1. Jessica Guo
Erica Bales: I Tattooed Both of My Parents
Think of an ordinary school girl who looks quiet, arrives at class five
minutes early and wears a plain black t-shirt every day and there you got a
picture of Erica Bales. Despite the two oversized gages in her ears and the
attention-demanding lettering tattoos on her chest, Erica Bales almost does not
look cool enough to come off as a tattoo artist. Compared to other tattoo artists
who have their arms covered with graffiti and hair dyed to crazy bright colors,
Erica looks too normal. Her black hair casually falls on her shoulder, and the
tattoos on her arm are almost covered by her long sleeve jersey black shirt. If
you don’t sit down and talk to her, you might never know this quiet girl with a
black frame glasses has an artistic talent that she uses interestingly. She is in her
second year of being a professional tattoo artist, and tattooed both of her
parents.
Erica Bales is almost a Purdue Graduate. Why “almost?” Because when
she was twenty she decided tattooing is more meaningful for her than finishing
school. “I was a CGT (Computer Graphic Technology) student at Purdue. I was a
senior.” Erica said gently as we were sitting in the worn couch in New Bred, the
shop that she is working in. “I think changing from a student to a tattoo artist is
one of the greatest decisions that I have ever made,” Erica said to me firmly,
looking into my eyes.
It was that gaze that made me realize that Erica is a Miss Independent.
The kind of girl never lets anyone tell her what she should or should not do in her
life.
To Erica, tattooing was not a route of retreat from academic field. It was a
casual, fun adventure to do with friends when she was little, and now the ideal
job. Erica got her first tattoo when she was eighteen. It was a skull and crossed
bones on her hip. When I asked her why she did that, Erica said with a smile: “I
don’t know. I was just bored and I said to my friends ‘lets get tattoos.’ A skull and
crossed bones was the first thing that came into my mind. I thought it was cool
and badass.” Her voice had a barely noticeable pride of being cool, just like a
little girl is proud of holding a worm. As for her Purdue experience, Erica said that
her major, computer graphic technology, was fine to study, but as a career she
didn’t care for it. She did not really see herself “sitting behind a cubical for eighty
hours a week.” After getting out of Purdue for a month, Erica told her parents that
she made the move that changed her life path.
“Oh my parents weren’t happy,” Erica said quickly with a sly smile. “They
were not artistic at all. My dad stopped talking to me for a while, but…” Erica
laughed, suggesting her unsaid line “I just went ahead and did it.”
Life is not that easy when you make a choice that changes the direction
completely, and parents are hard to handle sometimes. Erica went to be a

2. Jessica Guo
waitress in Egyptian, a local bar, and waited for a year until the tattoo shop that
she is working in took her in. She cleaned the shop and watched other artists do
their pieces, but never felt tired or bored. She sipped some ice tea and continued
in an understanding voice: “When I first dropped out, I was pretty worried, but…”
She quietly suggested her principle “I’m gonna do what I’m gonna do.” She
continued with an apologizing voice: “My parents were basically supporting me at
that time. I mean I was a Senior, but…” She laughed again. “They are supportive
now. After I started tattooing, they started to get tattoos too. I have actually
tattooed both of my parents.” Seeing my surprised face, Erica laughed and said,
“Yeah. They see that I like what I am doing, and I’m pretty good at it, so…”
When I said that she laughed, it’s not as if she had a loud, exaggerated
laugh. Erica is a relaxing girl. Her laugh is merely her way to express her
opinions, wishing not to sound too harsh. Your nerves are never alarmed when
talking to her. She talks in a low, soft voice, and often leaves an ending for you in
her sentences. She nods along with a smile when you finish her sentences if you
said something she agreed. It is usually hard to connect mellow to a tattoo artist,
but it turns out that a bold artist can also be reserved and shy.
