(bright upbeat music) (tattoo needle buzzing) - [Sarah] I would say a good tattoo doesn't wear you, you wear a good tattoo.

Alright.

Okey-dokey my dear.

I'm gonna start up here, okay.

(heavy rock music) All of us are working artists and are fully capable of designing a custom masterpiece.

That's what we do.

I've been tattooing for about eight years now.

I majored in medical illustration.

At some point, just really realized that tattooing was something that had followed me my whole youth.

I remember seeing a viewing of Ray Bradbury's The Illustrated Man.

- [Man] Don't dare stare.

- It was a really amazing thing for me as a kid, and that never really got old.

(lion growling) But there's still a lot more men as opposed to women working in the industry.

And so I think my main goal when I got involved in the industry, it still continues today, is to really just prove myself on, on the merit of my work and my work ethic.

(bright rock music) The Tattooed and Tenacious show is a really cool exhibit.

There's six of us from San Jose and it's basically a, a comprehensive reflection of, of tattooing from the late 1800s, all the way up until right now.

- One of the great things about working with History San Jose on this exhibit was that they really had the gumption to bring in female tattoo artists from today.

Tattooing is not new for women.

We've had tattoos for ages in California and around the world.

- [Sarah] There's so little of us at this point that I think all of us, as long as we keep working hard and doing our part, we all kind of look to each other.

Yay.

You're not gonna have to feel that ever again.

(tape screeching) - [Woman] And you'll be something special.

You'll be beautiful, you'll matter.

(Sarah laughing) (bright rock music)