Meet Arleen Silva | Tattoo Artist

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

Hi Arleen, what matters most to you?
I value treating people the way I hope to be treated. It’s hard imaging what other people might be going through and the easiest thing you can do is be kind to someone. Especially when I’m tattooing a new client or meeting new people I feel it can really go a long way and at the end of day, even if it wasn’t reciprocated, you lose nothing.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I always new I wanted to be an artist but I was absolutely terrified of failing. If I wasn’t great at something right away I’d get in my head too much and start sabotaging myself to the point where I didn’t think I was good enough to be an artist. I was my harshest critic, I left so many projects unfinished hoping I’d get back to it when I “got better”. Even though I had a lot of people in my corner supporting me I just wanted to be better. When I think back on those days it did actually make me a better artist, it also ruined any chance of a normal sleep schedule and made me produce my best work under large amounts of pressure. When I start a drawing I analyze every inch of my reference. I obsess over the smallest details like stray hairs and freckles and texture. I stopped caring about making it look exactly like the photo and instead started making them my own. I know I still have so much to learn but I’m very proud of my work as of now. I don’t hurt myself (mentally) anymore and it’s opened so many more possibilities of what I can be doing with my art.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I like living in Lancaster, it is not for everyone and there isn’t a whole lot to do. From living here over 10+ years though I do have my favorite regular spots like the MOAH on Lancaster BLVD, our tiny local museum that showcases so many amazing local artists I one day hope to be in fingers crossed. We have the Poppy Reserve a few miles out of town that you honestly can’t miss. I’ve never seen so many fully bloomed wild flowers before. For drinks depending if they liked craft beer I would say Transplants Brewery, they have the best live music and shows lined up every week. For food definitely have to start with @aburgerav food truck, Mahli’s Indian Cuisine has the nicest service, and Baracoa Cuban Restaurant also has live music days.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would love to dedicate my shoutout to my second home and every single artist at La Familia Tattoo Studio in Lancaster CA for being my constant motivation. I also want to shoutout all of the people who really interact with my work and have offered small words of advice or hyped up my posts on Instagram. It never goes unnoticed or unvalued.

Website: https://arleensilva.bigcartel.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arleen_silva

Image Credits
Lesslye @vtattz