The Apprenticeship Diaries

The Apprenticeship Diaries

A Podcast about beginnings: How the tattoo artists (and professionals) we revere, got their start; What it took, what it takes, and the stories that are made!

Episodes

November 4, 2025 116 mins

Welcome back Elo Solarii... It's not been that long, but let's be real, there's been much to say. Sometimes, we need more time to get it all out. Sometimes, our bladders get in the way. :)

Check out Elo at Youth Gone Wild in New Richmond, WI.

Thank you again, Elo! You honor us with your story. We'll be keeping in touch as time moves ahead. 

God bless! 

 

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Welcome back to this last piece (for now) with Ilia!... Ilia Sterling of "Youth Gone Wild" in New Richmond, WI. She and her mentor Elo, are living together, doing an apprenticeship together (her as the apprentice) and partners. This is a very rare, 2 part Diary Entry with someone who can affirm the message, "It's never too late!"

Thank you Ilia! You honor us with your story. We'll be keeping in touch as time moves ahead. 

God bles...

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The week before last, we had Elo and now, We have Ilia!... Ilia Sterling who is Elo Solari's partner and tattoo apprentice. They both work at "Youth Gone Wild" in New Richmond, WI. 

They live together, work together and have a mentor/mentee relationship, on top...

But before all of that, we learn Ilia's story, in this 2 part Diary Entry, and what led her to tattooing and Elo. :)

Thank you Ilia! This was a great time and you have a...

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In this 2nd piece, we get real with many things. Elo is following all the "Maybe's" and it would seem that things are looking up; He keeps surviving each day and we hope that this podcast spotlight, will mark a major  time of exponential growth. We pray it will.

Thank you so much Elo for this raw and riveting, apprenticeship journey.

Make sure to come back for Part 2. :)

Follow Elo here: @esolarii

Elo's Redbubble: Here

Youth Gone ...

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Thank you so much Elo for this raw and riveting, apprenticeship journey. Man!!!!.... Have you seen and been through, a lot?! 

Listen in to hear one of the most tumultuous experiences I've heard of in a long time.

Maybe?... It all has purpose?

Make sure to come back for Part 2. :)

Follow Elo here: @esolarii

Elo's Redbubble: Here

Youth Gone Wild: Here

 

****If you liked The Apprenticeship Diaries (T.A.D.), please follow us, rate, an...

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I'm sad Listeners. Today, Charlie Kirk was shot and killed. I recorded the majority of this podcast 2 days ago. I think it has merit but I'm not gonna shout this one too loud beyond how I feel for Charlie and his poor family. Of course, I'm grateful for all your listening time and honored. 

What I want you all to know is that I'm going to keep speaking. Our Lord tells us to "fear not," and I will not be afraid. God bless you all. 

...

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Thank you so much Kevin Kline, for this wonderful exploration of the 'sign's of the time' and craft of tattooing. I was a very fun conversation and I found it very cathartic. I hope our Listeners think so too.

God bless you Kevin.

You can find Kevin at Tattoo Icons in Perryville, MD.

****If you liked The Apprenticeship Diaries (T.A.D.), please follow us, rate, and review us! Also, get our webpage to climb on the search engine by v...

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Just a personal entry this week. I expand on how my physical life has been lately (as well as mental and spiritual, life.). It's been a trial, but overall, an immense blessing; A blessing I attempt to communicate.

Thank you for listening and any care that you give to myself, personally. You are a blessing and I pray you continue to be blessed. May we all "hop" together, into bigger and better, futures. 

****If you liked The Appren...

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This is the last bit with my good friend Kelly J Mendenhall... For now. As she said, "I didn't come this far to only go this far"... or something to that effect. There's so much more ahead! This is what we all have to remind ourselves as we navigate the crap of life... Don't give up before you get to the good parts.

Kelly... Thank you. You are truly a Godsend. I love you and I'm so thrilled to finally have you on the show. We need...

This week, we share more of the relationship that Kelly J Mendenhall and I (your host) have. How we manage to love each other despite differing in political views. Overall, as long as we are "Team Human" (another amazing title for this episode :P), we can work together and maintain the love.

