[00:00:12] Speaker A: Hello, and welcome to the Martial arts podcast.
[00:00:15] Speaker B: I'm Rick Marshall.
[00:00:17] Speaker A: Previously on the Martial arts podcast. I spoke to Schenectady based visual artist melody often about her painting portraits and plants.
This week, I'm chatting with tattoo artist Bridget Punsilang about the unique aspects of her chosen art form and her Clifton park studio, bittersweet blackbird.
[00:00:41] Speaker B: Bridget, I feel like I need to start this interview off with a confession.
I do not have any tattoos. None at all there, so I.
[00:00:49] Speaker C: You're just my husband.
[00:00:51] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:00:51] Speaker C: Yeah, I know, right? You would think he's such a square.
[00:00:56] Speaker B: Well, I feel like now that I got that off my chest, I ain't got that into the open.
I feel like we can continue on with the interview because that was bothering me this whole time leading up to researching this, that I was gonna have to tell you that I don't have any tattoos.
[00:01:08] Speaker C: I've never experienced it, and that's fine. There's nothing wrong with that. I joke at my husband, but it's turned into his shtick now is that he gets to be that person who's married to someone who's covered in tattoos and does them for a living, and he doesn't have any because he loves to answer people like that. People are like, wow, your wife, what? She does. So what do you have? And he goes, I don't have anything.
[00:01:29] Speaker B: Well, despite my lack of tattoos, I am fascinated by tattooing as an art form. I love seeing the work my friends get done. I love learning, particularly how they came to the decision to get a particular tattoo because it is basically permanent. And that sort of decisiveness in itself fascinates me.
[00:01:47] Speaker C: I can be treated as such if there are ways.
[00:01:50] Speaker B: But, you know, is there any advice or wisdom that you typically offer clients who are still at an early point in their decision making process when it comes to getting a tattoo or choosing a design?
[00:01:59] Speaker C: Well, I book pretty far out. So a lot of people have come to a pretty solid decision by the time they make an appointment with me personally, we do have artists that do a variety of people having to wait. Some people are a little more last minute, so they've had put a little less thought into it. But, like, younger people often will ask me that kind of question, and usually what I tell them is that take the idea that you like or like some reference pictures of what you like, put it on the mirror you look in every morning, and if you are sick and tired of looking at it after, like, a year, it's time to get. It's not for you.
[00:02:33] Speaker B: It's not gonna work.
[00:02:34] Speaker C: I got a lot of advice for other things, though. Like, you know, don't get people's names. I don't care how long you've been together. Don't do it. I've been with my husband for 20 years. I don't have his name anywhere on me.
[00:02:43] Speaker B: And we know that he doesn't have your name.
[00:02:45] Speaker C: Yeah, he obviously doesn't either.
But, I mean, you know, if you're at a point in your relationship where you feel like you need to prove something to someone by getting their name tattooed, you probably shouldn't.
It's a good sign that you shouldn't. But more advice is, you know, pick the right artist. Take the time to research the kind of work that the artist does, or research an artist that does the kind of work that you're looking for. Because, like, I do a lot of big sleeves and things like that, and I get requests all the time for people like, oh, I love your work. I would love to get this tiny little thing that doesn't look anything like what you do. And I'm like, sorry, but I can tell you someone else who does. You know, people are lately a little sad about that or a little upset about that, because they're like, oh, I took the time to pick. Well, you gotta put a little work into who you pick.
[00:03:34] Speaker B: That makes sense.
[00:03:35] Speaker C: There's a lot of artists out there, a lot of specialties, and a lot of really talented people in the area, and there's somebody for everyone.
[00:03:45] Speaker B: Well, I feel like tattooing is such a unique art form because your canvas is human skin. It's art you carry with you everywhere you go. And I assume there's a very small margin for error in the work that you're doing, and you really need to be on the same page as the person paying for your art, more so maybe, than in any other art form. How does that sort of unique nature of tattooing shape your approach?
[00:04:10] Speaker C: I mean, I do require my clients to have a certain amount of trust in me, and that's why, once again, it's important to pick someone who works in the style that you're looking for. If you've researched the artist, you should be able to trust that some of the decisions that they make based on what you've told them are not only basing on what you've discussed, but also you're trusting that you like their style and that the pictures that they put out are similar to what you want. I have, like, a form that people fill out, and they describe to me that they want. They send me pictures, they tell me what they like about the pictures, and then, you know, some people will tell me a little backstory about what they want, and I very rarely don't get it. Right. Does that make sense?
