Meet Ashley Hart

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ashley Hart. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ashley below.

Hi Ashley , appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?

My resilience comes from a tough childhood. My mother was an alcoholic, and absent most of my childhood. I was raised mostly by my father, who also fought with his addiction to alcohol. He also battled with depression and anxiety.

That left him pretty unavailable for me most of the time, and in turn I had to figure out a lot of things myself. Through a lot of trial and error, and with willpower I was able to learn how to navigate the world, and take care of myself on my own.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

My name is Ashley Hart, I am a tattoo artist and co-owner of Nat20 Tattoo Studio in Tucson, Arizona.

I’ve wanted to be a tattoo artist since I was 13 years old. I’ve dedicated my entire life to art, and wanted to do something with it. The usual mediums of art felt all to temporary. I wanted to do something more permanent and special. Tattooing checked all of my boxes.

Tattooing is special for so many reasons. When I tattoo someone, I am helping that person express themselves. Whether it is to memorialize a loved one, represent an important part of their life, or cover scars from the past, it is all a form of self expression.

Tattooing allows me to connect with people from every walk of life. I get to create pieces of art for these people that they carry with them for the rest of their lives. I get to hear their stories, and learn through their expierences. I also get to hear about many different perspectives, and situations I’ve never experienced. Sometimes, I even get to help someone mourn a loved one, or heal from past trauma through tattooing. I can’t think of much that is more special than that.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

I think the three most important things that helped me through my journey are persistence, consistency, and a love for what I do. This journey of becoming a tattoo artist, and eventually opening up my own studio has been lengthy, and at many times difficult. I think that those qualities are what kept me going during my biggest obstacles.

My advice for people who are working on their dreams is simple: keep going. Don’t give up. Give it your best every single day. Work towards your goal, at whatever pace you can. Figure out what works best for you and your goalsband keep doing it.
Any progress is good progress, don’t get discouraged if you aren’t moving as quickly as someone else. If you love what you do and you keep at it consistently and give it your all, I believe you can achieve what you want to do!

What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?

I recently opened up my own Tattoo Studio with my friend and long term co-worker, Terry Fields. While both of us have been tattooing for a while, neither of us have ever owned a business before. It has been one of the biggest challenges to learn how to operate and grow a successful business.

To help overcome the challenges of owning and operating a successful business, I’ve been relying on the advice of friends who are on the same journey as I am, which has been tremendously helpful. With their advice, I have been able to learn through them vicariously. I’ve
learned from their past mistakes and achievements.

Both Terry and I have also been consistently thinking back on past experiences with other tattoo shops we’ve worked at. Specifically; business practices that didn’t quite work for them at the time, and have been avoiding making the same mistakes. On the other hand, we’re also implementing practices from those shops that were successful for them.

While we are taking advice from other business owners, and relying on past experiences, we are also learning by trying new things and through trial and error. So far, most of what we are doing seems to be positive for our business, we are growing and gaining more clientele as we move forward.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.nat20tattoostudio.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ashweetattoo