Interview: Karen Glass Talks Music, Motherhood, And Tattooing

By Elvia Iannaccone Gezlev

Elvia Iannaccone Gezlev

The tattoo work of Brooklyn-based tattoo artist Karen Glass is striking for its blend of traditional Americana and vintage botanical illustration. It’s a combination of bold lines and bright colors mixed into a world of flowers and butterflies—all perfectly placed to adorn her clients’ bodies. 

Out of her tiny and cozy studio in Bushwick, called Flowerhouse Tattoo, Glass offers private and intimate custom tattoo sessions, surrounded by her collection of paintings, vintage objects and many plants and flowers. Botanical is definitely her thing (the name of her studio is not a coincidence), and you can smell it in the air as soon as you enter the building. 

Not only is Glass both a gentle and determined tattoo artist, but she is also a talented singer, performer, and a mom. Art and creativity surround her life and personality, and we had the opportunity to chat with her about her inspiration, her work, and her many talents outside of tattooing.

Karen Glass working in her private studio Flowerhouse Tattoo.

FemaleTattooers: What is your background? Where did you grow up? Tell us a bit about your upbringing.

Karen Glass: I grew up in central Pennsylvania. I’m one of seven kids and I was the black sheep of the family—I was always very artistic and independent. I rode horses, played soccer, and performed in the high school plays. 

I drew sharpie tattoos on my friends but I never studied visual art in any formal way. I got my first tattoo at 14 by a scratcher in a squat house. I was focused on performing and came to New York City to act and play in bands. I worked for a theater company for a long time before tattooing. 

FemaleTattooers: How did you start tattooing and why? Did you have an apprenticeship? 

Karen Glass: I loved the experience of getting tattooed. I got a half sleeve from an old friend who owns a Brooklyn shop. I was so sad when the tattoo was finished. I thought the process was incredible, and I was especially drawn to the intimacy of it. I loved the combination of artist, technician, and human connection. I loved the energy exchange. 

In 2008 I was lucky enough to have that friend apprentice me. My apprenticeship was about 3 years long. I managed the shop and spent my free time working on my drawing and playing music. My rendering skills were weak when I started—I drew very sketchy and loose, so it took loads of work to develop. I’ll always be working to improve!

I apprenticed with Craig Rodriguez, the owner of Hand of Glory Tattoo. I also learned tons from the artists who worked there. Some of them were very generous with information and supportive of me.  I immersed myself by being there all the time and watched how everyone worked. I quickly saw who did well by being prepared and genuinely connecting with their clients. I followed their lead. 

Female Tattooers: You specialize in whimsical botanical and decorative tattoos. It all feels very feminine. What do you wanna share with your tattooing and how would you describe your style?

Karen Glass: I grew up in a beautiful valley where it was often very cloudy with lots of rain, so the land was lush and green. My mother always had lovely flowers in her garden. I could hike through secluded mountain trails just 15 mins from my home. That is where my love for botanical comes from. Living in New York, I felt I lost touch with nature. Focusing on botanical and organic tattoos helps me feel a connection to the earth and nature and it became my passion. 

During my apprenticeship I focused on drawing roses. I got the most inspired when I started drawing from old botanical prints while using a traditional tattoo aesthetic. Drawing flowers seemed to tap into my inner child, and gave me the feeling of playing in nature. I began noticing flowers everywhere—connecting with them and wanting to draw them. Designing tattoos from nature grounds me in a city where I feel removed from it. 

I think of my style as a marriage of American Traditional tattooing and vintage botanical paintings. Feminine and bold—an expression of the balance in me. I care to make everything as custom as possible. I try to get inside my clients mind when I draw to see what they really want. 

FemaleTattooers: You are a mom, a musician and artist. How you combine all this and what came first?

Karen Glass: I have always had two different passions at a time. I suppose it’s the Gemini in me. When I worked in theater, I was also playing in bands. When I started tattooing, I kept writing, recording and touring with my bands. When I became a mother, I had to set music aside. 

That’s the space I’ve been living in for a while now. motherhood and tattooing. The balance is a constant work in progress, but I find a lot of comfort in having both. Being a mother has given me a greater sense of purpose than anything. And I can’t imagine life without tattooing.

This past summer, my band, Bugs in the Dark, played a few shows for the first time in years. It was fun, but it was a lot at once!

FemaleTattooers: You live and tattoo in Brooklyn…in a great creative place. Tell us more about your studio.

