Meet Stephanie Simon | Tattoo Artist & Business Owner

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

Hi Stephanie, how do you think about risk?
Risk taking has been a huge theme in terms of my career. I’ve suffered from social/general anxiety since I was a child; in fact, I always rejected the idea of becoming a tattoo artist because the idea of such an intimate exchange with another human being was a nightmare to me. When you consider that you’re sitting with a person you usually don’t know for hours on end, that’s a terrifiying thought -at least to me it was. Somehow I managed to put that fear in the back of my mind and gave tattooing a chance, but the next biggest risk I took that I feel did a lot for my career, as well as my character and growth in general, was to begin traveling and doing guest spots. The same year I finished my apprenticeship I began traveling through Mexico and South America by myself to work in various artists’ shops and do conventions. It was incredibly difficult for a person who could barely even go to the grocery store alone in her own country. I had a lot of small mental breakdowns and panic attacks, but the triumph I felt and the experience I gained from giving myself those challenges is invaluable.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
As a person in general I’ve always been very compulsive and gone through month-long phases where I overindulge in a specific topic, a type of music, a series, etc. Getting older I’ve learned to start exploring myself which has resulted in discovering more of my identity. I’ve realized that I’m not as flighty as I thought; there are certain things that have, and will always interest me. A few of those being music, history, sociology, but above all I’ve always gravitated to the broad subject of paranormal and the unknown. For the past few years the tattoo industry has been going in this new direction of every artist having their own speciality, or something that they’re known for. Probably credit this to Instagram, and social media as a whole, but I came to the conclusion a couple of years ago that the best thing I could do at this point for my career would be to hone in on one style of tattooing that had my personal signature on it, and thus my “horrorlore” style was conceived. I was “raised” as a tattooer to do everything from new school to realism, but in all honesty it was starting to burn me out. I ended up taking. a chance, and turning down all sorts of projects that didn’t fall into the new genre I was developing. It was a little rough for a while, I wasn’t booking a lot of work like I was used to, and going through a messy divorce at the time I fell into a lot of debt. I watched my co-workers book for months and months out, while I sat at the shop with maybe two or three appointments a week. Between my personal and my work life, I was pretty depressed and little voices in the back of my head whispered that I should go back to the traditional way of taking every genre of work. But still, I drew my ass off. I created designs that would show the world of the path I wanted to take on, and for a while no one noticed. I stayed patient, though, and eventually momentum picked up and my work gained a following. I started booking out in advance again, and eventually clients began flying in from other states to get tattooed. It’s always going to be a roll of the dice in this industry, but if you believe enough in your work and you love what you do that will take you a long way.

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 would probably suck at this because I feel like of all places in the world I know the least about Denver, which is weird since I’ve lived here most of my life. I also have admittedly very weird taste and love campy-themed restaurants, so I would of course have to take them to Casa Bonita, it’s got such a special place in my heart, as well as Adam’s Mystery Playhouse. Red Rocks is obviously another must, it doesn’t matter what you’re seeing there, it’s just a spectacular experience no matter what. They’re definitely going to headbanger karaoke with me at the Brutal Poodle, and they’re going to eat Denver’s most delicious pizza at Black Sky Brewery. A stroll through Cheeseman Park and a ghost tour on Banjo Billy’s Bus Tour is probably in order, too.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My mentor and business partner, Isaiah Espinosa absolutely deserves all the credit in the world for taking a chance on me and giving me the opportunity to learn. He’s not only taught me how to tattoo, but how to look at the world from a different perspective.

Website: ninthsteph.com

Instagram: ninthsteph

Facebook: www.facebook.com/stephanienicolesimon