Today we’d like to introduce you to Casey Hart.
Hi Casey, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
My family is from Dallas Texas. In the beginning, I was raised my mother and father and would visit my grandparents here in Maryland every summer. At some point, my parents were no longer capable of taking care of my sister and I due to excessive drug and alcohol abuse, gang-related activity, and mental health disorders. We were placed in foster care when I was ten years old, and my sister about six. My grandparents got word of what had happened to us and started the process to adopt my sister and I. Months later, we came to live in Baltimore with my grandparents safe and sound. Something I always noticed about my grandparents’ house was my grandmother’s love of foxes. Every wall, corner, and object in the house was a fox. It made me feel like I was in a warm den. When I was adopted, my grandparents asked if I wanted to take their last name which was Wood. I decided no at the time and kept my maiden name. This comes into play layer. I was always an artist, and art was a consistent factor between my two lives and something I was always passionate about. I went to McDaniel College to peruse teaching art to young students. In my sophomore year, I began an interest in tattoos and sought out an apprenticeship. I landed one at Matteo Ink in Westminster. I finished my apprenticeship and my bachelor’s in art simultaneously in 2014. I tattooed from place to place over the years, learning very much about the industry, and how it’s changing and growing constantly. I wanted to be ahead of the curve when it came to the client experience and artistry being pushed to the limit every day. After about ten years in the industry, I decided last year to open my own studio. To honor the sacrifice and love my grandparents gave to us, I named the studio Foxwood Tattoo Collective. And inside my studio, it reminds me of the home that was provided to me. There’s artifacts and figurines all over the studio that were in my grandparents’ house growing up, and they are all foxes of course. The theme is quite rustic with wooden and warm textures and colors with some woodsy cabin vibes with live plants and comfy plush furniture. I wanted to create a space that makes our clients feel safe, comfortable, and at home. Just like my grandparents did for me those many years ago.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Nothing good comes easy that is for sure. The hard road is always the right one. First, doing an apprenticeship is the single hardest thing I have done to this day. It was about 2500 hours of unpaid work of cleaning, studying, drawing, handling clients, and practice in two years. I was diagnosed at 19 with shingles due to the stress. While doing so, I attended university and performed a resident assistant job, an active member in a sorority, and a duel art and art history major and double minor in various studies. In to the tattoo industry, being a young female definitely had it challenges in which I had to endure all kinds of sexual harassment, discrimination, and the constant need to work twice as hard to get half as far. But I prevailed, kept my head up, and always let my work speak for itself.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am an award-winning female tattoo artist. I specialize in black and grey illustrative floral and mandala work. Much of my work has a soft, romantic, feminine, bohemian look to it. I am absolutely the most proud of my integrity and commitment to the industry and my art. There are many ways to cut corners, lie, steal, or cheat your way to success especially in this industry and I am proud to say I’ve done all the hard work myself. I continue to push my best effort in every single procedure and try to create new and improved designs each day. What sets me apart is the client experience I offer. I make sure you feel like you are taken care of by family. I provide the best of the best equipment, tools, and products. I create high-quality custom artwork for every single client and make sure their interests and the shape of their body are carefully considered for their artwork.
How can people work with you, collaborate with you, or support you?
The first and easy way is of course to follow on social media. I am on Instagram as artxharttattoos and my shop page is foxwoodtattoocollective. We are on Facebook too. Another way to support is to check my website caseyharttattoos.com for some of my merchandise I’ve created like shirts, prints, stickers, etc. visit our shop location Foxwood Tattoo Collective in Sykesville Maryland. Our website is foxwoodtattoocollective.com. We also have tons of beautiful merchandise like shirts, stickers, hats, and pins. To get on my books, look into caseyharttattoos.com under booking information to see more into the process. I have three artists that work at Foxwood, two are tattoo artists, one is my apprentice who has studied under me the last 20 months. And I have a permanent makeup technician who does eyebrows, lips, and freckle tattooing.
Contact Info:
- Website: caseyharttattoos.com foxwoodtattoocollective.com
- Instagram: Artxharttattoos Foxwoodtattoocollective
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Foxwoodtattoocollective
Image Credits
Gabby Minkiewicz