Karen Glass: I live in Greenpoint, right by the water. My studio, Flowerhouse Tattoo, is in Bushwick, upstairs from my husband’s bar, Our Wicked Lady. Being a part of the Our Wicked Lady space is huge for me. There are bands rehearsing downstairs, performances on the roof, and events in the downstairs bar. It’s a real artistic community and I love being a part of it. 

There are a couple other female tattooers on my studio floor. We support one another but have the quiet of a private studio. My new space has room for guest artists, and it’s been really inspiring to host other tattooers I admire. 

FemaleTattooers: You have always been supportive of the LadiesLadies! Art Show. Do you think it’s important for women to support one another? Or do you think there shouldn’t be a distinction between male and female? What are your thoughts on this? 

Karen Glass: I could write pages on this! I absolutely think it’s important for women to support one another. In a society that still has a wage gap and threatens women’s rights, coming together is one of the most powerful things women can do. This is especially true within the tattoo industry. We’ve seen the power of women joining together on social media against sexual assault in tattooing.

Because I played in bands, which is also a very male dominated field, it wasn’t a shock to hear some men say I couldn’t tattoo because it’s too hard for women, or that I would only get clients who wanted me to touch them. At the same time, I had a lot of men (and women) who taught me to tattoo and were incredibly generous with their time and guidance. I am forever grateful. Without them, I wouldn’t be doing this.

The way I see it, the world is full of the best of the best and the worst of the worst. You choose who to focus your energy on. 

In such a male dominated profession within a male dominated society, we’re seeing increasingly how important it is for women to support each other and share their stories. It’s through that exchange that we can give each other strength and break down a bit of the patriarchy. To not just survive, but thrive. 

FemaleTattooers: Who are some of your favorite female tattooers? And which artists in general do you look up to?

Karen Glass: I remember getting Instagram a couple years into my apprenticeship and finding Guen Douglas. I had never seen such feminine work before and she really inspired me. I love Claudia DeSabe, Tiny Miss Becca, Kirsten Holiday, Cassandra Frances, Wendy Pham and so many more!

FemaleTattooers: We were recently talking about friendship. Do you think such a thing can exist in tattooing or are we all too wrapped up in our lives and ourselves? 

Karen Glass: True friendships in tattooing do exist! Two of my best friends are tattooers. And I have a lot of blooming friendships with other tattooers. If you’re open to connection, you’re going to find like-minded people, tattooer or not. For me, it’s about relationships that are supportive and not competitive. 

FemaleTattooers: Do you travel often? Attend conventions?

Karen Glass: I work in Los Angeles twice a year. Last year I worked the Austin Invitational convention and I worked in San Francisco for the first time at Seventh Son Tattoo. I have a lot of travel planning to do for this year! Hopefully LA, San Francisco, Austin, Portland, Oregon and maybe a Europe trip. Traveling as a mother is a bit more complicated while my daughter is young, but I am able to do it more each year. 

FemaleTattooers: What are your plans for the future?

Karen Glass: I plan to keep tattooing, painting, traveling and growing. I am staying open to see what will naturally happen. I am interested in exploring more work with my intuition and energy with tattooing and art. 

FemaleTattooers: What are your favorite things to do apart from tattooing?

Karen Glass: I love playing music, painting and cooking. I love traveling, being at the beach and being with my husband and daughter and dog. I host dinner parties and especially love long one on ones with a good friend. 

Brooklyn Magazine 2016

Karen Glass
Independent artist 

Karen Glass has loved tattoo art since she can remember. “As trite as this sounds I was the kid who was doing Sharpie tattoos on my friends in junior high school,” she explains, almost sheepishly. Despite these early beginnings, Karen came up in Brooklyn’s music scene and moved into tattooing later. “I was living and working in Brooklyn already and I had a good friend who I’d been getting tattooed by for a while,” she explains. “He owned a shop and let me apprentice with him. I later realized what a gift that was; a lot of people who want to put in the hard work can’t find an apprenticeship because tattooing is a really protected craft in the community. Looking back on it I’m really grateful that I got learn that way.”

Tattooing as a career echoes and supports what she loves about being a musician. Both art forms are collaborative and flexible, predicated on human connection and constant change. “Both are constant works in progress,” she explains. “Writing a song, even if it’s already written and recorded, as you perform it it’s going to change. As a tattoo artist, you’re never done, you’re always pushing yourself. I love that in both art forms there’s constant growth, and you’re always looking for inspiration and feedback.”

Currently, Karen works out of her own private studio, a change she decided to make when she learned she was pregnant with her daughter—it made her want the privacy, flexibility, and autonomy that a space of her own would offer. She shares the space with one other artist. “I think I’d have a hard time going back to a shop, at least until my daughter is in school, because being a mother and a tattoo artist is very different thing than just being a tattoo artist on its own,” she tells me. 

