One of the most consistent tattoo artists on Ink Master: Battle of the Sexes is 24-year-old Holli Marie; she is flying under the radar to make it to the end of the competition. This young, talented tattoo artist from Deep River, Connecticut has been making a name for herself all over the country. After being invited to Ink Masters a few years back, she finally decided to take on the televised tattooing competition. Holli, who is described as a multi-faceted artist skilled in traditional work, consistently delivers the judges amazing tattoos with clean linework and expert color. She excels in traditional tattoo work with a knack for black and gray and watercolor, and she has delivered masterful tattoos up for judging week after week.
In Season 12 of Ink Master: Battle of The Sexes, teams of male and female tattoo artists battle against each other to win $100,000 and the coveted title of Ink Master, and Holli is here to win. This season of Ink Master covers the controversial subject of sexism in the tattooing industry, in which Holli has had her fair share of. As female tattooers are becoming just as common in the male-dominated workplace, this season captures the struggle young women have while breaking into the industry. Ink Master contestants compete in various tattoo challenges that not only test the artists’ technical skills, but also their on-the-spot creativity by creating and executing original tattoos on command. Holli has been praised on her previous tattoos for having rich black tones, excellency creating contrasting colors, and crafting some of the cleanest outlines the judges have seen.
With Holli's six years of experience as a tattoo artist, she has been the underdog since the beginning of her career and this competition, fighting against all odds and discrimination to come out on top. Holli has a strategy of lying low to not be recognized as a threat too early on in the competition, while still staying out of the bottom three. There has been conversation being started about gender due to season 12 being Ink Master: Battle of the Sexes, so Screen Rant spoke with Holli Marie to talk about how this season tackles the subject of sexism in the tattooing workplace and how she manages to play the social game in the competition, while still creating master-level ink on the human canvases.
Ink Master describes you as “a multifaceted artist who is skilled in traditional work, featuring clean linework and expert color.” Tell me some background information on yourself, how did you get started tattooing?
I started tattooing about 6 years ago now. I was straight out of high school, I graduated and then instantly went into a tattoo shop and started working. When I was in high school, I was a portrait artist, so I did a lot of realistic [tattoos]. I loved black and grey when I first started tattooing. So, I started out as being my shop's only realism and portrait artist. I started doing that, then getting busy doing portraits all day; I got really bored artistically. I started doing more neo-traditional style stuff and I just fell in love with that even more. I've been doing that for about four years now. I mean, I came up in a street shop, so you have to be good at whatever it is that walks through that door, you have to be able to execute it well and give somebody a good tattoo no matter what style it is.
I understand you have 6 years of tattooing under your belt. What was the age you began tattooing?
I was 17 when I started my apprenticeship, and then a couple of months later I turned 18 and I was actually an apprentice.
What was it that drew you to become a tattoo artist specifically?
I went to a magnet school for arts for high school and I never took my SATs or anything. The school got more funding for the more students who went off to college afterward, so they were really pushing everybody to go to college. I was like, "I didn't take my SATs, I'm not going to college. It's not for me. I'm done with school." I was a punk-rock teenager, so I would blow off meetings with guidance counselors. They would pull me out of class and say, "What are you doing with your life?" And I was just like, "I want to do what I want, I want to be a rockstar. I just want to go with the flow." And they were just like, "That's not an answer, you need a job lined up." And in my head, the only thing I could think of was tattoos because it would piss my mom off and it's artistic. I mean, it's like a nine-to-five for an artist. So, they said, "Well, go get a job," and I did - that night. I came back and was like, "Shut the f*ck up, I got a job. Leave me alone."
Were you a fan of Ink Master before you were asked to be on it?
I definitely had heard of it before. The city where I work now, the [tattoo artist] who won like season 2 or something, so that's what I knew of Ink Masters. I never really was like super into it until they started asking me to go on and I refused. And then my husband was like, "You should just do it." So, then I actually started watching the show. I was like, well I guess I should research this if I'm really gonna do it.
Are there any previous Ink Masters or tattoo artists in general that you admire their style or the way they played the "game" of the competition?
