Jordanne Le Fae was recently featured in an article on Racket. – Read the full article here!
Meet the Tattoo Artist: Jordanne Le Fae of Weird Ink Society
This St. Paul tattoo artist specializes in pop-culture, candy colors, and sparkle.
Why tattooing?
Being a tattooer allows me to be an artist full time, and also make a decent living doing it. I needed to be an artist after doing corporate for so long.
I also really like connecting with people. It’s nice to be able to be creative and help people realize their true selves. No one told me early on in tattooing that there are so many powerful things–like helping people cover self-harm scars and things like that. Reclaiming bodies is one of the things I didn’t know about until I was tattooing, and I am so passionate about that.
One of the things most tattooers deal with is self deprecating thoughts and imposter syndrome; we’re always searching for the perfect tattoo when there’s no perfect tattoo. That is one of my struggles: not beating myself up too much. We’re human.
Jordanne Le Fae – Tattoo artist/Owner of Weird Ink Society
Name some things inspiring you now:
Other tattoo artists. During my seven years, I’ve been growing, growing, growing, but like every other artist, I get to a plateau sometimes. Like Mario, when you eat a mushroom, you level up. I call it “leveling up” when you do something different–that color was better, that line was smoother. I’ve been looking at different artists whose work I’m not there yet but it’s something I’m reaching for.
If a tattooer stops learning, you might as well stop tattooing. You’re dealing with people’s skin; tattoos are literally the only thing you get to bring to the grave. You want to make sure you’re doing the best you can, and doing the best you can means constantly learning.
Do you create other kinds of art?
In 2019, I had this weird fever dream to create a tarot deck. I was inspired by the 78 Tarot Project where all the cards are designed by different artists. With Inkromancy Tarot Cards, every card is designed by a different tattoo artist around the world. We’re now working on our fourth deck, which will feature femme, nonbinary, and trans artists. It has given me a chance to get to know a lot of artists.