Life & Work with Brie Shortt (White) of Ohio

Today we’d like to introduce you to Brie Shortt (White).

Hi Brie, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I guess the idea of art in my life started young. I can remember my grandfather sitting down and showing me how to draw horses and dogs, and my grandmother always sewing, flower arranging, and teaching me crochet. The ever so inspiring Art, Music, and English teachers of middle and high school years. Music. The aesthetic of the 2000’s emo and goth kids (whom I identified with) and their idols. Working as an actor and later manager at a haunted attraction. It all just became a part of the journey.

What a messy journey. My senior exit project was about tattoos and wow, looking back I knew so very little! At that time I was working at a local fast food chain and a coworker suggested I might learn to tattoo from her cousin. Why not right? Well he was the kind of person (I now know) some might refer to as a ‘scratcher’ (yes it’s as bad as it sounds) and that would be 100% accurate. Dirty technique, lack of technical skills, tattooing people in their homes, on their couches, trading for. . . other things. He ripped me off for quite a bit of money. So, yeah, all that’s why not! *pushes face into invisible camera* Learn from my mistakes!

Cut to Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. The town where I got my first tattoo on my 18th birthday as a proper right of passage. The town where in 2012 I graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. I thought I was going to be an art teacher, turns out I was going to be a Tattooer. I think the catalyst to my tattooing career starts with a person I knew as Bump, who worked for Miami University at the time. He encouraged me to see a career advisor, whom at our advising meeting basically asked what I wanted to be when I grew up; I thought tattooing to be one of those mentionable careers. The career advisor then encouraged me to seek out an informational interview with a tattoo shop owner they knew, who turned out to be a person I had been tattooed by previously. Small world, right?

I graduate, I submit a professional art portfolio to aforementioned shop, waited for what felt like an eternity, and finally got the response I was waiting for, to come hang out and see how I would fit in. The rest is history, or perhaps lore.

I worked so hard at that apprenticeship, burning the candle at both ends. I was afforded so many awesome opportunities of travel and attending Tattoo Conventions. I learned a lot from that shop and all the experiences along the way. Lessons about etiquette, treating people well and kind, how to set ego aside, how to stand up for myself, how to grind. I graduated the apprenticeship in 2015, moved to Every Body Tattoo in the unfortunate year of 2020, only to shortly afterwards be temporarily shut down by the pandemic. One great shop flood and a bad landlord later, I find myself still hanging with Every Body Tattoo, but now in a 100+ year old, probably haunted house on what the locals call, The Mason Mile.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Smooth is not how I would describe tattooing. In fact; “you gotta have tough skin” is a survival skill I was taught early on. Tattooing is often described as a difficult field to get into, especially with its rising popularity. Someone has to take a chance, dedicate their time, pass on knowledge, and say yes to what is oftentimes a several years’ long apprenticeship journey. The apprenticeship structure sometimes lends itself to bad actors taking advantage of people who just don’t know. So be careful out there, it can be hard. My apprenticeship was incredibly demanding, rewarding, and all of the positives and negatives in between. I worked a day job plus apprentice hours on nights and weekends, which is a common situation for survival. The roll-down-the-windows-in-the-winter-to-stay-awake-while-driving-home exhaustion I felt at that time was so real.

Tattooing was scary for me in the beginning and for a while. I had to get over the newbie nervousness and put into practice all of the technical aspects of tattooing that had been taught and explained to me. That was probably one of the bigger challenges. When those things finally clicked and were understood, what a difference that made!

Oh and the stress to one’s actual physical body, oh my! I’ve got a numb toe and bad back from doing this. So many long hours, skipped meals, and cold lunches. Running purely on caffeine and sheer determination is just a mode of existing out there. It can be difficult for a Tattooer. It’s difficult out there when the economy is low, when the cost of everything from real estate to supplies skyrocket, when there are supply squeezes in essentials like gloves. Those are things that are totally out of one’s control, and tattooing is just riding those waves to carry on.

Tattooing is more than making art, a lot of times it means being self employed, running and being your own business. The demands of feeding the social media machine, maintaining a social media presence, photo/video editing, marketing, responding to project inquires, preparing for upcoming projects, ordering supplies, maintaining one’s equipment and space etc. add to that maintaining a work/life balance and things get busy really quick. This elder millennial is feeling aged!

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I love making heavily saturated color tattoos and always enjoy a good coverup challenge, but honestly enjoy creating all types of tattoos big and small. Every client and every project is so unique, and bringing a smile to a person’s face by memorializing a loved one, covering up a bad memory, restoring an old tattoo, etc. is really what it’s all about. I love bringing people joy and helping them bring their tattoo visions to life. Plus, people are so wonderfully unique and I love learning about them and their motivations for tattoos. It always makes me smile and chuckle when someone excitedly says, ‘That turned out better than I imagined!’

I have been making tattoos for 10+ years and am currently learning about and how to make piercings. As this new skill develops I am exploring the idea of tattoo designs that include piercings or piercings that include tattoo designs. Really exciting stuff!

I’m just proud to have made it, to be a professional in the tattooing world. To have worked and be working with peers whom I respect and admire. The ability to work with clients who trust me to be part to their tattoo journey. Making art and being creative for a living. I just am really grateful to have landed here doing this, in this life.

If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
Growing up as an only child I entertained myself quite often and that usually involved being in and exploring nature. Most of my childhood memories revolve around my grandparent’s farm, they always had a big garden and lots of critters and I eagerly helped with chores. I gained a lot of random nature knowledge from my grandparents. Things like recognizing wildlife and plants. I was always a good student, appeasing the resonating, “go to school, get good grades” from my family. I explored church puppeteering, band, sports, popular kids, 4-H, and horses, and in high school inevitably landed as an all black wearing, rock music listening, pierced myself with safety-pins, outcast. I liked among many things; oddities, haunted houses, playing guitar, going to concerts, listening to music, watching movies, being creative, and the company of friends.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shortt_tattoos?utm_source=qr
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShorttTattoos?