Horror, Occult, Tarot & Adorable Animals - Meet Jessie Voorhees.
Here at Tragic, we've been given the honour to add Brisbane Tattoo Artist Jessie Voorhees' bold & dark neotraditional art prints to our virtual shelves! A horror fanatic with a penchant for tarot and the strange & unusual - Jessie's talent knows no bounds when it comes to creating the perfect juxtaposition between spooky and sweet.
We got chatting to Jessie about her art, inspirations, tattooing & Halloween!
How did you get started in the tattoo industry, you told us about being in medical admin before you got into tattooing - what inspired the change?
I’d always wanted to tattoo, some of my earliest artistic memories are drawing on my friends at school. I eventually dropped out of high school to study art but after that I had to get a real job. Boo. I worked in medical admin while being a freelance artist for about 10 years - I was lucky to meet a lot of tattoo artists in the 10 years I was getting tattooed and was lucky to get a lot of advice.
I’d tried to get an apprenticeship in my early/mid 20s but it just never worked out, working in medical admin in during Covid honestly broke me and I decided I would do whatever it took to finally have my dream job, so I took an apprenticeship in the hood, and just worked super hard to get better. I was lucky to have so many friends in the industry and ended up getting to finish my apprenticeship at my dream shop, Trailer Trash Tattoo with Mimsy who is an icon for cute traditional tattoos who has done quite a few on me many years ago!
How would you describe your style of art? Where do you draw inspiration from when it comes to your art and tattooing?
My style is dark and bold neotraditional, specializing in horror, occult, and lady faces. Honestly so much of my inspiration comes from tarot, I tattoo so many tarot cards and I'm in the middle of turning some of them into a physical deck.
I also draw a lot of inspiration from horror movies, all the cute Instagram girls and adorable animals! I follow and some amazingly talented tattoo artists around the world and I never seem to lack inspiration with a list of almost 100 ideas for flash designs in my phone at any time, my main struggle is deciding which one to draw!
You have such an amazing range of different designs, do you have a favourite theme you like to stick to or create the most?
Horror is my absolute favorite, my room at the shop is just full of horror collectibles and I'll talk off anyone's ear that I tattoo that even slightly indicates they like horror movies, haha. But honestly, I like to tattoo anything as long as I can do it in my style.
Tattooing for a living is a dream and I just feel honored every day that I have clients coming to me and trusting me with their body.
Could you share any memorable tattooing experiences that have stood out in your career?
Oh gosh honestly I could write a book, I think everything that happens in my tattooing career is just so exciting to me, but I think I'm going to mention my shop again.
It was an absolute 'pinch me I'm dreaming' moment for about 3 months when I started working there. I had idolized Mimsy since before I could even get tattooed, so to work with her and her husband and their amazingly wholesome team just seemed unreal and opened up a lot of opportunities for me, I wouldn't have anywhere else.
What advice would you give to someone who is considering getting their first tattoo?
Go big! (If that's what you want to do). Tattoos hurt more the older you get & the more you have. So, while it's still exciting and filling you full of adrenaline get those big tattoos you want or the ones in spicy places.
The other thing is, please do your research!
Tattoo artists are all so unique and we could all be given the same description with the same reference photos and absolutely no two tattoo artists designs would be the same. Find someone whose style you love so you know that no matter what they draw you, you're likely to love it, most of us are happy to make small changes though so please speak up if you'd like to change anything.
Can you tell us about any exciting upcoming pieces or tattoo designs you're working on or have booked in?
All of them? Haha. I have a few back pieces in the works I am so excited to finish! One is Lillith dancing with the devil and another is a portrait of my client as a witch and her dog who is holding a broom in her mouth, bless.
I've been drawing a lot of horror icons as tarot cards and I've started sketching up some big full thigh pieces, I love doing pieces of any size but it is fun to have a few big projects to chip away at over a few months.
What are your future plans and aspirations as a tattooist, where would you like your career to take you?
here are so many things I want to do! Will I get to do them all? Probably not, but I can try. One of my first goals that seems closer to the finish line then the start is to finish tattooing the major arcana I only have 5 left to design!
My other focus is Halloween, only 3 months to go! For anyone that doesn't know me - I have Halloween tattooed across my face. Halloween is serious business in my house, haha. Trailer Trash tattoo will be doing a Halloween flash day again which we have some exciting things planned for! I am slowly getting my Halloween flash sheets for October sorted - I only tattoo Halloween tattoos over the whole of October (it's been that way every year) because I just have the best clients ever!
You can find Jessie's gorgeous A4 art prints available for purchase here.
To see more of Voorhees' tattooing, art and all things Jessie you can find her Instagram here, or catch her at Trailer Trash Tattoo, Brisbane!
