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Tattoo Artists Kat Tat, Chris Booker, Lemeir, Deshay and more Give Advice on Getting Your First Tattoo 

Black Ink Crew Los Angeles returns for a third season on VH-1 with Katrina “Kat Tat” Jackson and Danny “KP” Kirkpatrick headlining the reality television series as business owners who want to have it all, but the grind of entrepreneurship creates unforeseen obstacles as they try to build happy homes and enterprises. 

Over one hundred and sixty three thousand people tuned in to the season premiere this past Monday. This season, described by castmates as amazing, real, sensational, artistic, and family-oriented with lots of love and emotion, is currently VH1’s number two most watched show on-air. 

Sheen spoke with Enigma owner Kat Tat on the red carpet of the season two premiere. Kat Tat made history when she became the first Black woman to open up a tattoo salon in Beverly Hills, California. People travel from all over the world because of the unique style and hard work that she brings to the craft. “People come to me because they know my work is gonna be very detailed, very realistic, and lots of experience when you see my work,” she says. 

The Enigma tattoo salon owner opened up about how it feels to be the first Black woman to own a tattoo salon in Beverly Hills. “It’s amazing being a Black tattoo artist here. When I first opened up 14 years ago we were underrepresented so for me when I started this career I always wanted to shift the Black tattoo culture forward and just make us more mainstream and get us out there so for us to be here now and the show to come back around like it’s amazing. I think about it everyday and it just feels good and lets me know that I’m on the right path,” she tells Sheen.  

The Beverly Hills based tattoo salon features a roster of the most talented, creative, stylish tattoo artists in the business. This season, the spotlight is on master tattoo artists like Chris “Bookie” Booker, Lemur Mitchell, and Deshay Jones. The talented Black Ink Los Angeles Crew all opened up about Season 3 and shared advice to people who have never had a tattoo before.  

“Do some research on your artist. Make sure you have the artists that you want and you have done your research and that’s the artist that’s going to make your piece great,” says Kat Tat. 

Lemeir’s advice to people interested in getting their first tattoo is “ I think they should get a tattoo because it’s gonna give more ways to express themselves. When you get a tattoo you can create it based on how you feel, your experience, where you’re from, and what your culture is. You should get something that’s gonna match who you are, it can be very distinct and it’s  also a way to therapy. But don’t force it, don’t do it because it’s a trend or because everyone else is doing it – do it because you actually want it.” 

Known for his keen ability to bring people’s visions that they have in their minds into images that they dont always know how to create, Tattoo artist Deshay Jones loves the fact that he gets to heal trauma and give people great life experiences through his work. For those considering their first tattoo, Dashay advises “I would say just go ahead and do it because ultimately it’s going to give you something to remember in life. Tattoos you’ll remember that exact moment, where you got it, what you were going through, why did you get it so um of course a lot of people want to be particular and get meaningful things but I’m here for the fashion of it. It makes you look good.” 

Tune in to Black Ink Crew Los Angeles Mondays on VH1.