Meet Tank London | Tattoo Artist

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

Hi Tank, what is the most important factor behind your success?
To be honest, I try not to think about my success. If I think too much about it, I’ll get freaked out, haha. I’ve been blessed in this career for nearly 17 years. People sit down with me daily, trusting me to permanently mark their bodies. If I could attribute my success to one thing, honestly, it would be centering the clients.
I work really hard to operate as more of an interpreter or a tool for a person to acquire an image of themselves that they prefer, or accomplish their goal with their tattoo. It’s always about THEIR goal, not mine. I might have a vision after a discussion with someone, but sometimes that doesn’t hit the nail on the head, and I am not afraid to go back to the drawing board to do my best to make their dream into a good tattoo.
It takes some flexibility, on both of our parts. Sometimes it takes some education—a conversation deeper than just “this is my drawing and I know best.” I work hard to empower my clients with knowledge of how tattooing works, what we know about how it ages, what experiences have taught us in the last nearly 2 decades that I’ve been working in this industry. I love explaining how that informs choices, brands, styles, application technique. I love considering how a tattoo will age when I work on a design because I get to build that change into the work that I create today and I share all of that thought process with my clients.
I also work differently from, I would wager, about 95% of other tattoo artists: I will show clients the design before our appointment day. In fact, include them in every part of the design process.
There are risks associated with this method that most tattoo artists are not interested in dealing with. Sometimes this does result in a complete redraw, too many changes, we go in too many circles, and may wind up not even doing a tattoo at the end. But most of the time, I find that this creates an empowered client, someone confident in exactly what they’re getting and excited by their ability to participate in the process.
Technical stuff aside, I feel like there’s an energy in tattooing, and we can feel it when it’s right. I’ve experienced both sides myself, when a design, energy, personality just wasn’t the right thing for my body—it never looked right, never felt right, never was right. I have both walked away from these tattoos and, regretfully, gotten them. That was before I was wise enough to know I didn’t have to.
Conversely, with something that is exactly right… it feels like a deep breath. I work to feel that with every person. I always say I’m looking for a “Fuck yeah! “ not just a “yeah that’s OK.” Because of my own experience in getting tattoos that were not exactly what I had envisioned for my body, I work hard to never let a piece get by that doesn’t feel quite right. I share that with people, my uncertainty, when I feel it in the energy as we look over the art. That I’m seeking that “fuck yes” moment, the confidence from them, and I point out if I feel it’s absent. I want people to know that it’s OK to say “I don’t like it.“
Some of my best designs come out after scrapping the first try.
I guess you could say I aspire to be easy to say no to. This is an industry where there’s a power imbalance between artists and clients, and I acknowledge that, honor it, and try to give the power back to them every single step of the way.
I think I can attribute my success to that mentality. And being very, very blessed.
Like I said, I try not to think too hard about it and just keep doing the best that I can every day.

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.
In the beginning I very quickly realized how much I loved interpreting art for others. I wanted to be an intermediary between someone’s ideas and their reality. I center your ideas and not “my style.” We come up with the art, together. This is both a superpower, and a handicap. Not having my own, very strong, defined style leaves me in limbo sometimes. It’s hard to make art for myself—I’ve really fallen into the space of needing another person to create. I’m not mad about this though. I think I was built to work in collaboration with others.

Im very skilled at working with people who’ve had anxiety about getting a tattoo, maybe they’ve had a bad past tattoo experience, or we are covering a tattoo with really bad memories. I guess I’d consider myself trauma informed, but most important to me is to give folks a new, empowering, consent based experience. I’ll educate you along the way, collaborate with you on ideas, and am not afraid to be swayed violently between wildly different concepts until we land on the perfect thing. Because I let clients see the design before the appointment and ask for changes during the design process, I think it’s easy for me to repair harms that other artists might have caused through lack of communication, or to soothe the worries of an anxious first timer. I often joke that I ruin clients for other tattoo artists because of my process.

I rarely have strong opinions on how I want a tattoo to look based on the description alone. I don’t have a single personal “style,” more like a flavor. I have worked very hard to be versatile in my skill so that I get to work with a wider range of people. Because of that, I’ve never felt comfortable putting art on somebody’s body that they’re gonna live with forever without 100% of their approval during the process. You can say “I want a rose tattoo,” and I’m going to ask probably 25 questions about things you never thought about to figure out exactly what kind of rose tattoo is in your brain. I’ll give you options you never thought were available, and sometimes I might even give too many options! But I want everyone to know what is possible, and never limit someone to only what I want to do.

