Meet Amelia Rose: Tattooer

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

Hi Amelia, how has your perspective on work-life balance evolved over time?
I kind of fight myself over the desire to be productive and the desire to learn how to just CHILL. I always joke that I’m the most lazy productive person I know… or the most productive lazy person, haha. I have a thousand ideas that I want to bring into the world, so I end up ‘working’ during most of my free time, but it’s for passion projects, so that feels fun. I actually love working, but only on things that inspire me. There’s a lot of pressure in the tattoo world to work as hard as you possibly can, I think it’s a holdover from the days when clients were scarce, so you really couldn’t turn anything away. Over time I feel like I’ve given myself more permission to work according to my own energy levels and inspiration. Which means scheduling less appointments in a day, being more selective, and if I’m feeling just really drained, rescheduling folks. I feel that it’s actually more ethical for me to change appointments around so that when we do reconvene I’m feeling 100% and can really give it my all. Though it’s slightly more inconvenient, I think having a better tattoo in the end outweighs the cons. Especially in 2020, my life really got stripped down to JUST work. And similarly to everyone else, that prompted a lot of realizations about what my priorities are, and what is really of value to me. Not surprisingly, it’s not working as hard as possible! haha. In the future I am definitely trending towards working in an even less structured and scheduled way, and having more time to spend with the people I love.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I’m an LA based tattooer, originally from Maine. I’ve been tattooing since 2015. In my work I try to combine the joy and expressiveness of folk art with vintage children’s book and botanical inspiration. I especially love Beatrix Potter, Tasha Tudor and anything else whimsical and charming. My express goal with my work is to bring more magic and joy into the world, as cheesy as that sounds! I’m also deeply inspired by the Shakers – ‘honest work done by hand’. I sort of fell ass-backwards into tattooing. I feel like all through my life, I’ve had people magically appear to help me out on my journey and this was no different. I’d like to think it’s because of my artistic prowess or proving myself worthy, but in actuality I feel like I just got insanely lucky. Myles Karr, a tattooer from NYC vouched for me to my mentor Jason Schroder here in LA, and that’s how I got my apprenticeship. I really owe everything to those two.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I love the Red Lion in Silverlake – I lived in Germany for a bit, and it always makes me nostalgic. I also frequent Footsies, Permanent Records Roadhouse, and La Cuevita. 🙂 – during non-Covid times of course. For food, my recommendations are – Konbi, Triple Beam Pizza, and Clark Street Bakery. My most favorite activity is going to Huntington Gardens, but I also like taking visitors to Echo Park Lake, or exploring Little Tokyo Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Jason Schroder at Incognito Tattoo – my mentor

Website: www.ameliarosetattoo.com

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