Tattoo Artist Leslie Young -- Best Worst Idea Podcast Episode Four!

Leslie Young is a tattoo artist in Downtown Los Angeles who literally willed herself into being.  An actuarial mathematics student in college, she instead followed her creative calling not just be a professional artist, but to be a tattoo artist with her own growing client base. How did she do it?  With willful stubbornness and a creative drive that overpowered her inner critic.  She says being born in the Year of the Ox made her driven, hard-working, and stubborn.

Check out Leslie's Instagram Page here!

Book a tattoo appointment with Leslie by clicking here!

Have a tattoo question for her?  Click here.  

Episode Transcript

Frank Hannah (00:01):
Want to be a female tattoo artists that are
mostly male dominatedprofession? Find out why it
helps to be born in the Year ofthe ox.
The best worst idea podcastWelcome to the best worst idea

(00:21):
podcast. My name is Frank,Hannah and I am your host. This
is the podcast where we talkabout creativity, how people
find it and how it's influencedthe course of their lives.
Today, my guest is tattoo artistLesley young. She's been working
in the Los Angeles tattoo scenesince 2016. And has amassed a

(00:42):
pretty substantial body of workwhen looking at her Instagram
account, and it's clear, she'snot afraid to take risks. She's
not afraid to use bold colorchoices. But more impressive is
the level of trust her clientsput in her. I'm so happy she
agreed to speak with me. Sowelcome.

Leslie Young (01:00):
Thank you.

Frank Hannah (01:01):
Hello. What I wanted to talk to you about
specifically is the creativeside of what you do on one
level, it's really kind of easyto say, well, you know, you're
an artist, so but there's notall artists want to become
tattoo artists or work in thefield of tattoos. So what I like
to do in this podcast is talkabout origin stories. Because I

(01:23):
have a lot of comic book peoplethat I've done interviews with
that work in the industry. Andso I was looking at, like,
What's the origin story forLeslie young? And you? Like
where you grew up and yourparents and like, what kind of
upbringing you had?

Leslie Young (01:40):
Well, I had always been drawing. That's like one
thing. I think I was likedrawing before I was talking
actually, like, my dad alwaysbring home like a stack of
scratch paper from his work. AndI would have like stuff printed
on one side, but the other sidewas like empty or blank. And so

(02:01):
like, we'd always me and mysister would always like take
from that stack of scratch paperand like draw on it. And that
became like a pretty regularthing. Like we would do this
every day. So it always

Frank Hannah (02:10):
been drawing. It's crazy that you say that, because
my father did the exact samething. Really. He worked. He
would bring home like stacksstacks of like, paper. And and
sometimes it would be, which isreally cool. It would be like
tracing paper or like vellumpaper. Anyone? Go ahead?

Leslie Young (02:27):
Yeah. So like we'd always draw. And then me and my
sister were really close. So wewould always like doodle on each
other's papers. And that kind ofjust became a thing we like,
can't we don't really take themany art classes. Like our
classes weren't really popularnear us, like there just wasn't
a lot of programs. But we'dalways do it like at home.

Frank Hannah (02:48):
So when you say near us, like where did you grow
up? Well, I

Leslie Young (02:50):
grew up in the suburbs. So like, it would make
sense that there would be likecommunity centers at that. But
it just wasn't like, therewasn't like a huge art
community, I guess. Like therewas one Art Center where you
could go and you would like itwas like a camp for kids. And
you can like make art and stuff.
But it was so like, kind ofbasic. And yeah, it was more of
like a daycare for it was wherelike, parents would just drop

(03:14):
them off. And like you could door not do the art really?

Frank Hannah (03:20):
And this was an Orange County that were Yeah.
What's that saying? If you gotto see it to be it sort of
thing. Like if you didn't kindof maybe see that art was the
Yeah, where you could?

Leslie Young (03:32):
Yeah, I actually had no idea until like, it got
towards like, time for us, likehigh school. And we're like
trying to apply for colleges andstuff. And I didn't realize
that, like other schools hadlike AP art studio, or studio
art, right. And like classeswhere they would take it
seriously and like do all thesethings. I had no idea. Because

(03:52):
our school just didn't valuethose things. They put a lot of
like money towards like sportsand stuff. So that was like the
thing. A lot of students whowould like use sports to get
into college, not that theyweren't like, academically

Frank Hannah (04:06):
it that was that was the advantage. But yeah,
exactly.

