Meet Cathy Chung | Tattoo artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Cathy Chung and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Cathy, what role has risk played in your life or career?
Risk taking is big part of my life and what I do. To me it’s about facing fear, getting over difficulties, letting go of the past, and trying to see the world in a new way. To be able to achieve goals, I need to be able to deal with all that. Risks can be small like simply asking myself “ is it worth to try it?”, or “ is it worth the effort?”. A lot of time people think about risks as a big thing- gambling on losing everything. To me risks can be small, they happen often and everywhere. We get to choose to do that or not do that. And after years of practice with small risks, when we face a big risk, we will have the strength to deal with them, Be able to climb a higher mountain or do something new without thinking we are losing anything. Have an open mind about “it will all work out!”.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I draw, I make tattoos, I also make hand crafted art. The tattooing part is an endless progress of learning/practicing the tradition and bringing in new ideas. It is also a cooperation with clients and understanding their needs. Painting to me seems to be a progress of figuring out new techniques and how to put things together. Recently I’m really into making paper lanterns and combinimg tattoo images with it. The fun part is the unknown, and at the same time the not fun part is also the unknown. For example before I take the lantern out of the mold and put a light in it, I wouldn’t be able to tell if that piece is good or not with the right amount of thickness of the paper. Based on the experience of trial and error, the more I do it the more I’ll understand it. I love the feeling of having ideas, write them down, and trying them out. Sometimes it works right away so I could keep on building ideas on top of this base idea. Or sometimes I need to work on the base idea to make it work at all. There’s alway surprises.

When I wanna express creativity I make that a priority and keep working on the idea until I get it. It wasn’t always easy. But it also strengthened my mind. I would say the one thing that helps me a lot is not giving up, keep going, keep figuring out how to work with what we have. Because anything that is beautiful and precious, is worth fighting or working for.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
This is an interesting question for me because I am that friend that’s visiting this place. I’m Originally from HONG KONG, and just moved to Phoenix. The only difference is I’m planning to stay here way longer than a week. I love the nature part of Arizona, I think going to Grand Canyon is a must! I’m also really interested in Sedona. Get some Mexican food and hang out at a coffee shop.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Everyone I’ve ever met is part of making my success happen, especially those who have chose to stick around. Those who have so much trust on me that they support me endlessly. Those who have been close to me and love me unconditionally. And those who weren’t supportive inspired me to be a stronger person, to overcome criticism, and improve on my faults.

Instagram: misscathytattoo

Image Credits
Ryan Barrett