Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Hailey Richard. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hailey, so many exciting things to discuss, we can’t wait. Thanks for joining us and we appreciate you sharing your wisdom with our readers. So, maybe we can start by discussing optimism and where your optimism comes from?
Growing up poor in a richer town does not invite too much optimism (good natured classmates and intelligent students will deafen those sharp points). I knew I had a talent not many had (and support I didn’t know not everyone had) and to me that meant a responsibility to cater to that talent.
Finding joy in daily events is hard at first, of course, but you become engrained with it after diligent practice. From joy I find inspiration. I feel many people walk through their life expecting it to sparkle and then when it doesn’t they feel rejected or outcasted (maybe by happiness itself, maybe wasn’t “lucky”). It is an effort for me, sometimes even now at 38. But just like anything worth having, you’ll have to dig, and just knowing that it’s there to find sometimes brings an optimism I can’t describe perfectly; and just as I know I am a capable human being who can effect anything I want, I know the capability for finding optimism is no where near outside my reach.
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 tattoo artist for 15 years, my main focus is portraiture. I’ll be caught studying angles and shadows of faces of strangers daily.
After I sold my shop, Red23 Tattoo I eventually moved to Vegas to open Magic Rabbit Tattoo. Unfortunately, due to a (many!)scam(s) I experienced I was closed down and at the moment I am saving to open a new studio where you will not find price gouging (like everywhere else). The people are used to different treatment here in the desert and I have made it one of my missions to change that.
I have a simple technique of being genuine with people that seems to keep customers out of the way of stress and can’t possibly think to do business any other way. My life a podium of art with a propelling message and I intend to make this a standard presence in the world.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Looking back there were probably many skills and lessons that brought me to this point in my life. As someone with friction sometimes outweighing success I can honestly say I would have given up long ago if didn’t
1. Find genuine love for people (even strangers). That makes you want to fight for them and to set an example they could lean on if they were struggling in the same way.
2. Find genuine love for myself. Not just loving myself as I was, but becoming someone I could respect enough to support myself being a contender against very talented/deserving competition.
3. Find genuine love for the world. There is so much out there to experience. We are the pioneers for generations to come, and if we do not make this what we want it will not be that. If we do not see something we will not know it’s there.
As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?
Once I read “A Wrinkle in Time” and “Watership Down” my life had a direction.
Reading about the tesseract (in Wrinkle) used in casual fiction changed my life forever. I started thinking about time travel more(not just some delusion only I had ever even heard about) and everything I did was aimed as though it would be echoed throughout history. Frivolous activities become more obsolete seeming, as though I were heard a call to perfect myself to be an example for others.
“Watership Down” is written from the perspective of rabbits, definitely bringing an anthropomorphic quality to my life. Seeing animals in literature with human perspectives brought to mind how different thinking patterns -even human to human- are capable of.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://Www.instagram.com/magicrabbittattoo
- Facebook: https://Www.facebook.com/haileytat2
- Other: TikTok: @haileyrichardtattoo
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