Leslie Young (04:08):
So art was like not a popular way to go about.
Yeah,

Frank Hannah (04:11):
the first couple years of high school for me, I
spent most of my life inCatholic school. So the first
couple years of of high school,it was in a college preparatory
school, and not that it was thatfancy shmancy or anything, but
if you had an elective, it wasSpanish or German or something
like that. And so the only wayyou could get to an art class is

(04:34):
if you flunked out of yourlanguage class. And then they'd
say, okay, and now we'll let youtake so that's how they valued
art. Like they saw it as like,Okay, this is where not dummies
go, but they just, it was notsomething that was in the
forefront. It was it was afallback, which really sucked
because I always felt like I wasinterested in art and being
creative and creative thing andcreating things but you know,

(04:55):
you weren't shown that this isthe thing to do. And it was only
until I went To the second orlast two years of high school,
when my family moved, I went toa public high school in Anaheim.
And I had some art classes. Andit was not that my eyes opened
up, but I was so happy thatlike, you could actually spend
the time, you know, doing that.
So when you were applying forcolleges, did you was art or art

(05:18):
design or anything like thatpart of your thought process? Or
was it the family wants you togo into finance or their family
wants to go into this or that?

Leslie Young (05:30):
Yeah, so I think my parents were funny, because
they were like, only verySurface family supportive of me,
they supported me using our as,like an elective to get into
college. Like, you know, how,like in college, they they're
like, Oh, what have you done?
It's like, like communityservice and like, sports, and
like, I worked at this thing.

(05:52):
Like they supported that usinglike it as like a side piece to
get in

Frank Hannah (05:55):
or something to, to kind of fill out your resume.

Leslie Young (05:59):
Yeah. And then they only support to that point,
though, like they would not theyif I wanted to go to an art
school, if I wanted to, likespecialize in art, or like study
art, they'd be like, No, that'snot

Frank Hannah (06:13):
well, yeah, cuz it's, as a person who writes or
film and TV and comic books. Youknow, I've done it enough time
now, because I'm older that myfamily and friends, they kind of
say, oh, yeah, no, that's likethe thing he does. And they know
that there's lapses between thejobs like you get a chunk of
money, and then you have to tryand make that work for X amount

(06:34):
of like freelance the right. Butit took a while for my family
who are working class, bluecollar people. They'd say, oh,
is your friend in the filmbusiness? Or does he work? So
it's like your

Leslie Young (06:52):
job? I get that all the time. Yeah, actually,
like, clients will come in.
They're like, so like, you haveanother job. Like, they always
ask if this is like, my actual,like, job, right? And I'm like,
Yeah, it's like my main sourceof income. Like I do this every
day.

Frank Hannah (07:08):
I mean, that's the thing. When when people think
about doing what someone likeyourself does, in their mind,
like, they may say, Oh, I wish Ihad your life, because they
think somehow that you're justliving in the lap of luxury, and
that you have no responsibility.
Yeah, right. And, and it's, it'scrazy to me, I, what I hear from

(07:30):
people a lot of times is they'llsay I want to write, but I just
don't have the time. As if timeis all that it's required, you
know, that just somehow, youdon't have to flex those muscles
over and over again, yeah, to beconfident enough to do the thing
you do, like which case would bebeing able to not only draw, and

(07:50):
create and be creative, then youhave to, like put that onto
somebody permanently. Likethere's a there's another
element to what you do, which ismore than just somebody who is
really a great, say graphicdesigner or illustrator or
something like that, like whatyou're doing is beyond it's like

(08:10):
the next level. But oh,

Leslie Young (08:15):
I mean, I think I can see that in some ways. But
also in other ways. It almostseems different when you've done
it so many times to because Ilike you get used to it. And
then also you really like thinkabout how like short life is to
a lot and a painting would lastway longer than a tattoo for
example. Wow. Which is likecrazy, right? Because people are

(08:38):
like,

Frank Hannah (08:38):
oh, never. That is the crazy, I've never thought of
it.

Leslie Young (08:43):
Like and, of course some paintings go for
like 1000s and 1000s, likehundreds of 1000s of dollars. So
like it makes sense in that way.
But in other ways. It's likesometimes people don't value
them as much because it's like,a different aspect. Like, you're
going through like a personallike, almost like Well, it's
kind of trauma when you get atattoo. So yeah, it's it's a lot
different in that way. So it'sjust, it's not just like the art

(09:06):
itself. But like it's theexperience of like getting it.

Frank Hannah (09:11):
There's, there's so much to it. I think that's
why it's interesting to me, asI've interviewed comic book
artists, people and comic bookwriters, and it's more than just
the art it's that you have to bewilling to have somebody trust
you enough to put a tattoo onthem. And even if you are going

(09:33):
and you look at a bunch oftattoo or to say at an expo or a
convention, or even in a shopthat has a number of different
artists, you're looking throughtheir book, or maybe you know
somebody that had a tattoo doneby a particular artists, but
you're really taking that leapof faith with somebody. And I
often see whenever you post likesome of the art you've done on
your Instagram or on yourwebsite. You're really thanking

(09:56):
the person for trusting thatlike because it's not
necessarily just Something thatwas picked out of a book or not
just some, a flash that like isprobably on 100 people's arms or
something, you know what I mean?
It's something unique. Or it's ashared vision, and that somebody
trusted you enough to do that.
And I think you have seen thatmore than once that you actually

(10:17):
take the time to say, hey, thankyou for trusting me enough to
let me do this.

Leslie Young (10:21):
Yeah, I think it's kind of wild. Because like, as
someone who gets tattoos too,like, sometimes you don't
necessarily get the same amountof attention to like, who you
are as, like a person fromdifferent artists. And like,
it's definitely kind of odd whenyou go get a tattoo and like, I

(10:41):
get it, because as an artist,like, I can see that happening.
If you, you know, you've beentattooing for, like, years, and
it's just gotten kind of like,not mundane, but like you've
done it so many times. But yeah,some, like some artists, you can
really tell when they're payingattention to you. And like
listening to you, and likereading your email, for example.

(11:03):
And like, trying to do theirbest for you as a person and do
a good job with the tattooitself. Versus like, Oh, this is
just a tattoo. I'm just like,gonna just do this, because I've
had that from different artiststoo. And it's, it's like a, it's
like weird.

Frank Hannah (11:21):
Well, yeah, me. I mean, and I think I talked to
you about this, whenever I gotmy tattoo from you, which was,
what I realized was just fromover the years, is that you
really want your tattoo artiststo be somehow invested in a
piece of work they're doingright, as opposed to just put
this on me. So and I tell peoplethis too, that say, you know,

(11:44):
because they asked, they seeyour tattoos and they were they
want to know about them? Or whodid them or they're thinking,
oh, I want to get a tattoo. Whatshould I do? And I've said,
Listen, if you have an idea, ifthere's something specific you
want, that can't really bechanged? Well, that's one thing.
But if you have, let's say, ifit's a character, and say, Okay,
well, rather than just say,here's a picture of that

(12:06):
character, put it on me, youmight say, this is what I'm the
character I want. What do youthink like, this is the kind of
things I'm interested in? Canyou do a version of that? Yeah.
Then I've often found too, thatnot only do you get a better
tattoo, you may even get a moredetailed tattoo than somebody
who just says, No, this is whatI want. That's it.

Leslie Young (12:28):
Yeah. Um, I think it's funny, because I think I'm
still relatively young in termsof like, my tattoo experience.
So I do, like, hesitate a littlebit. When, when someone like
does send me like, just animage. And they don't really
specify like, oh, you can do youknow, this is kind of what I

(12:48):
want. But like, I want you to dogo to town. Yeah. But it really,
like encourages me when they dosay that, because then I'm like,
okay, like, I have theconfidence to like, fully do
what I want to do. But like,still adhere to like, their
requirements or whatever. Yeah.
But yeah, sometimes I get justlike a reference picture. And
I'm also just like, a little,like, Hey, is it okay? Like, and
I like, just do this in my ownstuff. Like, I'm still a little

(13:10):
bit shy about it. Because I didspend like, the beginning of my
two years, just doing whatpeople wanted, because I didn't
know exactly what style I wantedto do just yet. And so I just do
exactly like, they want this,like manga panel, I'll do
exactly that. You want this?
I'll be like, Okay, I'll just dothat. And I was just trying to

(13:31):
figure out like, what's good atthe time, too.

Frank Hannah (13:34):
Yeah, because it adds so much like pressure, like
if I did some piece of graphicart for somebody in Photoshop,
or illustrator or something, andI send it to them, and they say,
This is shit, and you fix it,then you go, okay, and then you
go back and you fix it.

