No. 394: Pretty In Ink

No. 394: "Pretty In Ink" Emily Wills by Tom Wills

One evening, about three years ago, I dared to enter my youngest daughter's room and spied upon her looking at skin art on her PC. She had a minty Kent State University art history degree in hand but really wasn't contemplating life in a library.

"I think I'm gonna tattoo people," she pronounced.
So she learned, studied, apprenticed -- and now she does. Her Facebook page says, simply: "I tattoo people."
Hundreds of people, approaching thousands.

What's a dad to do?
She had certainly heard me talk over the years about my need to somehow spend more time behind the drawing pad or paint kit, while keeping my busy day and night newspaper job.
I thought: "Who am I to stand in the way of her dream?"

This year, Emily Wills made another pronouncement: "I think I'm gonna start my own business."
So she pounded the pavement, procured the permits, had the hearings, and is doing it.

Pretty In Ink Tattoos LLC opened in November 2017 at 4248 North River Road NE in Howland Township, near Warren, Ohio. Her work number is (330) 469-5017. It's in the center of a cool little plaza with a cake bakery on one side, a gym on the other and a bistro in the back.  You can find Pretty In Ink Tattoos on Facebook, and a web site is forthcoming.

The business is set up with cozy furniture, cool woodwork and neat art and artifacts on the wall. A couple of my friends had suggested displaying my art inside of the shop, but it's not my place.  It's Emily's space, and it's her art and design.  But I didn't think she'd mind having one of mine -- of her.

So I drew No. 394, "Pretty In Ink," and put it inside of a handmade, hammered metal-painted frame. I knew that it would match the shop decor, and when I delivered it we hung it together.

So now our art has had a slight merger. If people ask, yeah, her dad did it, and you know where to find me.
And now, you know how to find her.