Today we’d like to introduce you to Levi Polzin
Hi Levi, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Well, this is quite a long story and one I’ve told over a few decades by now, but I will try my best to keep it to the hits.
I grew up in a small town in the Midwest, Stillwater, Minnesota. It was a romantic little getaway town on the edge of the Saint Croix River valley, which divided Minnesota and Wisconsin. I was a rebellious kid who also took up art at a very young age. I found my art to be a perfect conduit for my angst-filled need for self-expression. My mother, who raised me and my brother alone, facilitated my artistic nature as much as she could afford on her 1980s factory worker salary. She put me in every art class and workshop she could find. By the age of 16, I had won some awards both regionally and beyond and was in line to get a free ride to the art college of my choice. However, I decided to leave home and not peruse art collages because I felt I was already achieving my goals as an artist and selling work, mostly selling my art in small coffee shops in Minneapolis and drawing punk rock record covers and flyers for friends.
The summer before my 18th birthday, some friends and I happened to hear of a tattoo shop that might not check your ID, and we thought to try and get a tattoo or a piercing. When we arrived at the shop, I saw an old friend of mine who got kicked out of high school on the first day and who I hadn’t seen since. He was tattooing a fairy on a woman behind a pony wall covered in colorful tattoo designs. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw him. We both exploded excitedly at seeing one another, as he was my main artistic friend growing up.
My other friends went about getting a tongue piercing and, I believe, an eyebrow piercing, and I told them I would get a ride back to our apartment later. My friend Josh and I stayed at the shop talking till all hours of the night, and he convinced me I should become a tattooer, telling me at the time, “Man, you’re a way better artist than me. You could totally do this!” I asked him where he lived, and he pointed to a white Toyota minivan outside the shop. He had a bed in the back and a small child’s dresser in it, and I was enamored by it all. I asked him that night if I could live with him in the van and start learning how to tattoo right away, and he said yes, of course.
I dropped out of high school the next day and started to learn how to tattoo. That was the fall of 1999. That fall and winter, I tattooed my punk rock friends every week at the shop, practicing on pig skin and paying my dues by cleaning the shop and occasionally doing some roadside promotion in a chicken costume and a sign that said “tattoos” with a big red arrow. By the summer of 2000, the owner thought my tattoos were good enough for me to tattoo the public. He gave me permission to do so, handing me a tattoo machine for lining and an old fishing tackle box full of tattoo machine odds and ends and saying, “You can figure out how to build the shader!”
That was 24 years ago this summer. It somehow feels like it was simultaneously yesterday and a million years ago.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Any endeavor worth a damn will always have its pitfalls and unforeseen circumstances.
I’ve had moments in my career where I’ve been booked 2-3 years in advance and made more money than I could ever want, and I’ve been broke and lived in a van with my buddy or slept on friend’s couches. I like to think the Journey has all been worth it. Money is great, and so is prestige within your craft, but I’ve always found that being true to myself and my artistic vision and giving my clients who see that vision the best tattoo I can on any given day is where it all comes together. I try to stay in the moment of being present with each client and each tattoo. That is where I find the most happiness and fulfillment. In that single moment, with that person and that small square inch of skin, I focus until the next moment, and the next small square inch of skin comes, and then I live there.
For me, anything else is and has been stuff that I couldn’t control, and somehow, it all worked out in the end. I wouldn’t have it any other way. Being an artist is a way of life, a choice, at least in my eyes, of how to live one’s life. Living this way is rarely easy, and the money is never guaranteed, but there is no other way to live for those of us who have the calling within us. Whether feast or famine, I’ll take it all.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Most people know me as someone specializing in the traditional art of Japanese tattoos called Irezumi. After over a decade of honing my craft, I made this the focus of my tattoo work; I learned every aspect of tattooing I could get my hands on: the history, the tools, the people, and the business of it all. Along the way, my love for Japanese art, culture, and tattoos came to the forefront stylistically. I saw the style of Irezumi as a lens that magnified the things I enjoy dwelling on in art, the human experience, and the ethereal plains accessed within the stillness of the natural world.
I am continually amazed and honored that people trust me to adorn their bodies with my art through our shared love of Japanese imagery.
My bold and defined style sets me apart from many of my contemporaries, especially in Southern California. I focus on flowing backgrounds that contour with the body, accenting the bodies of men, women, and those who find themselves somewhere in between equally. My style is bold and dramatic. I want my customers to feel they are wearing a suit of armor made just for them. I tend to lean into large areas of rich black and grey backgrounds, which bring out the charismatic nature of the colorful foreground elements, hopefully rending the human form like a walking tapestry or abstraction of our natural world.
I hope to always bring a positive experience to my tattoo sessions and ensure clients feel comfortable, welcomed, and excited for each session.
We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
I think I learned the same lessons many people learned during and after the lockdown. I found that my need for face-to-face human interaction and friendship on a personal level was far greater than I had thought. For a long time, I considered myself the “loner type.” However, COVID showed me very intimately that I needed and loved human interaction, and it made me appreciate my family and clients all that more.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.remingtontattoo.com/san-diego-tattoo-artists/levi-polzin/
- Instagram: @Levioner