Leslie Young (13:49):
I'll be like, I'll do whatever I want at that
point, if that's not what youwant, and but but

Frank Hannah (13:53):
if you tattoo it, it's too late. Right? Yeah. So
it's one of those things wherethere's more to it than just the
image itself, because peoplehave an idealized version of
what they think it's going tobe. Yeah. And they say, oh, so
what's your tattoo gonna be in?
This is before I got the tattoo.
We go right on. And I said,Well, I don't know. But I gave

(14:15):
the tattoo artist, a bunch ofreference. Yeah. Well, what did
she come up with? I'm like, Idon't know. What when you're
going to find out and I'm like,well, well, when I go, yeah. And
they're like, well, that'scrazy. And I go, Well, no, not I
mean, here's the thing. It's notlike, you're gonna say this is
it, buddy? And that's, you know,that's no choice. But in a way

(14:36):
it's, it's like I was trustingyou, I could see that you have
artistic abilities, and that youdo a wide range of things. So to
me, it's like, I wanted to kindof be surprised to see what what
it was. And, of course, youdidn't do something outlandish
because you saw what the Yeah,you saw, you know, it might not
even have been what you reallywant it to do, but it was like
okay, well, this is kind of inthe vein of what he wants, so

(14:59):
that you're able to do that. Andthat's kind of the thing. That's
why I'm really fascinated bywhat tattoo artists do. And what
makes you an exciting person totalk to is that like, you don't
fit the bill for what like youexpect to see as a tattoo
artist, you know, you expect tosee some fully tattooed face
tattoo just looks like 1000miles of dirt road just like

(15:23):
they've been through it. Andthat's just not you. You're
actually so unassuming and justthis year. Yeah, so

Leslie Young (15:31):
funny, because I do think that I fall like,
because of like how I grew intotattooing. I feel like I stand
right now in a weirdintersection between like, what
has happened in the last twoyears specifically. And then
also like tattooing, in general,because I basically, like grew

(15:51):
up in a tattoo shop, or like myfirst experiences in tattooing,
were in a shop in Venice. Andlike, I learned a lot of
tattooing from themspecifically. But I think a lot
of tattooing from the last fewyears, I would call like COVID,
tattooing has been like privatestudios, like private
everything. And the experiencesare a lot different for each

(16:15):
one. Because right now I'm in aprivate studio, I do really miss
like a shop environment. But sothe this, like the demographic
has shifted a lot because oflike, who's now tattooing. So
many of these new private shopshave, like popped up in LA
specifically, I feel reallylike, oh, I have like friends in

(16:36):
this space. But I also havefriends in this space. And like
they have very different ideasabout tattooing in general that,
yeah, I'm just here, corner.

Frank Hannah (16:49):
Keys, I think what you're kind of also saying is
that, you know, there's, if youwould continue to work in a shop
and you work your way up,whatever that hierarchy is,
just, it's still learning frompeople, right? You're still
learning from different artists,at any entity level of, of
talent, right? They're, they'reshowing you things that they do.
And that's one of things I wasthinking about, before talking

(17:09):
to you was, like years ago,before Instagram and social
media and all of that. If youwanted to know, what was thought
to be a good tattoo style, orwhat was hip tattoo style to get
out of that the what's thething? Well, you that you had to
go into a tattoo parlor, whichwas a little intimidating for a

(17:31):
lot of people. And it was a timesaying the 80s and early 90s,
where women weren't reallygetting tattooed as much where
you could see it, right, theymight have tattoos, but it would
be on a shoulder or withsomebody somewhere where it
wasn't visible. And so for, sayyour average college girl, they

(17:55):
might not want to go into like atattoo shop, which was male
dominated, as well in terms ofthe type of artists and now it's
a completely different world.
Because if, if even someone likemyself, if I wanted to see what
cool tattoos were out there, Imight pick up like tattoo
magazine or one of the fewmagazines. But now that it's

(18:15):
almost passe that they had thesemagazines because vintage,
right? And so you'd see that andit was interesting and cool. But
what's happening now, withtattoo art is so different. If
you're just living in a kind ofbubble of just what other tattoo
artists are doing, if you'retrying to do something outside

(18:39):
of that, your main people thatare going to tell you yes or no
or other tattoo artists, right.
And there's like the idea ofwhat you should do. And they
might say, I don't like that, orthat's, that's not good, like,
but you see the type of stuffthat's getting tattooed onto
people and the styles of thingsthat are getting tattooed. Like

