Sometimes in life, you make a big decision. It may be a well thought out, considered decision that leads to nothing to be remembered. It may be a spontaneous last second call that creates a memory that lives on for years to come. A decision to pursue a career, a life even as a tattoo artist is not one to be taken lightly. I may not personally be a tattooist myself but after many hours picking Kevin's brain, I understand the hustle and grind that really goes into making a living as a tattooist. Back in the day the couple of weeks long tattoo courses weren’t really a thing so if you wanted to become a tattoo artist you had put in a lot of effort, drawing everyday, learning about hygiene, doing a lot of work for free, all whilst learning the craft. Now if you’re an absolute legend and cool af, you come out the other side of that decision with a life long skill and craft being paid to be your own boss tattooing every day.
Now what is all this rambling about, you may ask? Well this November it will be 10 years since Kevin tattooed his first ever paying customer, so that's 10 years professionally tattooing?! A huge milestone so I wanted to sit down with him and have a discussion about what that decision led to.
This November marks 10 years from your first paying customer but you have owned 7th Circle for 7 years now, so how did you end up with your own studio so early on?
“Well it wasn’t the plan. Bogdan and I were working at the studio under the previous owner who wasn’t exactly keeping up with the bills. So one day we arrived to see a To Let sign outside and basically had to very quickly figure out how to save our jobs. The answer was taking over the studio, rebranding and building it back better. I wouldn’t ever recommend owning a studio with the very little experience we had back then but we managed to get by, even survive a business closing pandemic and turn it into what it is these days”.
Looking back over the last 10 years, what are some of your favourite tattoos that you’ve done?
“There are so many. I’d say my all time favourite is the sleeve I did for my wife. It started with a last minute decision to tattoo her at York International tattoo convention because I left it way too late to advertise that I had space available, that was when we did the red panda and got my first award from a convention. The next year I added a little raccoon and a bird also at the York International tattoo convention. Other than that I would definitely like all of the other large pieces I have done at other conventions and the two dragonball z full leg pieces I did for Ben and Rick”.
Social media has gone through some changes over the last 10 years, how has it affected the way that customers find you now compared to 10 years ago?
“I’ve never been the best at posting regularly or keeping up with the demands of the algorithm. I just looked back the other day at some posts on my Instagram from 2016 and even though I had barely any followers back then there was much more engagement than we generally see these days. The biggest change I’ve noticed is the way Instagram has shifted focus from showing posts from the people you already follow to showing recommended posts instead. Facebook has been better for us actually in terms of customers and I think that’s because it is mostly people that are local whereas my Instagram following is largely other tattoo artists and people from around the world so it’s almost two completely different audiences. I set up the studio website the other year and that has actually had a bigger impact for us than any social media account, which is great because I don’t have to post on it every day just to get a handful of likes”.
Has your design process changed for tattoos over the years?
“We were just talking about this the other day. 10 years ago I was drawing everything by hand on paper and had only just gotten my first light box. Which really helped me to work in layers and refine my drawings better. Then came iPads and the ability to draw digitally without having to sit at a computer with an expensive drawing tablet. It sped up the process a lot and even has features like automatically straightening lines and the symmetry tool to achieve perfect symmetry. Just being able to undo a mistake is a huge advantage over drawing on paper. It very quickly became the standard across most of the world of tattooing because it made everything so much easier and faster. Over the last year and especially the last month I’ve been back to working more with paper and pencils because it’s less forgiving, it forces you to learn and get better instead of relying too much on what the software can do to make your designs better. Right now with the amount of genAi art people are getting real lazy because it’s even easier and even faster still. So yeah almost gone full circle back to pencils but I’ll definitely still be using my iPad alongside them. Definitely no genAi though”.
You’ve had some paintings in Galleries over the last couple of years, how do you balance being a tattoo artist with also being an artist in the more traditional sense?
“I painted a figurative self portrait about exactly that. It can be a lot and there’s definitely been times over the years where I’ve had to stop, reset and then continue. It’s really easy to get burnt out. It’s not just the tattooing and painting either, it’s spending time with my family, having time to just relax, keeping up with the business side of being an artist and studio owner and everything else I’ve got going on too. In the painting I’m carrying just too many boxes, I have my bag on my back and I’m balanced on a skateboard. It was really me recognising that I need to put some stuff down so I can see where I’m going. I think the trick is knowing when to take a break, even go on holiday, just have a moment to rearrange and then pick it all back up again. I have to give all the credit to my wife though, because without her looking out for me I would just keep working and working and working until I was burnt out”.
You can find more of Kevin’s paintings at kevinmcnultyart.com
As with every decision you make you never know what lies ahead of you, the adversities and the windfalls that may come but as they say fortune favours the brave, especially at 7th Circle. Congratulations to Kevin on reaching 10 years and a massive thank you to everyone that has been involved along the way.
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