Elizabeth Hall grew up loving art. Specializing in all forms of painting and sketching, including watercolours and acrylics. But after moving to Airdrie, her growing interest in the world of tattoo artistry prompted her to open her own private tattoo studio.
“I was an artist my whole life. Like since I was a kid, I never wavered from it. I might’ve had a few little spots in my life that I might have not been doing as much art, especially in my beginning years of having kids,” said Hall.
Hall attributes part of her love of the arts to the artistic community and culture she was exposed to while growing up in Cape Breton.
“Where I come from, a lot of people are involved. The arts are kind of part of the culture. So there’s always people playing music, people are drawing people, painting, people are carving,” said Hall.
Hall moved around the country for a while before settling in Airdrie more than 13 years ago with her three children and her now-retired Canadian Forces husband.
“When I had my kids and my husband was gone and we were moving around a lot, it was hard to work in traditional jobs because you didn’t know where you were going to be. So I started focusing on my art more,” said Hall.
Hall made the decision to find a way to stay at home with her family, while still making money. Although she typically focused on painting, she became more involved in the tattoo community and really enjoyed it.
“I started to fall into tattooing because I knew people in the industry who inspired me to look into it. And it’s a way that you can work wherever you have to move or travel to,” said Hall.
Hall looked at joining a studio and then renting her own small space before coming to the realization that it would not work for her. Instead, she opened a private tattoo studio out of her home.
“There was always this stigma around having a home tattoo studio and I didn’t really want to do that, and I didn’t want to step on the toes of anybody here locally,” said Hall.
“But for my family, it was the only option that we had. So I started looking into that and it worked out.”
Hall’s tattooing has brought her a lot of clients and online attention, including winning a contest held by the Airdrie Time Travellers Car Club to showcase her artwork. Photo courtesy of Elizabeth Hall
Hall’s 13-year-old daughter, Selene, is happy that having the home office is going well for the family.
“[Having the studio] in the home is pretty quiet and not very chaotic, and my favourite part of having my mom work from home is that I get to see her all the time,” said Hall.
Hall called her private studio Hall of Ink and was listed as one of the top 15 tattoo studios around Airdrie in September 2019. Through her success, Hall has decided to offer free tattoos for clients who have suffered from breast cancer as a final step in their journey.
“Elizabeth is super polite and a great artist. She fixed the tattoos I had before that weren’t so great, and she was very attentive as a person as well as a tattoo artist,” said Laura Poblete, a client of Hall’s.
Hall is very happy with where her business is at now and wants to continue at the pace she is at.
“I have my original pieces that I draw, and I have people wanting to get my original pieces. But a lot of my stuff is people are coming with an idea, and yet it is my artwork and I draw it up, but it’s originally someone else’s idea that comes in that I’m helping them create,” said Hall.
In the future, she hopes to be able to merge her fine arts into her tattooing more in the form of designing more detailed and creative tattoos for her clients.
Editor: Sadie Johnson | sjohnson@cjournal.ca