FIGHTING spirit

Tatu Baby began her self-taught tattoo career at 19 and today, she has the industry in the palm of her hand.

- Devon Preston

A little over eight years ago, Katherine ‘Tatu Baby’ Flores sashayed onto our television screens as a contestant and eventual finalist on “Ink Master.” In doing so, she helped to open doors for thousands of women pursuing careers in tattooing. “When I first started tattooing, so many people told me no,” Flores says, “that I couldn’t do it because I’m a girl and I’m Hispanic. When I first started tattooing, there were clients who wouldn’t even talk to me about what they wanted to get tattooed because they didn’t feel that I would do a good job. All of those nos and doors closed in my face made me grow. And all of the artists now who just do their thing, I say good for them because they didn’t let anyone tell them no either.”

Flores learned early on in her career that she would need to work twice as hard to make it, but that didn’t stop her from going for her dream. After doing her first tattoo at 14 and taking it up as a hobby, she decided she was going to be the best tattooer she could be—by any means necessary. “When I first started tattooing, it was more like a secret club,” Flores explains. “It was so much harder to get an apprenticeship and a license to tattoo. I went to a couple of spots to try to find an apprenticeship, but I couldn’t get one, so I kept practicing on my friends until I got better and made a name for myself.”