I love tackling “impossible” tasks in tattooing. I always hated telling someone “it can’t be done,” so I’m trying to figure out what can be done in every case. Flexibility is key, and I must think way outside the box. With a little bit (or sometimes a whole lot) of trust, and some really weird ideas, I’ve done some amazing things. I pride myself in creating something beautiful and unexpected in situations where people have been led to have no hope at all.

Lately, I’ve been exploring flow and form. Large scale work that influences the contours of the body and creates strong, beautiful silhouettes. Amending the shapes one sees in the mirror. Pushing or flattening curves where it can be most flattering for one’s vision of themselves. I want to push boundaries in what we’re used to seeing in tattooing with heavier forms, solid fill, saturation and layers. I love the opportunity to affect somebody’s vision of themselves for the better.

Finally, I will say I love trying to find new ways to do old things. Whether it be style wise, color, presentation on the body, exploring what is lesser done, taboo, “impossible.“ This is not to say that there is anything I dislike about doing a perfectly simple, classic rose tattoo! At the end of the day, my clients are my favorite part of this job, and getting to make an amazing tattoo for them is all I want to do.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Oh, I am a pretty bad person to ask this question. I’m a relative homebody, and a big creature of habit. Honestly, most people that have visited me have an itinerary that I go along with!

I suppose one day I’d have to take them for breakfast to get chilaquiles at my favorite place up the street from the shop, San Juanita’s. It’s a small business, a very cozy Mexican restaurant that actually just expanded their hours to encompass dinner time.

If I’m lucky, they’ll be visiting during the week that we host my monthly market (it’s on the second Saturday of every month). It’s full of makers and artisans that are friends, neighbors, clients. We host it right out front of the businesses in the shopping center where the studio I work at is located. I’ve been putting it on for about four months now, and I really enjoy getting to know all of these amazing people and create a space where they can further their own livelihoods. Each person is really interesting, inspiring, and talented and I’d love to show them to all of my besties!

One of our neighboring businesses, a restaurant called Ovenbird, is super involved in helping our local community, and they have rotating events each month as well. Since my fictional bestie is in town for a whole week, we might be able to catch their drag brunch that happens the very next Saturday after our market. I’ve seen the drag brunch since it first started, and was so small sometimes the performers were performing for each other. Nowadays, the patio area is packed full of clapping, cheering patrons every third Saturday of the month. It always sprinkles a little bit of joy into my day on the way into work.

From there, maybe we find a show at one of the cooler small venues like The Far Out Lounge, which is right down the street, or head up north to Kick Butt Coffee. Both are really cozy venues, that feature local and foreign artists alike for an affordable cover. I’ve seen some really great shows at these venues.

At some point during the week, we’d definitely have to stop by some of the nature spots. There used to be more opportunities to swim in Austin, but while the water might be dry, the hikes are still beautiful. Just Google map “greenbelt” and you can find several trail heads worth hiking.

For an outing involving dessert, OMG Squee or 85° come to mind. Both dessert, places influenced by different Asian cuisines and a little bit of French patisserie, with flavors like taro, ube, red bean and Thai tea presented in beautiful little pastries, tarts, and taiyaki ice cream cones.

We would definitely have to check out some of the food trucks as well. There are too many good ones to name.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Well, I can’t think of anyone else who deserves more credit than my clients. They trust me, time after time, hour after hour, to not only change their body permanently—and painfully—but to get them through it, all while I hear their stories, hold space for their trauma or grief, listen to their dreams for the future, their plans for their career, their struggles with illness or family or lovers.
Over the last 17 years I’ve heard hundreds, maybe thousands of stories. And everyone teaches me something. Sometimes, they’re the ones listening to me! I learned a long time ago that I can sit and share my truth, survival, struggles, and success with my clients the same way they share with me. We’re in this very intimate, sometimes intense space together, often for hours at a time; magical things happen here.
Discomfort is a wonderful catalyst for release. Care taking is in my nature. Honoring the very intense thing that tattooing is, and the fact that every day I am trusted to do it, my clients are the real MVPs. They hand over their trust and I cherish that.
I don’t think I can accurately sum up the amount of things that I have learned, gained, overcome and become from the people who have trusted me with their skin. Thank you, to everyone who’s ever sat in my chair.

Website: https://www.tankgirltattooing.com

Instagram: @tankgirltattooing