Recently, outside the studio, she has done a number of events at Our Wicked Lady,  a bar, performance space, and artist studio space in Bushwick. Describing the ways in which tattooing styles are developing in Brooklyn right now, she focuses, as many of the artists I spoke to do, on the individuality that’s nurtured in the scene here. “There’s a generation of artists who are focusing on their own voice and cultivating an individual style. They can do more but they want to just put out this one specific aesthetic. Artists are developing such signature styles that you can see a tattoo and know exactly who did it. The connection to the personalized style is a whole new level of intimacy in tattooing.”

I mention that this article happens to feature all female artists, and she chimes in. “Tattooing has been a man’s world for a while, and that’s really changing now. I came from playing in bands which is even more a man’s world—I remember having the sound guy take a flashlight to the back of my amplifier because he didn’t think I knew what I was doing, things like that. So I kind of went into tattooing thinking, well I can handle this because I’m coming from the music scene. But honestly, the majority of the people I worked with didn’t have that attitude at all. I’ve always felt very inspired by female tattoo artists. A woman who’s going to go into tattooing has to be powerful and confident, and it’s really inspiring to see that and be part of that.” 

Her own style starts with traditional Americana and moves into a more illustrative direction, something she describes as an almost feminine take on the traditional American tattoo art. Specifically, she focuses on images from nature, like flowers, plants, and birds. “I believe images from nature can flatter the body perfectly, so working with organic content and designing it to flow with any particular placement is one of my favorite things about the art form.” she tells me. 

When I ask her what she finds most difficult in her work, I expect a broad conceptual answer, but instead what she tells me is the opposite: “Tattooing the outline of a perfect circle is the hardest thing I get asked to do—it always makes me break a sweat.”

thestir.com 2016
Karen Glass is an incredible artist -- tattoos, performance, and music are where her talents shine. Her work is as magical as she is, filled with vivid color and gorgeous black and gray shading, and placed in spots that truly complement the human body.

The self-professed country girl at heart has called Brooklyn home since 2000. She's married to a native Brooklynite Zach (owner of the Bushwick bar Our Wicked Lady), and they have a 1-year-old daughter, Bianca, and a 10-year-old dog named Trolley.

Karen and Zach also play in the indie band Bugs in the Dark. Karen tattoos in a private studio in Williamsburg, and as you can see, her work is enchanting. Check out what she had to say below.

How did you get into tattooing?   
I got tattooed by a good friend and fell in love with the process. I was drawn to the artistic design, the technical aspect, and the intimate human connection. My friend owned a Brooklyn tattoo shop and eventually decided to teach me. I managed the shop during my apprenticeship. It was an invaluable combination because I learned about running a small business while learning to tattoo. Watching how the different artists at the shop worked gave me insight into how I wanted to approach my career.  

What was the first tattoo that you got?
Oh boy. I got my first tattoo when I was 14 and it was done by a scratcher in a dirty squat house in central Pennsylvania. It was a horribly executed image of Goofy on my foot. Luckily it was small and I had it covered up when I turned 18.  

Share a good story about a tattoo that you have done.
Most tattoos sessions are an emotional experience for me. There is an energy exchange between the tattooer and client, and I have always been affected by it. I am an empath, and I have learned to protect myself from taking on negative energy by creating a positive exchange. Even the trauma from pain during a tattoo can be passed on, so I think of tattooing as energy work. I can tattoo while giving positive energy and turn it into a healing experience.  

I recently tattooed a woman who has a daughter the same age as mine. We talked about how becoming a mother drastically changes your view of yourself. Having a small child can make you feel like your body is no longer your own. She decided to get her tattoo on her sternum to reclaim a part of herself. The rose was an adornment that made her feel beautiful. As a breastfeeding mother I understood her feelings at a deep level. Doing this for her was healing for me.  

Have you ever tattooed yourself?  
The first tattoo I ever did was on myself as part of my apprenticeship. My mentor insisted that I shouldn't tattoo anyone else until I was ready to wear one of my own tattoos. I did a blossom on my thigh and I still love it. Tattooing myself, however, was awful! It's way more fun to have an artist you love tattoo you while you chat and connect with them.   

Who and what influences you in work/life?  
I'm inspired by so many people -- other tattooers, musicians, friends. I am constantly finding photos that spark new ideas -- that's my favorite thing about Instagram. It's endless inspiration to keep growing as an artist. I've always gotten a lot of my creative ideas from dreams. I have a vivid dream life and I try and capture some of that powerful imagery in my songs and drawings.