LANGHORNE, Pa. — Some tattoo artists ink their clients on camera and compete for a $100,000 prize. Their large, vibrant landscapes, realistic animal portraits and intricate Japanese geisha girls are touted in front of more than a million television viewers each week.
Other artists cut their teeth at quick-stop boardwalk shops, pumping out a few dozen miniature pieces a day on giddy tourists in search of an everlasting Jersey Shore memory. Seashells, feathers and small crosses abound.
Julia Carlson can now say she's done both.
The squeaky, bright-eyed and versatile artist from Lawrenceville has worked for the last five years at several tattoo shops around the state, including Oxygen Tattoos on the Wildwood boards. She vied earlier this year for the big cash prize on "Ink Master: Rivals," a reality TV show that is currently airing Tuesdays on Spike.
When the 29-year-old isn't speeding to complete an uber-specific "elimination tattoo" within the show's stringent deadlines and parameters, she works as a tireless ink expert at Blue Velvet Tattoos, a bustling shop in Langhorne, Pa.
A quick flip through Carlson's tattoo shop portfolio, or a peek at her Instagram page provides a more adequate look at her abilities. Yes, she can pull off an American traditional tattoo or bio-mechanical piece when asked on "Ink Master," but at Blue Velvet, Carlson has produced beautiful pieces of realism and imagination.
Her vividly colorful resume includes sensational cartoons, songbirds and a menacing, picture-perfect Joker from “Batman.”
“I try to make the art reflect who they are and put their personality in it,” she says. “The fact that they’re trusting me to tattoo something that will be on them the rest of their life — that they like my art that much — is such a gratifying moment.”
Carlson says she can produce most any style, but loves the challenge of an odd request. Currently, she’s working with a client who wants an arm-sleeve that features a “bear astronaut swimming in the ocean.” But more often than not, she’s working more traditional pieces like ornate, realistic flowers, and memorials for lost loved ones or symbols representing a battle with cancer.
"A lot of (clients) feel like if they've made it through chemotherapy, they can make it through a tattoo," she says.
Many moments at her Wildwood job were less satisfying, though, as she would do her best to talk beach-goers out of “YOLO” (you only live once) fad tattoos and curse words they wanted permanently stamped inside their lower lip.
“I feel like I always had to give everyone a mom talk,” she laughs. “Like, ‘listen. What are you doing?’ ”
Those days are long gone, though, as Carlson has seen an upswing in appointments at Blue Velvet, many of which come through emails from prospective clients who have watched her sweet nature and soft touch on the show. She is now booked solid on weekends through January.
As “Ink Master: Rivals” nears its season midway point, Carlson’s road to survival thus far has been paved with close calls and patience — for the most part.
For two months now, she’s played mouse in a snake pit as the field’s more accomplished artists find great sport in criticizing her work, boasting that the unassuming mother has neither the technique nor the moxie to match them.
But week after week, after extreme challenges that have included tattooing bare backsides, body-painting naked models and carving scrimshaw into walrus bones, Carlson has endured each elimination.
“I let my artwork do the talking instead of the trash-talking, because that’s not me,” she says. “I’d rather them think I’m just this little person — I’m no threat — and then they see what I can do.”
Carlson was rewarded almost immediately on “Ink Master” this season when her “rival” and former co-worker, Caroline Evans, of Bradley Beach, was first to be eliminated by judges and tattoo icons Oliver Peck and Chris Nunez, as well as host and Jane’s Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro after being bested by Carlson in a tattoo face-off.
“It was a great moment, but I didn’t expect her to get kicked off first,” she says. “I thought she’d last longer. I felt bad, but it did feel good to be the first one to kick off my rival.”
Seven other competitors have been knocked off so far this season, and Carlson was nearly given the boot last week following a heated argument with her muscle-bound client, with whom she could not compromise on a biomechanical tattoo design.
She eventually refused to ink him, cursed him off and demanded he leave the building. She ended up tattooing a design on her own leg.
“I made the right decision to tattoo myself,” she says. “I shouldn’t have told him to go (expletive) himself. I’m usually a patient person but I had no patience left that day.”
Carlson says what viewers didn’t see was the first two hours of consultation with her canvas, during which he wouldn’t budge on an idea that didn’t fit the challenge. Carlson was also in the midst of a divorce and was handling the details that morning.
She swears most of the show’s other dramatic moments aren’t staged either.
“You think you just did this amazing tattoo and the judges rip you apart,” she says. “So your soul is crushed, then you come back upstairs and everyone else starts ripping on you. Your tattoos are your babies, so it’s like someone’s insulting your children so you instinctively want to fight back.”
“And tattoo artists are different kinds of people,” she adds. “Most of us are pretty outspoken when it comes to our art. We will defend it until we are dead.”
Bobby Olivier may be reached at bolivier@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @BobbyOlivier. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
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