I've never had somebody really be like, wow, this is not at all what I wanted. It's not as common as you would think. That goes in with putting the thought into it in the beginning and picking the right person for the job.
[00:05:11] Speaker B: Oh, that makes sense. Well, shifting focus a bit, I'd love to know what brought you to tattooing.
[00:05:17] Speaker C: Oh, geez. I mean, I've been almost twelve years tattooing, like eleven and a half, something like that. And I didn't even get into tattooing until I was 33, so I have a history or a background in a lot of art stuff. I was always the kid who drawn all my friends with markers. My mom had to buy me every sharpie, every single color that was available, and I was always drawing on all my friends. So a lot of my friends from, like, high school and stuff are like, yeah, this makes sense, it tracks. But, I mean, I grew up in a catholic family and we didn't know tattooed people, so I had no idea how to get into it. Like, I didn't even know where someone starts with something like that. I went to art school.
I was a henna artist for like twelve years or so.
[00:06:03] Speaker B: Wonderful.
[00:06:03] Speaker C: I did like indian middle eastern weddings, north african traditional weddings, things like that. And I used to live in Chicago for like ten years. I actually grew up in Schenectady, but I lived in Chicago, or seven years I lived in Chicago, and I had a pretty decent business doing henna out there. But I really wanted to get into tattooing, and that was just another way to draw on people. I used to also did face and body painting for a while. I've done murals.
Always been a painter. Anything I can get my hands on, I was all over. So when I met a friend, God, ten years before I even got into tattooing, who was an apprentice at the time. I was like, wait a minute, you're a what?
Tell me everything.
[00:06:48] Speaker B: How can I get in on this?
[00:06:49] Speaker C: I was like, how did you do this? And tell me how I can do it. And I was just, I picked his brain for a while and I was like, yeah, I could totally do this. I'm like, yeah, I'll just bring my portfolio in. That's from, like, high school and I hadn't touched in years, and I could just get an apprenticeship, right? And it was not that easy. It took me about ten years from that point to actually get into apprenticeship. I went to art school. All that stuff in between. It was a. It was a road, and it tends to be, for most people, getting into tattooing. It's not a very easy career to get into.
[00:07:18] Speaker B: I imagine when the results are so permanent, you. The amount of time you put into learning, learning the art and learning the methods and such is important.
[00:07:27] Speaker C: Yeah, you have to. You have to. Can't just be all half into it. Like, a lot of people are like, oh, I want to do this as a side job. It cannot be a side job. You need to be, like, in it 24/7 like, my. It. Being a tattoo artist is often it becomes who you are. Like, you are your job and a lot of jobs, that's, like, a negative thing, but, like, it's just kind of how it is in tattooing, and we're all kind of okay with that.
[00:07:54] Speaker B: Well, I do want to talk a bit about your studio, bittersweet blackbird in Clifton park. It's woman owned and operated, staffed entirely by women artists, which isn't the norm. It offers a nice counterpoint to the sort of stereotypical image of tattoos. Was that always the plan to provide something different like that?
[00:08:12] Speaker C: Well, I started my shop in 2018. I was leaving a shop that I was at for a while, and I realized I could run a shop on the same amount of money that I was already paying commission. So my goal was eventually to get more people, but I wanted to kind of take my time and pick the right people. I didn't specifically plan on just hiring women. It just started to happen that way. And the more women worked for me, the more we kind of liked it that way. We just kind of wanted to keep it that way, and my clients liked it that way. It just kind of ended up that way and actually haven't even really had guys seriously apply. It just is.
[00:08:53] Speaker B: It's your shop's identity sometimes.
[00:08:55] Speaker C: Yeah, exactly. And, like, the kind of calming experience just kind of goes with my vibe in general. It's not meditative calm. You know, like, we. We put on, like, chaotic movies, and, like, we, like, we have a big tv, and everybody will watch it. It's so everyone who's getting tattooed can see it at the same time, and we'll get into shop conversations where everybody, clients and artists are involved. And it's just, more than anything, it's just not the typical.
The typical anxiety ridden experience that a lot of people had their earlier tattoo experiences. Like, in, like, the nineties and the early two thousands where you got a bunch of guys and like, low lights and like, scary things on the walls and loud, brooding music and, you know, I mean, which, there's nothing wrong with some of those things in the right environment, just not, it's not really what we're going for.
So, like, when people come in, you kind of lose some of that anxiety that a lot of people feel as soon as they walk into a tattoo shop. It's fun. We have funny conversations, and if you want a quiet experience, we can do quiet experiences. If you want to just listen to music and have a close conversation with your artist, you can do that, too. The way we have everything set up is easy to do. Either a lot of people describe it as a little different or at least unexpected, especially for like a first time experience in the way they've heard from other people.
