Meet Courtney Elrod

We were lucky to catch up with Courtney Elrod recently and have shared our conversation below.

Courtney, so excited to have you with us today. So much we can chat about, but one of the questions we are most interested in is how you have managed to keep your creativity alive.

My creativity flows from being alive I guess. It’s inspired by the beauty I find in the natural world and also the emotions brought on by complex issues we all face. I like to mix elements of nature with femininity and emotions to create designs that evoke a specific feeling that I myself am processing at the time given what’s happening in the world. Not all my designs have an in-depth or emotional meaning, I also just love creating cute folk inspired designs as well. I think repetition also helps keep my creativity alive. I’m not always going to get the most beautiful outcome when I sit down to draw or paint, but doing it anyway helps me dive in deeper to my creative core.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I’ve been a licensed tattoo artist in Portland, OR since the end of 2023. Growing up in an extremely religious household, I never imagined this is what I would be doing in my mid-30s – but I am so happy! Deciding to pivot careers in my early 30s was wild, but it’s been really cool to finally pursue a career that allows my love of drawing and creative work to become a lifestyle. The idea that people want what I’ve created on their body permanently is still a surreal and beautiful feeling for me. I’ve been thankful to have amazing clients and have enjoyed creating meaningful art for them in the forms of flash or custom tattoo designs.

Tattoos for me have always been a source of beauty and healing, giving me lifelong keepsakes. I enjoy creating designs in the floral, botanical, and folksy realm. My main design styles fall into the illustrative, folksy, botanical, fem-dark whimsy, and fine line tattoo realms.

When I’m not drawing or tattooing, you can likely find me reading a book, having a beer, at a show, riding a bike, or a combo of all four plus more.

Stay updated by following me on Instagram (@mustachedfinchtattoo).

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Being ok with trying and failing, knowing when to let go of something that is holding you back, and understanding that you will always need to keep learning.

I grew up in a very conservative and religious household. I spent my mid to late 20s deconstructing and leaving religious communities. As I entered into my 30s, I felt like I was starting life from scratch after emerging from this rule driven bubble I’d liven in for decades. I don’t want to come across as against religion, but for me it started holding me back from being my full authentic self. In letting that part of my life go, I gained a new freedom to create without bounds. I felt like I had the freedom to choose an overwhelming amount of life paths.

I grounded myself in the idea that I could try something and it was ok if it didn’t work out. Career-wise this meant quitting a job that had left me burnt out. The day after my last day of work, I got a tattoo of something I had drawn and the artist doing the tattoo said I should consider going to tattoo school. My immediate response was absolutely not. I don’t like needles, I couldn’t handle the pressure, and no way was I good enough to be successful at it.

Well, I did, I enrolled in school. When I made that decision I wasn’t sure if it was going to work out, but I wasn’t going to know unless I tried. I went into it knowing that no matter the outcome, I was going to be thankful I pursued something that I was excited about.

With tattooing (or any career/skill) and life in general, the biggest thing I found to feeling successful is to keep learning. For me that is reading, listening to podcast, and talking with people who are similar places in life and/or career.

What’s been one of your main areas of growth this year?

I’d say it’s a tie between the creative and administrative side of owning my own business.

As a creative and on the creative side of my business, I think I really grew into myself stylistically as an artist. Art had always been a way of expression for me growing up, but I felt like I had taken a break from visual art for awhile and began again in 2019. This year I felt like I actually landed on a style of drawing that felt authentically me. It’s something that I will continuously fine-tune and adapt as I grow, but this recognition of style felt like a big growth moment after years of searching for it.

On the administrative side, I had experience with operations management and running the backside of businesses before, but this year was the first of running my own business fully. I maintained a part-time barista job to help with finances for the first half of the year and slowly phased out of that to allow for me to focus on better ways to schedule clients and continuously keep up with administrative work. This involved creating tracking systems for income/expenses, creating and routinely updating my website, and creating marketing strategies that felt personal. I continuously want to improve the way I operate to provide the best experience for myself and my clients.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://mustachedfinch.com
• Instagram: mustachedfinchtattoo
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/courtney-elrod-35341263/