Meet Emily Clute (she/her), a professional tattooer at Craftsman Tattoo in Schenectady, New York. Emily has been tattooing for seven years and is just one thousands of artists navigating the pandemic in the United States alone where their passions and careers are in a limbo state. “I love my clients dearly, I love that I get to work alongside some great people, and that I also get to create art every day and make a living off of it.” Emily like many other creative souls around the state have been out of work since the Pause on New York in late March.
Emily is a prominent name in the Capitol Region tattoo community, and is well known for her vibrant work. Emily has traveled all over the United States to tattoo at various conventions as well, and with this pandemic bringing to light new guidelines to social distancing and sanitation, the future of things like tattoo conventions are hanging in the balance. Statistics show that 36% of Americans between the age of 18 and 29 have at least one tattoo, and of those 70% have more than one tattoo and 20% have more than five. The industry in the last 5 years alone has skyrocketed and people are wanting to collect art all over their bodies.
It’s no secret -as this project has shown - that the novel Coronavirus has gravely impacted lives and businesses across the planet regardless of their focus. With cases and deaths recorded daily people have had to shift gears when looking towards the future. As time passes, we are learning through the CDC and WHO that even something as “small” as the the transmission of breath droplets from someone infected with COVID poses an extreme risk to those who come in contact with them. New reports show that aerosolized Coronavirus can remain in the air for up to THREE hours. This makes activities and professions that require people to be in close proximity to their clients, like tattooing, especially difficult.
“I’ve just been trying to remind myself that this will eventually pass, even if it’ll take a while.” Emily has been trying to stay positive, even though being self employed has been a difficult lifestyle for many in this time. "It’s definitely hit the hardest financially for me. There hasn’t been a lot of help for self employed individuals, so hopefully that will change in the future should anything like this happen again.”
While Emily is surrounded in her home by beautiful plants and her artwork, the days have become somewhat of a ‘groundhog day’ for her like many of us confined to our homes. “I’ve struggled with feeling productive. I’m lucky enough to love what I do and where I work, so having that taken away, even temporarily has been difficult. I’ve been missing friends and family a lot as well, so that’s been tough but thankfully we can still communicate via text and video chat for the time being.”
What many people tend to shy away from is the true struggle and conversation around mental health. Between being cooped up inside and unemployed, the stress is there and it’s heavy. “It ( the pandemic) has put a pretty heavy strain on me stress wise”. Hope is not lost on her though, and thankfully the weather is getting nicer out. “I’ve been trying to take walks when the weather is nice and improve my day to day habits now that I have more time. My daily routine has unfortunately been all over the place. Sometimes I wake up at 7am, sometimes at noon. I’m trying to get it more on track now.” Emily says in good spirits, “ It’s definitely taught me that I need to say yes to plans more.” This is why we need to reach out to those that we love. We need to reach out to our aquaintances. We need to check on our strong friends, because right now nothing is normal, and it’s okay to not be okay.
Coming out of this dark say yes to those plans, get out your pad and paper, take a walk. These are all things that Emily puts forth with her message. We will all get through this in due time. In the mean time, as I always say, champion each others passions.
Creativity now more than ever has been an outlet for so many people. Emily has an Etsy shop with prints of her pieces, and new paintings she is working on. You won’t be disappointed when you take a peek at her art. From beautiful vibrant flowers, to stipple work, to gorgeous landscapes and beyond - Emily has incredible artistic ability. Not to mention, when you’re sitting in her chair she usually has on True Crime Podcasts, and is always up for conversation!
When the world comes off Pause, you’ll find me in Emily’s appointment book.
For more information on how to book, shop on her Etsy page, and to see some of her incredible work, please support small and follow on instagram @emilyceetattoo.
// Please note all quoted statements above are those of Ms.Clute and not reflective of Faiella Studios.
Health FAQ noted above can be found on https://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/coronavirus-resource-center / http://www.historyoftattoos.net/tattoo-facts/tattoo-statistics/