Avant Guardians

By Leticia Gonzales

GOT INK?

Artist hits the road with traveling tattoo parlor

Last March, Lisa Petersen had just completed her in-home licensed tattoo shop, Got Ink? Tattoos, in Windom but was soon blindsided by the pandemic.

“I had done three or four tattoos and COVID hit, shut us down,” Petersen said.

“I really couldn’t play around with it. My partner of 30 years has an immune deficiency disorder. We took COVID very seriously.”

Petersen, who labels herself as an artist who tattoos, studied art and youth ministry at Bethany Lutheran College. After college, she spent a short time using her youth ministry degree as a youth coordinator in the Twin Cities. She went on to Colorado where she worked for a furniture design company and was even commissioned to do a mural in downtown Denver.

In 2000, Petersen started her own web-based training business, which allowed her to use her graphic arts skills. In 2007, she decided to enter a new field — tattooing — after a friend in Windom decided to retire as an artist. He taught her the safety and hygiene aspects of the business, and she opened her own storefront.

Fast forward to 2020 with lockdown precautions in place, Petersen’s business took a hit. The health of her partner, Denise Houston, also declined.

“In February, she was put in a wheelchair that was super heavy,” Petersen said. “I was no longer able to do it. We got a van — it’s silver. It is the Silver Lining. It’s better than a name, it’s the actual thing.”

After making the decision to move her partner into a care facility due to her medical issues, she decided to sell their home.

“I am going nomad.” Petersen said. “The latest and greatest thing. I am hitting the road.”

With clients all over the United States, Petersen decided to transform her silver van into a traveling licensed tattoo parlor.

“I am taking the career out of my home and taking to the road. I am hoping to do some backstories on clients. There is always a story with a tattoo.”

Whether a client gets a tattoo for a new marriage, a recent graduation or divorce, or because they are at a crossroads in their life, Petersen wants their stories to be a part of her journey.

“I think in pictures; I say that all the time,” she said. “More than not, the drawing that I put in front of them — that’s exactly what I was thinking. In that way, my two loves — counseling and art — really have come together in tattooing.

“There are times when the artwork that I am doing is remorseful and people have slipped into tears and you find yourself counseling in that. Other times it’s very celebratory.”

A cartoonist at heart, Petersen said her inspiration as an airbrushed artist comes in a roundabout way when she is creating a tattoo for a client.

“I try not to reflect myself in somebody else’s artwork. It goes right back to,‘I am an artist who knows how to tattoo.’ It’s just a different brush and a different pen that I hold in my hand.”

After an estate sale, Petersen is heading to Casper, Wyoming, on July 1 with her English sheepdog in tow. Then Montana is on the itinerary, followed by the Pacific Northwest and down the coast of California. Michigan and Virginia are also possibilities.

“I am 58 years old,” Petersen said. “I am very freespirited. I know I can make my own way. I have done that for a long time.”

Follow Petersen on her YouTube Channel, “Pete’s Daily Bread: A Vanlife Journal” at https://www.youtube.com/channel/ UCx4qupg5Jl5ClhoR1zLeLBA or at www.facebook.com/ gotinkwindom