Kid, or the Crypt.. and then my favorite ramen spot, Glo Noodle, near sloans lake, for the best ramen in Denver.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
It’s difficult to choose one person or group to credit for the support I received and needed at the beginning of my career. However I had one supporter who has been there since the beginning and has always been a positive force in my life and career and has been a hard working self starter themselves, just beginning their own entrepreneurial adventure. John Forrest, in Fort Collins, CO is starting his own regenerative market farm called “Ent Wise Farm” ( @ent_wise_farm on IG) and does nothing but spread love and community and positivity and help others with their aspirations with all he does. His self stated mission is a small vegtable and medicinal herb market farm fun by a sun worshipping, moon following, soil goblin. And he is also one of the most, positive, loving, down to earth and wonderful human beings you will ever meet.

Website: https://www.bleedandbloomstudio.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gitta_mikk_tattoo/

Other: https://www.instagram.com/hiexposure_ink/