Yeah, I mean, it's definitely a game. Now that I've been through it, I know that more than ever. Definitely the first female Ink Master, I obviously identify with her, Ryan Ashley. She's a really sweet person in real life. I definitely appreciate what she is doing for herself, I guess more than anything else. She really is taking advantage of her time in the spotlight as an Ink Master. I feel like a lot of Ink Masters, I mean I am in the city with another one, and I know what it's like to see them not take advantage of that time. She's really taking advantage of it and really setting herself up for the future, where a lot of the other Ink Masters haven't and they just kind of fall to the wayside.
I read that you told Ink Master that your greatest strength is your stamina, how do you think your stamina has helped you so far in the competition?
I mean it's definitely showing in what's aired so far. I mean I do solid work, every single tattoo. I haven't been in the bottom... I am here to play. I am here to make it all of the way. I'm not really making waves right now, because I'm keeping myself in the running, so I just pop up in the end, you know?
I read that your favorite styles to tattoo are Traditional, black and gray, and watercolor. Which tattoo challenge thus far on the season was the most fun or easiest for you to do?
Honestly, in terms of the easiest and the tattoo that was the least stressful was definitely the cross-stitch challenge, surprisingly, because I've never heard of that style before. I mean, it's linework, it's simple. I don't know why the men's team gave me one the easiest canvases, but they did. It didn't nearly take 6 hours, it maybe took me 2 hours, and I stretched it out. It was just a foot tattoo - I can't spend 6 hours on a foot. It was the easiest for me. I really had fun with the surrealism challenge too. I had never done anything like that before, even though it stressed me out to all hell, I still had a really good time with it and it's definitely one of my favorites that I had done this far, as well.
On the other hand, which tattoo style was the hardest, the one that you just didn't resonate with the style?
In terms of like just getting into my head, I definitely think it was [episode 5] even though it was the do whatever you want day, it was a tattoo I would do at home, any day of the week. It was a like owl fighting a snake. I got in my head way too much. I didn't think I would because it's just like, "Oh, do what you do on a normal day," but I just got too much in my head. Even though I do that style all of the time, it still just like stressed me out. I could see in my own work that it was just not as good as I would do on a normal basis because I was so stressed out about it. Sometimes having too much freedom is not a good thing. I like to have guidelines.
The girls’ team has been winning most of the flash challenges so far in the season. Which was easier for you, the flash challenges or the tattoo work on your own?
I definitely like tattooing a lot better. The flash challenges are just so weird. It's never just like, "paint a portrait." It's always something completely ridiculous, like the first episode's flash challenge was coffee beans - make a painting out of coffee beans? Who comes up with this? What are we doing?
I know there are hours worth of footage being compressed into the 1-hour episodes. How do you feel about the way is edited and portrays you?
I'm fine with it. I think I come across as a no-nonsense person, which is how I take my career. I take it very seriously. This is my life and my livelihood. So, I don't want to come across as a crazy person, or someone who fluctuates on their opinions. I was very adamant during all filming that I want to come across as somebody who is strong in their convictions, and I think I am coming across that way. I am not a sh*t-talker, in the way that Cam is. If I am like sh*t-talking somebody it's funny, to their face, typical tattooer stuff, like, "I'll give them my card for when they want to cover it up." It's always with humor. I'm not a backstabbing person or trying to hurt anybody. I was very adamant during the filming that I didn't come across that way at all. I've actually been really happy with the way that I've been portrayed so far. I know some people aren't excited about the way they were portrayed, but I'm like, "You portrayed yourself that way." If you had thought about it, if you had planned you could have been portrayed different, but you let your emotions get the best of you and you cried on camera and you sounded like an idiot.
What was the most enticing part of the prize for you? Was it the $100,000, the featured story in Ink Magazine, or the title?
Obviously the money, I mean who couldn't use $100,000? Obviously, the title and everything is cool too, and it comes with that. And the publicity behind it is obviously the long term money instead of just the short term paycheck. To get me through it, it was like, "I could use $100,000. It would really help me out."
On that note, what were your plans for if you did win the money?
If I win the money, I would probably just open a shop. I work for somebody right now. Obviously, I don't have the money to branch off and do my own thing. I do travel quite frequently. I definitely would like to invest in a shop and also some sort of consistent means of travel for me to get around to [tattoo] conventions. I love traveling, it's one of the reasons I got into tattooing. I would definitely like to invest into that more. So I could be away, even more, consistently.
Without giving away any spoilers, can you give viewers an idea of what to expect the rest of the season?
