Life, Values & Legacy: Our Chat with Reiko Li of New Albany

We recently had the chance to connect with Reiko Li and have shared our conversation below.

Good morning Reiko, we’re so happy to have you here with us and we’d love to explore your story and how you think about life and legacy and so much more. So let’s start with a question we often ask: Are you walking a path—or wandering?
I love this question, because I often ask myself this everyday! It’s quite honestly I feel both! Ideally, I want to be on a path, to know exactly where I’m going. Unfortunately though, I don’t think life (at least for me) is really like that. I usually have to just pick a direction, wander, and once I find something along the way I stick with it! I never quite know what doors will be opened, but they often present themselves when I least expect it.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Reiko! (Ray-Koh) and I’m a tattooer! I currently work at Hidden Leaf Tattoo over in Indiana, and I believe what makes our studio stick out is who we are as individuals. We all deeply value the folks with work with everyday, and enjoy the same content like video games, anime, and all sorts of fandom that we really strive to connect on a personal level apart from tattooing. I never thought I’d end up getting to do this for a living, but it’s been the greatest (although at times hardest) thing I’ve ever done.

I went to MassArt and have a BFA in illustration, which I believe also helps me try to tell a story with the work I want to do. Above all else, I strive to keep learning the craft and to help people’s visions of body art try and come to fruition.

Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. What did you believe about yourself as a child that you no longer believe?
This comes as an emotional question with an emotional answer, but I didn’t believe anything about myself as a child at all. My upbringing was one fraught with domestic violence for about 13 years. For that time, I didn’t even know who or what I was supposed to be. There was no concept of who my core self was. I just knew that I wanted to bring good into the world, and protect who I loved most. Now that me and my mother have left that situation almost 16 years ago, I had to restructure and build myself into what I am today and it may still change as life goes on. Despite this, I believe that I always want to see good in this world, and will do whatever I can to bring it into someone’s life no matter who that may be. I believe I am a creative who may at times have an idealistic version of what I want, but I will always try and do good by others.

What did suffering teach you that success never could?
While I don’t believe it’s fair to have to build resilience out of struggling and suffering, without what’s happened in my own life I don’t think Id ever stop pushing for greater things. There is a Japanese proverb that I live by that goes “fall down 7 times, stand up 8”. My life has definitely been filled with adversity for many reasons other than the way I grew up, but no matter what, I always believed in never giving up and to continue to push forward. I think without what’s happened, Im not sure if id necessarily have the strength I do to keep moving. There’s a lot that comes with what I do now in terms of career that I don’t think I could handle without the struggles of how I was brought up. With that being said, I don’t think you need to go through anything like that to push through things, but it definitely shaped who I am now.

So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. What would your closest friends say really matters to you?
If I had to guess I would say they’d agree that friendships, connections, and relationships that I have with them and others are what really matters to me. No matter what I end up doing in this life, they will always and have come first. I really want everyone that I meet to know that they matter, and that I will always be someone that’s there. Im not perfect by any means, but I believe everything good that’s come to fruition in my life has all been centered how I ended up treating people and vice versa. Theres so many good and amazing people that can change your own life, and I think that’s the most invaluable thing there is.

Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. Have you ever gotten what you wanted, and found it did not satisfy you?
Yes, in fact I think it still happens and I have to correct myself a lot. The resilience question earlier actually loops into this one, where I think the constant pushing myself and survival instincts constantly get in the way of what I actually achieve. In a way, it never feels like it’s enough or that my efforts weren’t really that big of a deal. I usually only look at mistakes first or what went wrong. It’s something I still have to work on, but in a way it lends itself into a superpower that drives me to keep striving for greater.

Contact Info:

Image Credits
(all photos and artwork has been done by me!) Reiko Li or @reikokoli

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