[00:10:31] Speaker A: Hey, everyone, I hope you're enjoying this episode of the Martial arts podcast. I just want to make sure you know about the Daily Gazette's other podcasts. Gazette columnist Andrew Waite digs into the latest news in his weighing in podcast, while sports editor Ken Schott has been exploring the latest stories in local and national sports for more than 300 episodes in his parting shots podcast. You can listen to both
[email protected] and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Now back to martial arts.
[00:11:10] Speaker B: The work you and the other tattoo artists do there just really breaks the norm too, a bit. Looking at the photos of tattoos you've posted and your other artists there, I didn't see any of the usual sort of cookie cutter design sort of picked from a wall or a catalog.
In these shops that I've been in before, everything seemed very personal and not really overly aggressive and edgy. It was all beautiful and complex in some cases. Is that vibe intentional? Do you sort of structure what you're offering in terms of art with that.
[00:11:41] Speaker C: In mind, there's different types of tattoo shops. We have custom tattoo shops, and then we have your kind of traditional tattoo shop where people have stuff on the walls that you can pick from or they'll do a custom piece. The direction of the industry as a whole tends to be towards custom tattoos. Some people really enjoy the nostalgia of those traditional tattoos, and we have people that still do those as well. But my artists, dancing, ladies and anchors, yeah, absolutely. And they can be fun. They're a lot of fun as well. Like, there's a certain, like I said, nostalgia to that as well. But my artists, aside from their personalities, everybody fits real well together.
Like, I pick them based on their personalities, first and foremost, because everybody gets along great and it's really a dream because that is not always the case in tattoo shops, but also everybody's work complements each other. We've got people that do all the styles. Like, we've got people that specialize in, like, lettering or, like, anime, or we've got one girl that loves bugs and another girl that does jewels and gems. And, like, I like a lot of dot work, which is, like, stippling. And then I've got the henna influence, I'm sure. Yeah, the henna influence is big for me, but, I mean, I do everything, but also I like to do, like, celtic knot work and things like that. And then we've got one girl that does all stuff, like witchy vibe and then another girl that does a lot of ornamental type stuff, and everybody does a little something different. So it's like, when you come to the shop, depending on what you want, we've got somebody for you. And that's exactly what I was going for. And if we don't do that, if we don't have something that you want, we're more than happy to suggest you to any of the other shops in the area, because, like I said, there's a lot of talent in the area. And one of the nice things about the capital region is most of the shops are friends. Like, everybody gets along.
[00:13:40] Speaker B: Community vibe around.
[00:13:41] Speaker C: Definitely community vibe. And in a lot of areas, it's not like that. And in the industry as a whole, like, it has not always been that way. But a lot of us have apprenticed together or worked in shops in the past together, and, like, we're friends. So I'll get people from other shops that'll be like, hey, you know, Bridget would be really great for this. This piece. Why don't you reach out to her and then I'll do the same with other people if it's not a specialty within our shop.
[00:14:06] Speaker B: Well, talking about specialties here, one thing that really stood out to me and really impressed me in looking at the work that you did was the work that you do with women who underwent mastectomies.
[00:14:19] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:14:19] Speaker B: I never thought I would be saying this to anyone. I've interviewed a lot of people over the course of my career. I have never said this to anyone and never thought that I would be saying this, but your nipple work is.
[00:14:29] Speaker C: Amazing things you can say out of context, right? Indeed. Indeed.
[00:14:34] Speaker B: How did that aspect of your portfolio come about? Because I see some of the pictures, and it's amazing. I would challenge anyone to.
[00:14:42] Speaker C: Yeah, they look pretty real. At least that's what I'm aiming for. I mean, I've always done work over scars.
I've done some, like, design work, non nipple design work over, like, mastectomies and, like, tummy tucks and surgical scars that people just don't want anymore. So I have a lot of experience working over scars in general. I've had a couple clients started off that came up to me and was like, you know, I like your work. You know, I like the way you render color. Do you think you can do a nipple? And I was like, yeah, just drawing a picture of a nipple, make it look realistic. It's not that hard. And then I did it, and then I was like, oh, this is good. And then they just started telling other people, I think I've probably only done about five or six at this point, but it's more in the last couple of years. But I do look forward to doing a lot more.
[00:15:32] Speaker B: It's such an amazing sort of service opportunity there for women who have gone through this. I think that it's amazing. And is there something in particular that goes into working with scar tissue or things like that as well?