“I like old movies, yeah, since I was a little girl. My favorite tattoo on myself
is this.” Erica pulled up her sleeves on her right arm, and showed me a three-D
portrait of Humphrey Bogart, the male star in her favorite black and white movie
Casablanca. She plans to have all her right arm tattooed with the characters from
that movie. She was saving her upper half for Ingrid Bergman, the female star in
that movie. She smiled and said, “I just think that story is so beautiful. I mean he
loved her, and he gave her up, and all the tension of the war…” She became
talkative while telling me the connection between German Expressionism and old
World War II movies. She laughs when I told her that my mother named me after
Scarlett O’Hara, the southern platation lady in the movie Gone with the Wind.
She happens to be her idol. “That’s awesome. “ Erica said softly.
Maybe it was in these delicately made old movies where she found her
artistic interest. Erica definitely finds being a tattoo artist a balanced job between
artistic and relastic. Being a tattoo artist sounded like a painter to her, and
painting is always her keenest interst. It makes good money, and she is willing to
be devoted into her job. But not everything related to tattoosing is nice. Being a
tattoo artist equals dealing with interesting people, and she means really
interesting people.
“We are surrounded by four bars, and there are usually some drunk
people come in here, usually on weekends.” Erica said it in a tone as if nothing
surprises her too much. “Yeah, they will try to convince me that they are not
drunk, but I won’t do it.” She laughed about it briefly, maybe thinnking about a
special customer. When she does not work she goes to these bars with a bunch
of friends, and tries to fint in being around here. However, to Erica tattoosing is
too big a part in her life to mess up. She has twenty eight tattoos on herself now

3. Jessica Guo
by different artists and some of them have their stories. “I got a tattoo on the right
part of my skull. Yeah, I had to shave it to have it done.” Erica said in the barely
noticeable pride again. “I had a boyfriend at that time, and he said he would
dump me if I do.” Looking at my raised eyebrows Erica agrees: “Yeah, I mean,
the hair is gonna grew back, it’s not a big deal, but…” Erica shrugged, indicateing
“I’m gonna do what I’m gonna do” again. She does not ask people to agree with
her, but she definitely will not let anyone tell her what to do with her body. She
said it was understandable, and that relatioship ended. Her tolerances towards
people come along with the easy going personality.
It was a little hard for her, though, to talk about something that is really not
that pleasing. “If someone wants something that’s really offensice, you know,
like, racist tattoos, I will not do them. There are a lot of things along that road that
I won’t do.” She said firmly. “I won’t tattoo people’s faces either. It makes me
really nervous. When people twitch, I am a little afraid. You don’t want to mess
up something right here.” Erica pointed to her eye and said it seriously.
At the end of the interview I had the chance to watch her draw. There is
nothing like watching the birth of a piece of art. Imagine you are watching Van
Gogh adding different hues to the sunflowers, and there you got a picture of
watching something gorgeous created by a real artist. When Erica was sketching
me a rose tattoo as I asked her, she drew a rose with the size of fist within one
minunte with vivid details. Just like how we try to shape a circle from a square,
she shaped the rose from a vague cluster of lines. She played around with the
lines in the way as if the lines were alive. You can feel the tension between her
painting and her. She is the creator of it, and the painting is also her friend. She
gave life to the rose, and she can also talk to it. She was completely relax when
she was drawing, just letting her hand led her. Then you can almost feel the rosy
smell when it is presented to you. If it were a real rose, it would be the first one
you picked up from a bucket. It is vital and alive, just like the life this girl is living.
She is comfortable with who she is, and she never hides her personality. The
loud, punk music was in the background the whole time. You almost feel that this
scene is a black and white picture of a old tattoo shop, where Erica is the cool
artist, stands behind the counter, creating flower like a magician.
I will degine Erica as an independent, shy and talented artist, if she is
willing to be defined by me at all. After all, if she chose to quit a Big Ten
university to paint people’s skin for the rest of her life, she kind of alreay knows
who she is better than anyone else.