Vyvyn Lazonga

Vyvyn Lazonga is a tattoo artist who began her career in Seattle in the early 1970s and was trained by Danny Danzl.

She was the first woman to work for herself in the industry, not her husband or another male shop owner.

She worked in San Francisco and was tattooed by Ed Hardy in the 70s.

The tattoo muse struck me in the early 1970s after I had seen an article done about tattoos in a men's magazine.

The article was on Cliff Raven and his work.

At that time there were no tattoo magazines so this venue seemed to be the only happening way for a tattooist to show their work.

I first tattooed on the original "skid road" in Seattle.

It was called that because around the turn of the century when they were building the city, they would skid the lumber down the hill to the waterfront where it would be cut and processed for all the new buildings.

This became the hub of nightlife for all the sailors during WWI and WWII.

My shop is now located in one of the main historical buildings in the Pike Place Market, about 2 blocks from the waterfront.

It's also about 2 blocks from where I started out on 1st Ave., skid road in Seattle.

I learned tattooing from one of the old timers, C.J. Danny Danzl, who was a sailor during WWII and retired seaman with Foss Tug Boat Company.

When I first heard that someone was opening a tattoo shop in Seattle I immediately ran down there to talk with him to just feel the situation out.

I approached him with the idea of me being his "Go For" and helper.

He really liked the idea, so that is how it started.

It never occurred to me that you could create works of art on the skin until I had seen Cliff Raven's work.

I thought how beautiful it would be to create not only a work of art but to be able to carry a talisman around on your skin until you died.

This seemed like a very powerful way to make the ultimate affirmation for yourself.

After serving a 7-year apprenticeship with Danny I struck out on my own and decided to take tattooing off of skid road to a neighborhood called Capital Hill.

I had that shop for a few years and then moved around after that and wound up in San Francisco.

Living and working in San Francisco was like going to school in a way.

I got more streetwise.

I had a shop in the outer Mission for several years and learned to adapt to Hispanic culture.

After a couple of years of that I moved to lower Haight Street and started developing a very good clientele base.

I made friends with some of the local tattooists there like Henry Goldfield, Ed Hardy, Bill Salmon, Lyle Tuttle, Erno and Captain Don.

She won the award for Best Tattooed Female in 1978 for his work.

When she opened her studio in 1979, there were only a few women tattooing on the west coast.

She had a difficult time being treated as an equal in her craft and acquiring a full apprenticeship.

Her work opened many doors for women in the tattoo industry, and is still seen as an example of a fine artist working in the tattoo medium.

She was also a pioneer in the use of large-scale full-body tattoos in the West.

Victoria Lautman has cited her as an artist who helped "to shift tattoos away from fashionable little rainbows, flowers, and unicorns to the larger, fine-arts-related custom designs."

She was also heavily tattooed at a time when it was unusual to see women with major tattoo work outside of sideshows.

Later she was fortunate enough to meet Horiyoshi II at one of Lyle Tuttle's parties before returning in 1989 to open her studio in Seattle.

She has advocated the use of tattoos to cover mastectomy scars as an aid to recovery.

When she began tattooing, there were very few women who had tattoos, not to mention who were working as tattoo artists.

Asked about the public's perception of her full-sleeve tattoos, she said "I always felt strong and powerful about it, and I still do. But I try to keep my arms covered if I'm taking care of business -- I sorta wear a uniform according to what I'm doing. I want to get my business done quickly and easily, and I don't like having any hindrance or prejudice against me" (Vale and Juno 1989:125).

In her words:

I have always done art, ever since I could remember, from the age of about 2.

Anything I could pick up and draw with I did.

I remember once I got in trouble for drawing on all of the furniture and walls with crayons when I was about 3.