Artist Spotlight: Katherine Brookins

Heather Ainsley
ECB Publishing, Inc.

Monticello is full of creative minds and talented hands! Home-grown, small town artists that branch out into the rest of the world and begin to make the world a more vibrant, beautiful, expressive place one piece of artwork at a time.
There are many different types of artwork, and a plethora of mediums that artistic people everywhere can choose from in order to bring out the best of their skills. Monticello-born Katherine Brookins, also known as Katherine Alma, is an artist who has developed the ability to project her artistic skills on the skin of her customers. As a tattoo artist at Old Glory Tattoos, a tattoo parlor in Tallahassee, Katherine specializes in a style of tattoo known as American Traditional. While American Traditional is her preferred style, and much of her work showcases this popular genre of tattoo, famous for it's bold, clean lines, vivid colors and minimal shading, she welcomes any style of tattoo that customers request.
Katherine has always been artistic, but has been doing tattoos for nearly two years. She knew she wanted to be a tattoo artist ever since her first visit to a tattoo shop. “As cliché as it sounds, getting my first tattoo really opened my eyes to the industry, and I fell in love with the atmosphere of tattoo shops. I grew up being very artistic and I always knew I was going to make art a career path one way or another.” Katherine said.
When she isn't surrounded by the sterile buzz of her tattoo machine, she spends time painting for fun. A lot of her spare time is spent sketching out exciting ideas for new tattoo designs and refining drawings and requests for clients.
Katherine did not go to school for art, but did have a private tutor that took her to classes and traveled with her to give her hands-on experience building her skill in a real world setting.
Tattoo artistry is no easy feat; it takes dedication to learn the necessary skills required to work with human skin as your canvas. It took Katherine a year to finish her apprenticeship. “You basically have to build a portfolio of your own artwork and take it to shop after shop asking for an apprenticeship until someone agrees.” Katherine said. “It took me a while to get an apprenticeship, but all during that time, I kept getting tattooed by my favorite local artists, and most of them have turned out to be very good fiends of mine.”
Tattoo design has a vast number of master artists that fuel inspiration in the industry. Katherine finds her inspiration in famous American Traditional tattoo legends like Lyle Tuttle, Ed Hardy and Bert Grimm and says that these and many others helped her fall in love with the specific style of American Traditional. Closer to home, she finds inspiration and artistic fuel in local artists. Katherine stated, “Aside from the greats... local Tallahassee artists such as Luis Gonzalez, Lacy Love and Chris Leidholdt inspire me everyday with their talent and friendship.”
Customers can come into the shop and flip through designs created by Katherine, or they can make requests if they already have something special in mind. While she loves the challenge associated with cover up tattoos, she says that nothing beats putting a new, original piece on a client. Walk-in customers have the option of getting a piece drawn specifically for them, or choosing from Katherine's portfolio for designs she has already created that she calls “wanna-do's”. “Wanna Do's” are posted online so people can view and know when a specific design is ready and available. You can view Katherine's work on her instagram page here: @katherinealmatattoos.
You would think that a tattoo artist's favorite part about being a tattoo artist would be the artwork, but Katherine begs to differ a little out of what you might expect, and in the best way. “As much as I love doing tattoos and getting to be creative everyday, my favorite thing about tattooing is the trust people have for me. It is humbling getting to be the person that they trust to put art on their body permanently. I try to remind myself everyday not to take that honor for granted. Aside from that, getting to do sick work and meeting awesome people every day is a beautiful thing.”
At the age of just 22 years old, Katherine looks forward to building on her skills. “I am very lucky to already be working in my dream industry. It's comforting to know that I can mature in age as my tattooing skills mature along with me.” Katherine stated.
When she isn't working, Katherine likes to spend as much time with her partner, best friend and her family as possible. She is also active in the community and supports local artists, musicians and restaurants. Her favorite place to patron is currently The Bark, a restaurant in Tallahassee. At home, Katherine has two dogs, Bruno and Hazel, and two cats, named Richard Parker and Garbage. “I've been told I need to change poor Garbage's name!” Katherine jokes. Katherine also enjoys reading in her spare time, as well as knitting. Creative all around, it seems!
Monticello is such a beautiful and quiet small town, and you would never believe some of the outstanding talent hidden within these familiar, friendly neighborhoods. If you know someone with exceptional talent, and want to try for a chance to be featured in an artist spotlight, send an email to reporter2@ ecbpublishing.com. Art is meant to be seen, and talent is a grand thing to be shared!