A Costa Mesa Artist Finds Cosmetic Tattooing Is Drawing Quite a Clientele

Early on, Pati Pavlik showed a knack for pen-and-ink drawings and created what she considers some worthwhile pieces of art.

Ten years ago, the Costa Mesa resident traded in the ink, pen and paper and a data-processing job for a tattoo needle to draw art on people’s skin.

“I thought, ‘What’s my mother going to think?’ ” recalled Pavlik, 45, who said she was brought up in Middle America at a time when “ladies certainly never got a tattoo.”

As it turned out, for her mother’s 69th birthday, Pavlik tattooed a hummingbird on the crest of her mother’s shoulder. Her mother was also her second client for eyebrow and eye liner.

“Actually, cosmetic tattooing now accounts for half my business,” said Pavlik, who teaches classes on cosmetic tattooing at the American Institute of Electrology in Long Beach and has a tattoo shop in Laguna Beach.

“The best work (in cosmetic tattooing) is coming from tattoo artists, not the medical field,” she said. “They haven’t been able to get the training for tattooing. It takes a lot of years to get proficient with a tattoo needle.”

The move to cosmetic tattooing was a boon to Pavlik, a 10-year member of the American Tattooing Assn. “You get bored doing hearts and flowers every day even though you often get a chance to create a real piece of art,” she said.

Pavlik said that when she opened her shop, more and more women were getting tattoos, but they wanted “something creative.”

In a decade, Pavlik said, she’s done some unusual tattoos.

“I still think of myself as a conservative, and I get startled with some of the requests,” she said. “A woman who managed a pet store wanted a beautiful cat tattooed from her wrist to the bend of her arm, and I thought to myself, ‘My goodness--how bold.’ ”

Pavlik said she had no tattoos of her own when she opened her business. Times and her body have changed, and now, most of her back, shoulders and rib cage are tattooed. A portrait of her mother and father can be found on her back.

“My mother and dad were supportive of me when I decided to open the tattoo business,” said Pavlik, who also has tattoos covering the inside of her right arm and parts of her legs.

In her spare time, the tattoo artist raises hybrid wolves that she hopes to introduce into the environment.

“Someday I hope to spend my life around endangered species,” said Pavlik, who also owns four dogs, three ferrets, two cats, an iguana and a horse.

To feed her other artistic urges, Pavlik works with clay, leather, bones and driftwood as well as dabbling in taxidermy.

“I love life--I really do,” she said. “Some people think I’m tough because I have tattoos, but I still think of myself as a flower child who wants nothing more than peace, love and harmony.”

A year ago, Janet L. Wooley enrolled in a job training program at Rancho Santiago College in Santa Ana to become self-supporting and get off state welfare.

For her determination and success in the program, the 30-year-old high school dropout and a single mother of two has been selected Participant of the Year by the County of Orange Private Industry Council.

“I want the opportunity to learn a trade and better myself,” the Irvine woman said. “And I want to make enough money to support myself and my two children.”

The skills she learned got her a job as a clerk in an Irvine hospital supply company, and she soon was promoted to a sales support position at a higher salary.

Today, Wooley said she no longer needs state financial support.

“Now I can give my family the future they deserve,” she said.

Acknowledgments--Former Orange Coast College students Dr. Thuy Thi Nguyen, of Irvine, a pediatrician; Superior Court Judge John J. Ryan, of Santa Ana, and Steve Timmons, now of San Diego and two-time Olympic Gold Medal winner in volleyball, will be inducted into OCC’s Alumni Hall of Fame on Sept. 15 at the college.