Business and Mindset: Light Sources Focus and Shop Equality Rember Orellana EP 170

Light Sources, Focus, and Shop Equality | Rember Orellana | EP 170

In this excellent interview Jake and Rember will be touching on art and tattoo design for the first half of the interview; how to approach color and texture, thoughts on realism, and introducing more of the value scale. In the second half they go over more of the business side of things: Running a tattoo studio, shop ethics, apprentice morale, and helping your artists feel like they’re part of the shop instead of just working there

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Video By Jake Meeks —

Writing By Daniel Pushcarich -

Topics: Tattoos, Tattoo Business, Tattoo Shops, Tattoo Shop Morale, Tattoo Shop Culture, Tattoo Apprenticeships, Color Realism Tattoo, Surreal Tattoos

“I want to always have people better than them in a way, so that they feel like they want to be there and they want to keep on working”

— Rember Orellana

Rember Orellana (@Rember_Tattoos) is one of the two owners of Dark Age Tattoo Studio. Rember Orellana and Francisco Sanchez opened Dark Age Tattoo Studio in 2014. He was born in Guatemala and moved to Mexico when he was 4 years old. Rember then came to the United States when he was 14. Like most Artists, he spent most of his childhood drawing. Rember has always had a really strong passion for art so he started taking art classes at the same time he started tattooing. Rember started his career as a tattoo Artist in 2007. He spends a lot of his free time studying art as well as teaching tattoo seminars around the country because his main focus has always been continuously growing as an artist, all while helping the artist around him reach their own goals.

He is based in Dallas, Texas with his business partner Francisco Sanchez.

Please enjoy!

INTERVIEW LINKS, MENTIONS, AND SHOW NOTES BELOW…

SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

Connect with Rember Orellana:

Studio Website | Personal Website | Instagram

The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization, by Peter M. Senge | Amazon

SHOW NOTES

[01:18] Playing with Dimension
[02:21] Seminar with a Live Subject
[03:11] Ideas about Depth & Layers
[05:00] Using Temperature to Push Contrast
[06:30] Never Stop Learning, Take Seminars
[07:51] The Face as an Element
[10:20] Unique way Keeping your Stencil in place
[12:07] Art is Just a series of Adjustments
[12:27] Keeping your Work area Organized
[14:03] Utilizing the entire Grayscale
[15:29] Promoting creativity, a healthy shop environment & a supportive artistic culture
[17:27] Being shop “Leader” instead of a shop Owner
[17:54] Setting an example for the rest of the shop
[18:42] The Tattoo Shop as a Family & Morale in the Studio
[26:37] Don’t just Hire people Get them to Enlist in your Vision
[31:01] Always Tattoo like it’s the most Important one of your Career

MORE REMBER QUOTES FROM THIS INTERVIEW

“[03:11] What I’m imagining when I’m putting those little pops of color [in], it’s almost like, if you’re seeing a tunnel or something, and then at the end of the tunnel, you see a little bit of light.”

— Rember Orellana

“[12:07] I mean obviously after you finish the section, you can still come back, but it’s a lot less adjustments…they say painting or tattooing is a series of adjustments, right? You’re constantly like judging, constantly asking if it's right or wrong.”

— Rember Orellana

“[15:29] I have a shop with 20 artists and I’m constantly, just promoting the whole environment of the shop as everybody’s trying to push each other. Like we don’t have that, where we learn something and want to keep it to ourselves because we’re being so competitive. We’re all in the more creative mindset, right? So therefore, we opened it up for everybody to be creative as well…we’re all learning from each other. So, it has become a thing where the culture is really nice. It’s more like a family, you know?”

— Rember Orellana

“[17:27] We wanted to make something where they saw us as an example of, like, a leader… My understanding of leadership is like, you’re there to serve people and to do things to inspire them, right?”

— Rember Orellana

“[19:47] I really want to be surrounded by good artists because they make me a better artist…”

— Rember Orellana

“[26:37] When you have people that enlist, they want to be part of it…they believe in your vision and they feel like they’re contributing… and by that, they’re at all times…trying hard because they see something grow that they’re creating.”

— Rember Orellana

PEOPLE MENTIONED

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Transcript for this video can be found (here). All transcripts can be found (Here)

(Update when transcript page is made)

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Business and Mindset

Running a tattoo business requires a completely different skill set than putting tattoos into skin. As tattooers, we tend to put all of our emphasis on the technical aspects of tattooing. Unfortunately for shop owners and tattoo entrepreneurs, tattooing is only one small piece of the puzzle when it comes to the business of tattooing.

Fireside is here to help: