Ink and Integrity: Reese Hilburn on Overcoming Tattoo Industry Backlash

Reese Hilburn is a Tattoo Artist, Tattoo Shop Owner, and Spiritual Bisiness Mentor, & Meditation Queen. Her work focuses on helping heart-led intentional tattooers heal their wounds, shadows and traumas, while simultaneously growing and scaling their tattoo business on Social Media.

In this episode of Chats and Tatts with Aaron Della Vedova, tattoo artist Reese Hilburn shares her inspiring journey of overcoming a significant mistake in her career. Aaron highlights the importance of owning one's mistakes and turning them into opportunities for growth and self-expression. Reese's story serves as a powerful example of transformation and resilience in the face of adversity and is a reminder that embracing our vulnerabilities can lead to unapologetic self-expression and empowerment.

Tune in to hear how Reese's experience led to her healing, forgiveness, and the positive impact it had on her life and work.

Chat Breakdown:

[00:00:45] Transformation through embracing mistakes.

[00:06:00] Portrait tattooing and artistic evolution.

[00:07:24] Warrior women in art.

[00:14:37] Struggles with self-identity and social media.

[00:20:24] The gift of rock bottom.

[00:23:38] Turning shame into power.

[00:26:15] Authenticity and self-discovery.

[00:30:17] Finding forgiveness after abuse.

[00:35:31] Healing through tattoos and trauma.

[00:40:09] Different types of meditation.

[00:43:37] Seeking the meaning of life.

[00:46:40] Visualizing future memories.

[00:51:23] Embracing all parts of yourself.

[00:59:44] Life as energy and possibility.

[01:00:58] Personal responsibility and karma.

[01:06:50] Turning grief into creative power.

[01:10:14] Permission and meaning-making.

[01:13:27] Embracing the full human experience.

[01:20:26] Patience and urgency in growth.

[01:21:47] Importance of setting boundaries.

Quotes:

"Owning our shit and how scary that is and walking with our fear and changing the relationship we have with our fear is actually going to turn your insecurities, your shame into power and into unapologetic self-expression."

"This is my alter ego. And so I've really fallen into that love for accentuating someone's own life, almost like their face and putting it on their bodies in the way that they're just like, this is how I see myself almost."

"To get hate, you know, DMs or whatever, some of which were like, you don't deserve to live, you're a lying piece of shit, at such a young age in tattooing, now you're questioning, should I even be here? Do I suck?"

"I was so afraid. I would get almost panic attacks from opening the Instagram because I was so afraid of what someone might say or if someone found me out or something."

"I challenge anybody out there listening to the show right now, Write me if you've never in a weak moment done something silly when you felt that way."

"Because to forgive them means I'm saying it was okay, and oh, by the way, others can do it to me too. No. That's is not the case at all."

"It's like basically reparenting the inner child, the inner teen, inner young adult, all the kinds of different parts of ourselves in there."

"But if you believe thoughts create reality, boy, you better anchor into that thought, because if you don't, then what happens next?"

"Yeah, be sad, be pissed off. You know, as much as I believe in no resentment and someone screws me over, I might have a couple of days where I'm like, fuck that guy."

"Urgency is the ego."

"It's love to the other too, to put boundaries around, for others to, you know, you really are helping them to grow because they're exploiting you or exploiting a situation."

Stay Connected:

Connect with Reese:

IG: https://www.instagram.com/theartofreese

Youtube Channel: thewww.youtube.com/@ArtofReese

Website: theedgeink.com

Connect with Aaron:⁠

Website: http://www.chatsandtatts.com⁠

Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@chatsandtatts

IG: http://www.instagram.com/chatsandtatts

Chats & Tatts YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/chatsandtatts

Aaron IG:⁠ http://www.instagram.com/aarondellavedova⁠

Guru Tattoo: http://www.Gurutattoo.com