Obviously a lot of drama. Men and women living in a house together, there's always going to be drama. Some crazy ridiculous, weird twist flash challenges and tattoo challenges. There is never a set of schedule of events in any season, so there will definitely be weird twists and turns, and stuff you'd never expected to see. It's definitely going to be a super fun ride.
What did you think of the "Battle of the Sexes" theme for season 12? Did it deter you from coming on the show, or did you find it intriguing?
We didn't know what the season was going to be until we got there. A lot of people, when the promos came out and everything were like, "Why would you agree to do that?" I had no idea until I was there and Dave Navarro told us it was battle of the sexes. Nobody knew, we all kind of forced into this kind of controversial subject. Especially in the tattoo industry, it's hard for people outside of the industry or male tattooers in general to understand, like it is harder for a woman in a male-dominated industry - in any industry. A lot of these guy tattooers are saying it's not that hard, you're making it hard on yourselves. We're not though, we're trying just as hard as any man is, and I think it's pretty apparent even in the way we are judged on the show; we keep getting overlooked. I don't necessarily know if it's because we are women, but we do keep getting overlooked. Dani should have won about five tattoo challenges and got tattoo of the day. I don't know if it's because she's a girl or if it's because she has the least experience, but there's definitely something there that we're not getting the same treatment, in some way or another.
Now in episode 5 of this season, there was an opportunity for contestants to be judged anonymously and it seemed like a really awesome idea.
On Twitter and on Instagram, everyone's like, "We want blind judging. We don't want you to know if some man or woman did the tattoos." Last week was such a cool thing that it was blind judging, they didn't know who did these tattoos and they judged them by off what they looked like not by if a man or a woman did it. Of course, they had their prejudgements, they thought that Creepy Jason's tattoo was by me because it was pink and purple. And they thought that mine wasn't done by a girl because it was too masculine. You can tell if a woman did that because it looking a certain way, Creepy Jason and I agreed on that. You guys thought that we had done each other's tattoos.
You said on Ink Master that a lot of people haven't taken you seriously because you are a young female tattoo artist. What sort of comments have you heard in the tattoo industry?
It's mostly like traditional tattooers, like guy tattooers, who are old-school, and they see the types of tattoos that I'm doing, that are also bold and bright and traditional. They don't respect it as much as if a man did it. And they will tell it to your face, they'll let you know that women weren't allowed to tattoo a long time ago. And I'm like, "Okay, but you're tattooing now and so am I. There's no reason for you to not like me just because I'm a girl." I've been kicked out of a shop because I was a young girl. I've had clients who didn't want to be worked on by me because I was a young girl. I've had people that I worked with tell me the only reason people want to get tattooed by me or follow me on Instagram is because I have t*ts. Even though it wasn't until last year that I have put any picture of myself on any social media. That was apparently why I have followers.
Who would you consider the best female tattoo artists on the show are currently?
I would definitely say Dani and Laura are my favorite girls on the women's team. Obviously, all living together and we got to know each other really well. Me and Dani live very close to each other surprisingly, I work on the Rhode Island border and she works in Rhode Island. We haven't yet made the trip out to see each other. We and Dani were pretty close.
Who would you say is the biggest male competitor.
Artistically, I would have to say Creepy Jason. He has the kind of artistic mind that I think the judges really resonate with. They really like that, not necessarily 90's, but kind of weird style. And I think he's a good tattooer, where what he tattoos is very clean and it's what they're looking for, so I definitely think Creepy Jason is somebody to watch out for. And stylistically, obviously Pon is closest to my style normally, so he's definitely been my biggest rival on the male's team.
What did you take away from the show?
I gained obviously TV experience, I had no idea how TV worked. Apparently, a lot of people didn't know how TV works, because it's very different than I thought it was going to be. The way that this show does it... like you live and work in the same building... We don't get to go outside. We have to stay hidden away because it has to be a secret. We don't leave the building, you are stuck there. You only go out every once and a while. It's like you're a little vampire or a little prisoner in there. You're not allowed to see the sun... It was really fun. The judges are nice. They're actually really nice people. So don't hate them as much as other people hate them.
What did you gain artistically from the show?
Artistically, definitely, like thinking more so about the way I design my pieces and stuff like that. I've definitely started incorporating techniques and different design elements that I didn't use before, into my tattoos now. I think creatively I'm a lot stronger because of the show.