(18:59):
I saw an Instagram video ofsomebody who just does nothing
but like food tattoos on people.
It's

Leslie Young (19:05):
yeah, it's really funny because this is kind of
like what I'm saying too, withlike this new wave of tattooing
that's coming along. And there'slike trends like I like
everything. There's trends, andlike tattoos, but there's some
people that will only do likethis, like spiky I think it's
kind of like a running jokeamongst like other tattooers but

(19:28):
it's like this spiky fairy goth,wide 2k style that's like come
on, but it's kind of like it'snot necessarily like tribal, but
it has like certain elementsthat like borrow from those
designs, but it's I wish I couldjust show you right now. That's
not gonna help you helpful forthe podcast.

Frank Hannah (19:49):
No, probably not.

Leslie Young (19:50):
But I'm trying to say that this this like funny
trend is coming along. And it'sgetting a lot of like yes or no
from different tattooers basedon like I'm talking to the big
Oh, that's so cool like you andlike, wow, you know, good for
them. And then I also hear a lotof like, oh my God, that's
insane. Like, why would you dothat? Or like, that's horrible?

Frank Hannah (20:10):
You absolutely.
And as if you're just looking attattoos for ideas as a guy who
likes tattoos, like, I'll lookon Instagram, and I'll see
somebody who's doing somethingthat is so completely outside of
what anyone else is doing. Andit looks awesome. Now, whether
or not you want to get that as atattoo or not, I don't know.
It's everyone's different. Yeah.

(20:31):
But it's so cool. And then youlook at it, like, oh, that
person's in Austria, or thatperson's like on the Spain,
Canada, absolutely. Other sideof the world. But I love it
because it allows there to bethis level playing field of
what's possible, right? It's notjust an idea. Look, this person
does this. And I talked about Iput down some, some trends too,

(20:55):
because I wanted to kind of askyou about them. And of course,
would you describe your style askind of Neo traditional?

Leslie Young (21:04):
I'm not necessarily because I think when
I think of Neo traditional, Ithink of like a like a lot of
dramatic directness Magnus. Idon't know how to describe kind
of like, you know, Alphonsemukha, like that. Yeah, like,
tattoo ified. And like morefocused on like, maybe like just
the head of a woman or like,just like certain detail that's

(21:26):
super dramatic, a lot of like,really continuous gradients of
color. And then like a lot oflike embellishing with like,
whether it's abstract with like,just like smoke or something, or
if it's just like flowers on theside, or just to make the
whatever focus of it. look waymore. Right. Yeah.

Frank Hannah (21:47):
You know, your art reminds me of a night. I'm not
sure if you know, the artists,but there's an artist. Her name
is Joe Cooper. You know, JoeCooper.

Leslie Young (21:55):
Yeah, I think I used to follow them.

Frank Hannah (21:58):
And yes, she's amazing. Yeah. And it's not an
exact but I think there'selements of it where I see that
and as that same gives me thatsame feeling. And she's great.
I, you know, I own a couple ofsmall pieces of hers. But now
she does almost strictlyanimals. She used to do
beautiful women and almost kindof berry type stuff. But now

(22:22):
it's like, specifically itseemed I think she's a big
nature person. I think she lovesgot nature. And so yeah, a lot
of the stuff she does now tendsto be animals. But it's so cool.
I mean, I don't know, I hope youtake that as a compliment.
Because Thank you, because Ireally, I really do think she's,
she's awesome. But so, you know,I was thinking about, like some

(22:42):
of the stuff that I see on linethat I just wonder what you
think of like, okay, there'sHave you heard of this? Trash,
polka tattooing? Or trash?
Tattoos? Like ignorance style? Idon't know if that's another way
to put it. But it's, it's prettymuch like, whatever. Yeah, it

(23:02):
has a definite style to it. Itdoesn't just seem like random.
But it's crazy, you know, justjust curious, because it's
artistic, but it's almostabstract, and the people that do
it, or that, that habit. It'slarge pieces that extend all
over the body. And and it'sjarring. It's not necessarily

(23:25):
like, Oh, that's amazing. Yousee it and it's making a
statement. Yeah. And, and so, Idon't know that that ever took
off. Because I see some peoplehave it, but it's not something
I see a lot of,

Leslie Young (23:38):
I think this style, like, every time I see
stuff like that, where it's moreabstract, it's like not your
typical, quote unquote, typicaltattoo. It's not really like
trying to portray specific,like, subject matter. It's just
like designs and like imagery onsomeone. I think it's really,
like, really amazing. And in twoways, like one, it's, it's

(24:01):
amazing, because it's like,that's amazing. And it looks
cool. The second one is thatit's amazing because you really
need a lot of negative space tofor a lot of these designs, like
rely a lot on having completelyempty space for that designed to
look at on its own right.

