Creative Natives .;*Tattoos by Tracey*;.

I met Tracey 3 years ago while she was leading the Elm City Dharma Collective, a group that discussed the Dharma and Buddhist thought and how it can be brought into our everyday lives. Tracey has studied the Dharma for about 15 years, and has taken on teachers and mentors for a more serious study for the last 8 years. As a good buddhist should,  she wanted to help the New Haven community understand compassion for themselves and others in everyday life. Tracey helped me and many others through our struggles and remains to this day an amazing friend and mentor.

 Her amazing attributes dont even come close to ending there! Tracey brings her light into this world through her art as well, through many mediums. Perhaps the one she is most noted for is her work as a tattoo artist. People come from across the country to get bold, colorful, Dharma inspired (and otherwise) masterpieces tattooed forever on their bodies from Tracey. I obviously could not run around and stalk the masses of people who have gotten work from her so you should  TOTALLY check out her Portfolio! Tracey has been tattooing people since 2000, at first apprenticing under Jim LoPresti, until 2001 when they opened Lucky Soul Tattoo, which recently moved to Woodbridge CT. She has been accredited from coast to coast, won so many awards at conventions ...(I almost couldn't fit all the trophies into one picture!) and even been showcased in Tattoo Revue Magazine, and Tattoos for Women magazine! Tracey feels most comfortable with having control of her intricate details in her tattoos, but as with any artist she has to be able to counteract that with yet another medium.

When Tracey takes off her her gloves and escapes the pristine and sterile tattoo shop, Tracey feels the need to get her hands dirty at the pottery wheel! She enjoys the ability to get dirty so much she finds her self elbow deep (sometimes even in her hair) in clay. While she is still working and creating with her hands, her ceramics work is her therapeutic creative outlet. While tattoo artists are usually given creative freedom, for the most part, its hard to find time to create for just yourself. Tracey has 'fired' up her own outlet (sorry I had to do it). She is currently working on building her collection so that she can share, and sell, some of these amazing pieces she has made! Being the artistic creator she is, she also makes sugar sculls out of paper mache, and has a love for oil paintings, and charcoal drawings! She really is a well rounded artist which Im sure lends a hand in creating each amazing piece, tattoo or otherwise. Tracey is a beautiful soul, so its no wonder that beautiful things come out of her.

Tracey has an arm dedicated to artist Alphonse Mucha, when fellow photog, and friend Melissa Nachilo learned this she contacted Tracey and asked her to do this piece by the same artist, luckily I didn't have to do much staking to get this photo :)

Just being in Lucky Soul tattoo for the interview made me want to get something that I had been wanting for a while.... so Tracey squeezed me in to her hectic schedule! .... and you KNOW I documented...