[00:15:48] Speaker C: Well, when it comes to nipples or Areola repigmentation, I've done some where it's just like they have scarring around an actual real nipple that kind of takes out some of the pigment. So sometimes you're just putting pigment back in. The thing I tell everybody is you have to be, like a solid year after any surgeries because, unfortunately, it's common for people who have had mastectomies to have issues with implants or issues with scarring or the nipples themselves that they've tried to move, sometimes not taking well, unfortunately, there's sometimes unexpected surgeries afterwards. At least this is what clients have told me. So you have to be, like, a solid year after that, because scar tissue that's new just does not take well. It gets really red. It's hard to get color to stay. Sometimes the regeneration of the skin within the scar itself, like, kind of makes it fade. Weird. So I tell people, like, a good year. It's the same thing with any surgical scar. Yeah.
[00:16:47] Speaker B: What sort of response usually does it generate after you've sort of worked on and created these, the nipple work that you've done, which.
[00:16:53] Speaker C: Yeah, they're crying, I'm crying, everyone's crying in the shop. A very, very positive experience.
[00:16:59] Speaker A: Oh, that's wonderful.
[00:17:00] Speaker B: Well, one of the other things I wanted to ask you about was the location that you chose for your shop in Clifton Park? Clifton park is not exactly the place where I think a lot of people would think tattoo studio. And so I'd love to know a little bit of background there.
[00:17:14] Speaker C: I actually live in Clifton Park. I wanted something very close to my house.
And also at the time, I think we only have, like, three shops in Clifton park at this point. There's a ton in, like, ballston Spring. You go down to Albany, Schenectady. Everybody's got a ton. But Clifton park only had, like, a couple at that point, and I just figured it was. It was a good place for it. I wasn't in an area that was already saturated with tattoo artists. A lot of my clients are. Were, because I used to work in Saratoga, a lot of my clients were either coming from way up north or coming from, you know, the Albany Schenectady area. So I felt like it was a nicely central location, like, where kind of anybody has a short drive to get to me. Yeah, we're right on route nine, so it's actually a really good location.
[00:17:58] Speaker B: Well, you do breathtaking work, and I am absolutely thrilled that we could talk about your art. But I know you're not currently taking on new clients, but are there any upcoming events or places outside your studio where people can find your work, maybe online, anywhere else?
[00:18:11] Speaker C: Well, we do a lot of conventions as a shop, like, as a whole, I myself am not taking clients, but at any given time, other artists in the shop are. A lot of us just kind of fill up, like, really far out, and then we just kind of shut it down for a while, finish a bunch of our projects, and then open up again once we've, you know, cleared some of that. But we always do conventions. A lot of us do them. Me and one of our artists, Cassie, are going to Amsterdam in September. Amsterdam, Netherlands. Not Amsterdam, New York.
So that'll be my first Internet.
[00:18:43] Speaker B: That distinction is important.
[00:18:44] Speaker C: Yes, that's important because Cassie opened up some appointments for conventions, and she put on there, you know, which one you could select, and she wrote, amsterdam, Netherlands. And I think a couple people were like, oh, my God, you're gonna be in Amsterdam. She's like, no, no, no, across the pond.
But. And I'm sure when I actually announce it, I'm gonna have to make that distinction as well, because, I don't know, I'd have to probably be making appointments with people specifically. I seriously doubt anyone from here is gonna go. You never know. You never know. I've had people fly pretty far to get tattooed by me, and it could.
[00:19:18] Speaker B: Be somebody who just happens to be an immigrant.
[00:19:20] Speaker C: Amsterdam at the time, you're like, hey, you know, I could use a trip. Why not? You know, I have a lot of adventurous clients that are like, yeah, let's do it. Just take a trip.
[00:19:27] Speaker B: That's wonderful. Well, Bridget, thank you again for joining me on the show here. This has been wonderful. And, you know, when it comes time, if it ever comes time for me to get my first tattoo, you will be getting a call from me to get some advice.
[00:19:41] Speaker C: Of course. Of course.
[00:19:43] Speaker B: Thank you so much.
[00:19:44] Speaker C: You're welcome. Thank you for having me.
[00:19:54] Speaker A: This has been the martial arts podcast. Thanks for listening. If you like what you heard and want to hear more, make sure to subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts. For more coverage of the region's arts and entertainment scene, head to dailyGazette.com and Nippertown online.
This episode was produced by me, Rick Marshall, for the Daily Gazette. If there's a local art story or artist you'd like to hear more about on this podcast, you can contact
[email protected] or via social media.