Frank Hannah (24:21):
Yeah, cuz it doesn't loose as near as I can
tell. You couldn't like have abunch of more traditional
looking tattoos and then havethat around. It's just not

Leslie Young (24:30):
exactly so the thing about those is that you
need all this empty space andthen you can't get like other
stuff next to it because thenthey'll just mess up like what
you have gotten screwed up.
Yeah, so that to me is amazing,too. Because they're willing to
just be like I'm not gonna getor I don't know, of course they
can still go get more tattoosbut

Frank Hannah (24:49):
like they for It's usually more of the same stuff,
though. Like leave it

Leslie Young (24:53):
like to keep it in that way or like to keep that
imagery going. I think that'scool.

Frank Hannah (24:59):
Yeah. I'm just going back a little bit like so
when you were before you wereany kind of artists route, let
alone tattoo artist? What wasnot counting what maybe your
parents might have thought wasthe direction for you? What was
the thing? What was the dreamjob? What was the thing you
wanted to do? And maybe it'stattooing? I don't know, I'm

(25:21):
just

Leslie Young (25:22):
Oh, um, I mean, honestly, I didn't really know.
But I really liked the idea ofgoing into animation or
illustration or something likethat, which I have a couple of
clients that do work in thatkind of thing, or like concept
design, and I think they're socool. And it's crazy that they
can get work done by me. And I'mlike, Oh, my God, like you're

(25:44):
working a job that like I mighthave wanted to do when I was
younger.

Frank Hannah (25:47):
But couldn't you still do it? You're still young?
Yeah,

Leslie Young (25:50):
I think that I do have to learn I have to go to
school for it. Because they usedifferent equipment that I I
mean, maybe maybe I could selfteach. But I would really need
to work on like certain projectsthat I think that need to be of
industry, like up to par withindustry. And I think that
there's some pretty cool schoolsout there that do offer programs
like that. Oh, yeah. But I thinka lot of them are like, not in

(26:13):
person. And I don't like.

Frank Hannah (26:17):
You mean, it's like over like the internet? Or?
No, I think you really do need,especially with art. Yeah,

Leslie Young (26:23):
I'm like, I can't like I don't know, like it can't
focus. So when I'm on Zoom,like, what's going on?

Frank Hannah (26:31):
Well, I think it's like you need, I was talking to
one of the friends of mine whoowns the Kubert School of comic
comics, and design and animationand all that. And we were kind
of talking about, because theyhad to do a lot of zoom stuff,
because they're in New YorkCity, or they're in New Jersey.
And I was like, you know, like,I like going on to YouTube, for

(26:54):
example. And somebody will say,well, here's how you draw a head
and a cartoony way, or here'show you draw this or that.
That's fine. And you can do it.
Yeah. But what you really needis somebody that like a teacher
or somebody goes, Oh, no, no,no. Let me show you my trick.
This is how I do it. Like, thisis how I conceptualize and maybe
you don't say it that way. Butthey're showing you things that

(27:15):
help you to jump. miles ahead.
Yeah. And if you don't havethat,

Leslie Young (27:22):
it's like you're Yep, you got it. Well, you'll
eventually learn it yourself.
Like if you do it enough times.
Oh, this is actually reallyfunny. Because so yeah, I said
that in high school, I likedidn't know about schools having
like our programs and stuff. SoI only found out because my, my

(27:42):
mom found this program inIrvine, which is like a city
away from where we lived thathat it was basically like a
college prep program for peoplewho wanted to do an art school.
And so they would help thesestudents like, create portfolios
that they could submit to theschool as part of the
application. And when I wentthere, that's when I met like a

(28:03):
bunch of other students thatwere like we are on our, on our
way to RISD, or, like, we're onour way to Art Center, like,
this is like what we want. Andit was pretty intense. Like,
that seemed pretty highpressure, like these students
were like, not there to like,mess around. It was just like,
okay, here to like, grind. Yeah,