Kelly is the friend you never knew you needed. Definitely follow her and join the mailing list on her website (click here). To join the Chron...

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This week is our introduction to Kelly J Mendenhall; Artist, Disabled, Author, Advocate, Speaker and much more.

Your host has had her own pain in recent years and it was so nice to turn lemons into lemonade with someone who knows acutely what chronic pain is about. What's more, she knows how to find the humor still.

Kelly is the friend you never knew you needed. Definitely follow her and join the mailing list on her website (click...

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Your Host missed another week. Last week, I had wanted to fill you all in, but circumstances being what they were, has led to a Diary Entry, a week later, explaining a bit of what "had happened".

Love you Listeners and super grateful for your time. God bless you always!

If you'd like to shop Black Dagger Books, click here

Follow MoonBrew and YolohaYoga

****If you liked The Apprenticeship Diaries (T.A.D.), please follow us, rate,...

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If it's between listening to this podcast or taking a moment to reflect, collect and heal... Choose the latter. I've been forced to take a moment.

Hopefully this will communicate gratitude, humility and merit, of the past few weeks. As always, praise God! Lot's of things... All good to some degree. Whether good or bad, it's all a gift.

Love you Listeners and super grateful for your time. God bless you!

If you'd like to shop Black ...

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This is a personal Entry. It's a bit of a ramble so be forewarned. I just wanted to share some updates and give glory to God. It's pretty positive, overall, so my hopes are that you will feel uplifted while listening. If not, just turn it off and listen to better people than me. :)

Love you Listeners and super grateful for your time. God bless you!

If you'd like to shop Black Dagger Books, click here. I

****If you liked The Appren...

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It was a common theme, throughout this entire time between Swasthik Iyengar and me, that it's very hard to keep things simple. Simplicity often gets misappropriated with ease or easy, but this couldn't be further from the truth 

Hat's off to Swazzy however, for she's managed the task of changing continents, within her journey, thus far. In many ways, life could have been simpler, but then agein, this wouldn't have yielded such a b...

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We are back with our 2nd piece of this 3 part, Diary Entry with Swasthik Iyengar, of Good Luck NYC. She's a fantastic artist who's gearing up for her first gallery showing in LA at the Devout Gallery. It's June 21nd.

Despite being in a major flow-state, painting, making, meditating... Swazzi gave quite a bit of time to this show by sharing how she combines her practice in tattooing with her faith.

This is the continuation of a fan...

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Wow... What an amazing time meeting this awesome person, talent, and tattoo artist! This is the first part of our time with Swasthik Iyengar of Good Luck Tattoo in NYC. She's here, sharing her culture and at the same time, loving our culture here in the states. Our recording marked her 1st year anniversary. Welcome Swazzi!

She's lived in multiple countries and really is a rich human in terms of experience (and all the other ways th...

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I think my mic might be going... That's one more prayer I need answer to... Why my audio has this terrible sound in the background? Is it the mic or the cord? Guess I'll get a new cord and see... Please God... Let it be the cord! 

This week is just a call for prayer. Your host is stressed and needing some spiritual cheerleading. 

Thank you Listeners... God bless us all as we traverse this crazy, non-stop, existence. Let's keep our ...

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We are back with the rest of the wonderful time, we spent with Erika Lalita of Sylph Art Studios. In this next half, we learn more about being a chalk artist; Except, now that the all the wonder of this job has been revealed, we must talk about the realities.  

This next part is about self care, being realistic, and what sort of things Erika manages when she's not pursuing passion. 

There's always a toll to pay on the road to one'...

Erika Lalita of Sylph Art Studios, joins the podcast this week and offers us a 2 part Diary Entry, all about her time as a chalk artist (Who works mostly on public walkways, parking spaces, etc.)

In this first bit, Erika comes off all her secrets. If you watch this and think, "Oh man... I'd like to draw for a living, on the street"... This is the Diary Entry for you!

Thank you for sharing and giving so much time to this show Erika...

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