From the beginning, I knew I wanted a change of pace for this project. I’d spent the last year or so working on a narrative film as my thesis for college, and by the time I was done, the thought of doing another narrative piece made me want to tear my hair out. Don’t get me wrong, I love narrative work with all of my heart, but I was just so burnt out. Naturally, I shifted to another form that I greatly admire, documentary. I wanted to do a piece on an individual or organization that really stood out to me. I wanted to tell someone’s story and be able to give them a piece that they can use on social media doing just that. I soon ended up with the idea to do a piece around tattooing. I’ve always loved tattoos and have long admired the large amount of skill and effort that goes into making pieces of art become a part of someone’s body. I spent so much time in my adolescent years watching various tattooing tv shows (Best Ink, LA Ink, Ink Master, to name a few), daydreaming of what I’d get tattooed on my body once I was old enough. I think young Lauren would be a little disheartened to know that she’d still only have one tattoo by the age of 23, but hey, quality work is expensive, and rightfully so. 

Seeing so many memes and forums dedicated to exposing people trying to shortchange artists for their work has gotten me more and more fired up as time has gone by. Being an artist myself has only increased my awareness of it. A field I see so often treated this way is body modification, specifically tattooing. In the age of cheap piercing guns at malls and anyone being able to buy tattooing and piercing equipment online, the value of these skills seems to have decreased. Sure, it’s great that these things are accessible, but the appreciation of quality work has also decreased. I can’t even count the amount of times I’ve seen friends and acquaintences get poorly-executed tattoos or piercings because they were cheap, resulting in infections, blurry lines, regrets, and keloids alike. That, and many years ago body modification was seen as reserved only for “bad people”. If you had a tattoo, you were up to no good. I knew that once I thought about doing a piece on tattooing, I had to do it. It’s my belief that the more exposure that can be given to the art and artisans in this field, the more people will come to accept and value the practice as an art form. I think it’s worked so far in the grand scheme of things! With each generation, more people are expressing themselves through body modification. So that was my plan. Once I figured this out, I still had one issue: Who do I do a piece about? I had several different ideas, but the one that stuck out to me the most was reaching out to an old friend from high school: Rachel Friel.

I’ve always admired Rachel throughout our time in school. If you had asked me to give an example of someone “cool” during this time, my answer would have been them, hands down. As someone who struggled with fitting in and suppressing who I was, I was in awe of the way they expressed themselves. They just seemed to march to the beat of their own drum, and that alone was badass to me. Rachel was also one of the most talented people I’d met during this time. Whenever I’d see anything they’d be working on I would ooh and aah over the quality of it. I knew they’d go places. Going forward, I kept tabs on Rachel’s journey through art school as mine progressed as well. I found that their journey of figuring out what the right path was for them reminded me of my own. When I saw Rachel had started tattooing over at Ahava I was thrilled! I had reached out to them a bit before even starting the internship to tell them that I was so happy to see that they were doing something with their artistic skills that really seemed to be something they love doing. It made me so happy to see them find their niche. I think small Lauren and small Rachel (pictured below) would be stoked to see just how awesome the quality of current Rachel’s work would be.

My biggest piece of advice: Have all of your ducks in a row before you pitch an idea. This just isn’t for future interns at JTwo, but everyone ever all the time always. This was my biggest mistake, and it lost me the entire first week of my 2-week period for this project and set me back substantially. I had waited to hear back from a potential subject for my documentary for a whole week with no response, and did not get an answer until that point. My line of thinking had been that I should wait until my pitch was approved so I don’t seem like I’m flaking on a potential subject if it isn’t up to par, but in trying to be considerate to others, the whole thing just kinda blew up in my face. Not fun. Thankfully, I was also considering Rachel at the time, and quickly reached out to them. They were gracious enough to let me poke around their apartment and Ahava on such short notice, and I’m very thankful for it. Having your head in the game is more than just lining up your documentary subject, however. I’m talking about shot lists, storyboards, call sheets, equipment lists, the whole thing. Thinking of these things in advance is something I’m getting better at, but wish I had down to more of a science like my co-intern Lana does. (I was in her project, so I got to see her organizational skills firsthand.) Seriously. Planning is so much of the battle. It’s nice to have everything in order when you step on set so you can really just focus on what you’re doing in the moment. All in all, I think I’ve learned so much during this process, and at JTwo in general. Sometimes the important lessions are learned the hard way, but even when you mess up and lose an entire week on your project you can always pull yourself together and do your best, learning from your mistake going forward. It can feel hard to admit that you messed up (in any way), but it’s more freeing when you acknowledge it, learn from it, and let it go as you move forward.