TATTOOS AS CULTURAL ART

Multidisciplinary artist and actress Nathalie Standingcloud sees tattooing as a way of bringing her culturally-inspired artwork to life.

BY KELLY HOLMES

Nathalie Standingcloud, working on her client, Alyssa Willie (@alyssandn). Right: the finished tattoo, Deer Woman, which is Standingcloud’s hand-drawn design inspired by a Sailor Jerry pin-up design.

It's undeniable that Norman Collins (better known as Sailor Jerry) made significant contributions to the art of tattooing. Not only did he create his own pigments, but Sailor Jerry's influence on the art of modern tattooing is also widely recognized for his creation of the "old-school tattoo" style. This inspired his most famous designs: scrolls, anchors, and swallows, to name a few. He also created what could be argued as the world's most iconic pin-up tattoos. Sailor Jerry inspired countless tattoo artists worldwide, including Muscogee Creek, Colville, Salish-Kootenai, and Cherokee tattoo artist Nathalie Standingcloud. Hailing from Tahlequah, Oklahoma, Standingcloud makes her living as an artist, both in ink and on stage. She uses her artistic talent to design exquisite body art at the River City Tattoo shop in Tahlequah, where she's slowly solidifying her unique style of bringing her culturally-inspired artwork to life. While she tattoos and dabbles in hand-drawing and painting, Standingcloud also acts in various works throughout the Midwest. Standingcloud began tattooing in her sophomore year of college. She noticed when she would instead draw than pay attention in class. Standingcloud eventually decided to try her hand at tattooing because it was something her father had done. "My father's always been a pretty good artist," she says. Standingcloud shares with us that her father learned tattooing in prison for most of his life. It wasn't until she got to know her father after high school when she asked him about tattooing. Upon finding this out, Standing

cloud became interested and wanted to pursue tattooing. After learning from her father, Standingcloud excelled at tattooing, where she was able to support herself and grow as a tattoo artist financially. Being a tattoo artist also made her a better painter because she's done more tattoos than paintings. "I'm getting a better understanding of color and how that works." Her artworks include a mural at Tahlequah's Wal-mart and the Cherokee Nation's Cherokee Homecoming 2018 t-shirt design. Being a tattoo artist, most people are surprised when they don't see Standingcloud covered in tattoos. Standingcloud's tattoos aren't noticeable, as they're located in areas that are hidden with clothing. This is because of Standingcloud's acting career. "I do have tattoos, but I keep them small and hidden," she explains. I still am having a career as an actress, and I don't want to have all of these tattoos that are going to box me into one type of role." Though she has minimal tattoos now, Standingcloud plans to add more ink later on in her life. Before art and tattooing, acting was Standingcloud's first passion. "Standingcloud" was the first independent short she starred in at the age of six, written and directed by the actress in her family, Kimberly Norris Guerrero. This experience led her to continue acting in live theatre at the Cherokee Heritage Center during its run of the "Trail of Tears Drama." Standingcloud continued to play in numerous high school productions such as Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz" and Rizzo in "Grease." Additionally, Standingcloud appeared in PSAs, commercials, and docu

Left: Standingcloud’s workstation at the tattoo shop she works at in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. Below: A portrait of Standingcloud taken after her interview with Native Max.

mentaries for the Cherokee Nation and was also a member of the Cherokee National Youth Choir. Her most recent performances have been Sacajawea/ Carey in "Crossing Minisose," Tash One Star/Sallie Eagle Horse in "Reclaiming One Star," and Prairie Flower/Betsy/Bright Eyes in "Return to Niobrara"; all written by Cherokee playwright Mary Kathryn Nagle. Standingcloud's film credits include the lead in "Totsu (Redbird)" by Jeremy Charles. Standingcloud takes pride in being a Native female tattoo artist. "First thing I hear from people is they're surprised to find out that I'm a woman," she laughs. "Besides that, I'm Native American." Unfortunately, this is also why Standingcloud sees lots of flash tattoo art that's supposedly drawn up by a Native American. "If you look closely if you know the symbolisms and the patterns, you can see the difference between designs that were drawn by Native American people and designs from a different perspective." Although she's still honing in her signature style of tattooing, Standingcloud's known for incorporating her tribe's patterns and basketry, as well as artwork and symbolisms of stories shared through the generations. She takes inspiration from her culture’s stories as well as visuals like basket and pottery patterns or syllabary to create unique designs for tattooing, bringing storytelling and language to tattooing from her point-of-view as a Native American artist. "If there's a chance I can put Cherokee syllabary into a design, I definitely want to try to do that and make sure it's accurate." Most of the time, Standingcloud's clients usually ask for designs pulled off of the social media site Pinterest. Lately, she's been asked to draw original drawings for tattoos, which is something Standingcloud's been waiting for.

In fact, she recently brought to life her original drawing, a Sailor Jerry pinup-inspired hand-drawn design of Deer Woman, on a client who traveled from Colorado to Oklahoma. Standingcloud used an old Sailor Jerry design of an Asian woman pulling up her skirt. It was her body posture that spoke to Standingcloud. "When I saw her, I didn't see this Asian woman pulling up her skirt, I saw Deer Woman showing her legs," she explains. "And I thought, how cool would it be to change that around and make it my own and make a pin-up version of Deer Woman. It turned out beautiful." Deer Woman, a spiritual figure for many tribes throughout the country, has always been a favorite character of Standingcloud's. "She's a character that women can get behind because she doesn't mess with women," she says. "She's like this superhero of mine that I just always really loved." To see her client walk out of the door with Standingcloud's original design made her day. "It's neat to see her come alive as a tattoo, knowing that she's going to be living out there. It's awesome." Overall, seeing Native people wearing her tattoos brings joy to Standingcloud. "It's a whole nother feeling because tattooing has been around forever, and in a weird sense, it's like a ceremony," she describes. "Just knowing my art is out there living on people, walking around and breathing and staying with them as long as they're with us, they're just as unique as the person wearing them."