Meet Tyler Bourbon | Tattoo Artist

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

Hi Tyler, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking.
Quite simply, you cannot have a successful business without taking any risk. I’ve been a risk taker my entire life. Growing up, I wanted to be a filmmaker so three days after graduating college, I moved from Florida to Los Angeles without a job, any real savings, or a place to live. I crashed on strangers couches and worked part time while chasing my film dreams. I eventually got a full time sales job and worked every night on short films, spec commercials, and spec music videos. When it came time to try to make my first feature film with my best friend, I sold everything I owned, quit my sales job, and moved onto my friends couch and we made our feature. I risked everything I had, including $30,000 in credit card debt, to make this dream come true. The film, Philophobia: or the Fear of Falling in Love, was successful for what it was. We got worldwide distribution so it’s streaming on Amazon Prime, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play, Apple TV, and more but we did not recoup our investment and after losing my next sales job, I was forced into bankruptcy.

But that didn’t stop me. I love the creative arts and decided I wanted to learn how to tattoo. Still living on my friends couch, I begged him to let me turn his dining area into a makeshift studio to practice on fake skin and myself. I became obsessed. Within one year, I was tattooing portraits on myself and was able to land an apprenticeship. A year later, I was working at a street shop in Hollywood and then I decided to take another risk. I wanted to travel so I built out Tyler Bourbon’s Tattoo Tour where I’d tattoo in a new city every week for a year and donate 10% of every tattoo to a charity I love, Kids & Art Foundation. I did a ton of marketing, set up shops in every city, got licensing for every city, and set off on my new adventure. In the end, the tour was cut short after six months and 24 cities because the expenses were outweighing the income I was bringing in. In a quick pivot, I relocated to Denver, CO (one of my favorite spots on the tour). I built a private tattoo studio called The Cozy Cabin Tattoo Studio, combining my love for horror with my love for the woodsy Colorado aesthetic, and have been loving it here since! Each step I took was a calculated risk but since my ambition outweighs my math skills, it’s more of a reckless calculation. Wouldn’t change a thing!

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.
I’m a tattoo artist with a focus on black and grey realism, movie tattoos, and large scale storytelling pieces. This year, I am getting into color realism and am very excited for this next chapter. It’s been difficult, especially moving so much, but my background in sales/marketing along with my absolute obsession with tattooing and getting better has helped a lot. Every month is a grind to get new clientele but I’ve been, thankfully, very successful so far and I love it so much. No matter what happens, I never give up. If business is slow, I find creative ways to advertise, run specials, create want to do designs, whatever it takes. Despite the struggles, I’ve never been happier and God willing, will do this for the rest of my life.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I am not going to be the best person for this answer because I’m relatively new here and 90% of my time is working. But when friends have visited in the past, we’ve gone to Larimer Street and had a blast. We also explored some of the parks, golf courses, Meow Wolf, and live sports events. Definitely a lot to do out here!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I want to shoutout my parents. I was born with a lot of challenges from a moderate/severe hearing loss, to Crohn’s, to bleeding disorders, to most importantly, a stubborn mind of wanting to chase my dreams and do what I want. My parents fought hard to always give me the best shot at a successful life and as scared as it made them, they never tried to limit my dreams or ask me to try something safer when things weren’t working out. There were a lot of really trying and dark times. My parents were always there to talk, always encouraging, and I know they always will be. I’m so grateful for them and they deserve the biggest shoutout.

Instagram: https://Instagram.com/tyler_bourbon