As Grambling State University prepares to ring in a new academic year, in comes potential clients for entrepreneurs who are looking to launch new businesses to fellow peers around campus.
Christopher Dennis, a native of Detroit, Mich., has recently taught himself how to do tattoos and his talent is quickly starting to grow as a business. He has named his tattoo business Picasso Davinci.
Dennis takes pride in being an artist while also making sure his customers can take pride in the art he puts on their bodies.
“Drawing is my calming place, so when I do tattoos, I just view it as me drawing and it puts me in my zone,” Dennis said.
Dennis became inspired to start tattooing others when he realized that he was the artist of his own many tattoos.
“I have 50 tattoos, and I drew every one of them myself,” Dennis said. “I would draw them and then pay for someone else to put it on for me. I knew if I could do my own tattoos, not only could I save money, but make money as well.”
This was just an idea with no actions until his most recent birthday when his girlfriend bought him a tattooing kit as a surprise. Dennis was caught off guard by this surprise, but immediately he knew this could turn into something he could benefit from. Once he received the kit, he immediately took the time to educate himself on how to become a tattoo artist.
“YouTube is the best free college, I learned everything by watching YouTube videos,” Dennis said.
Altogether he has spent countless hours watching videos. From these videos he has learned specific techniques, what each needle can do, what voltage to use, etcetera.
“It was time-consuming, but I knew the worth behind this knowledge,” Dennis said. “So I just took in all I could… so I can continue to become better as an artist.”
Dennis’s artistic talent has never been a secret.
Since being at Grambling, he has been put into positions to do art for people and organizations. Dennis was a word of mouth reference for people looking for any type of drawing, whether it was creating a logo, emblem, tattoo idea, even painting plots and letters for campus organizations.
“When people started seeing my drawings, they would ask me to draw their tattoo ideas for them,” said Dennis, “The biggest artistic thing I’ve done was painting the four 10 foot wooden letters for the organization of United Afrikan American Men Inc.”
The knowledge people have of his artistic gifts has done nothing but helped him draw in clientele, even before he started actually doing tattoos.
“I was surprised with the people telling me they wanted tattoos before I had even done one,” Dennis said. “The people’s undeniable belief in me helped drive me to become the best I can.”
Dennis has done over 90 tattoos since starting tattooing in May and with every social media post of his body artwork his clientele continues to grow.
“It’s a great business to get into, doing more tattoos just makes me better at doing them,” Dennis said. “I am becoming better brings me more customers. It’s a process and I enjoy the growth.”
Dennis is expecting even greater growth once the fall semester starts and is excited for the incoming opportunities he will have to do more tattoos. He knows as he improves, the more people will bring more ideas to him and his goal is to bring all these ideas to life.