Meet August Moreno | Tattoo Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with August Moreno and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi August, how has your perspective on work-life balance evolved over time?
When I first started my career I dedicated every moment to it, I worked for free for a year for a shop where I was being apprenticed. My main thought in doing so was that it would be the most beneficial to me upfront to give every second extra I had to make it in the tattoo industry; it was hard and sometimes lonely, I missed out on a lot of family events, birthdays, and holidays. Eventually that payed off I’m finally in a position where I work as much as I want and revolve my schedule around what’s going to work best for my household and I. The balance I’ve got now is perfect and I love it.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I love my job, I love that people choose me to do their art, I do black and grey realism tattoos and it’s always a great feeling when I get to create something meaningful and completely original for my clients. Getting to where I am today wasn’t easy and it wasn’t handed to me, I worked hard to be where I’m at, my mom always told me to either choose something I loved to do or to choose a job making good money, I chose to do what I love, it’s paid off. I’ve learned a lot in this industry, a lot of what to do’s and a lot of what not to do’s. I learned that if I ever own a shop I would want the artist working with me to feel appreciated and know that growing is the main goal. We’re our own boss and get out what we put in,

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Honestly I spend so much time at work and trying to get better at my craft that I don’t do much of anything else.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My mentor Tony, he’s the one that took a chance on me and allowed me to come into a tattoo shop and actually told the time to show me how things work, I’ve been in this industry for 8 years now and I still call him atleast once a week just to see how he is and talk about my work.

Instagram: Instagram.com/Augustmtattoos