Frank Hannah (28:19):
we're here to suck all the joy out of drawing. And

Leslie Young (28:23):
I was really intimidated because like, I had
come out from like, a different,like, no one entered school was
like this, I was like, oh mygod, like, I'm so behind, like,
I have to, but I mean, I onlywent there to like, check it
out. And like, take, like, Itook one life drawing class. But
the, the instructors there werekind of like that they like new
industry stuff. And they hadworked in the industry. And they

(28:45):
like, whenever they would comearound and help you they, you
know, here's, here's my quickand dirty way of doing whatever,
whatever, or like you, likereally do this. And then it was
cool. Like I really admired alot of this teachers because
they just like went through allthis stuff. And then we're like,
hey, and they were really nice,too. So that was kind of cool.
It's it's

Frank Hannah (29:03):
definitely encouraging, I think, if you
spend a lot of time around othercreative people, and you know,
there's like this Buddhist kindof thing about don't be too
stingy with the Dharma, youknow, like, if you've got the
knowledge, like, share it don'tkeep

Leslie Young (29:19):
teachers like never share everything that the
next generation so like,knowledge gets.

Frank Hannah (29:25):
Yeah, they're like, No, I'm not Yeah, I don't
want to I don't want to do so.
When people do it's, it'shelpful. So yeah, so you want it
to get into animation. Like whatkind of animation like what were
you watching? That was like,this is really kick ass.

Leslie Young (29:38):
Um, I like like animated movies. animated
movies. Yeah, but honestly, Ididn't really know how or like
what was going on or like what Ineeded to do to get there and I
didn't really I wasn't in aspace where I could like do a
lot of research ready eithermentally speaking. So I didn't
really perceive that

Frank Hannah (29:57):
interesting. I did you know There's the idea of
what you think you want to do.
And it's sometimes pie in thesky or like, it's like, oh, it's
a dream. It's never gonnahappen. Yeah. But anything is
possible in this world. Yeah.
And I don't mean that in somekind of Pollyanna way. I really
do believe now that people cando

Leslie Young (30:17):
it. Yeah, I think if you like want, really, really
want to do something, you'regonna make it happen. Like no
matter what, like,

Frank Hannah (30:23):
No, I do.
Absolutely. And I think there'ssomething to be said for not
being another drone in the artschool world or in say, my case,
being in film, film and TV, notgoing to film school where they
turn out, basically just carboncopies of the same thing, and
that you need to live and haveyour own experiences and your

(30:44):
style grows that way. Like, forme, I was working in my 20s at a
corporate job I didn't reallyparticularly care for, but they
would pay for school. Like, ifyou're going to go for a
business degree, they would,they would pay for it. Right?
And I just didn't want to dothat. Because I really, it

(31:04):
wasn't my calling. It wasn'twhat I really wanted to do.
Yeah, but at the end of the day,another big part of it was,
okay, I'm working 40 hours aweek. Yeah, at a job, I can't
fucking stand. And then I'mgoing to go to school at night.
And like, what am I going tohave enough living to write
about? So I so I didn't end upgoing to school for that. And I

(31:26):
ended up spending a lot of timegoing to Vegas, for example,
like with friends and stuff. AndI never had two cents, but I
would go and I would win moneyand I would lose it. And at one
point, I remember I was in acasino. And I would get really
drunk too, because you know,you're young 21 It's Vegas, you
know, but I was a belligerentdrunk. So that's one of the

(31:49):
reasons why I don't drink now,because I was just belligerent
not mean, but just out ofcontrol. Here it is chaotic. And
I remember, I was at a blackjacktable, and I was just being
drunken, an idiot. And the pitboss came over to me, and he
says, if you don't shut the fuckup, I'm gonna bounce you out of
here. And of course, I startedapologizing because I wasn't

(32:14):
being spared. I was like, Ah,sorry. Yeah, like the worst, the
worst, total worst? Because I'mthinking, Oh, no, I'm really
sorry. And he's like, listen,while you've been sitting here,
you have won and lost $7,000.
For real? Yeah. And I'm like,oh, and that sobered me up a bit

(32:35):
at the time. And what I rememberabout that. I mean, I had I had
made money, but and back then Iwould make more money than I do
now. Because you're just crazywhen you're when you're had a
few, because you just you don'thave the inhibitions that would
stop you from saying, I'm goingto put all this money, or I'm
going to bet all this money,you're more. Okay. But the point

(32:56):
is, I spent all that time incasinos, on weekends with
friends. And I got to see whatthat world was. And so that's
what inspired me to write thefirst movie that I ever had
made, which was called thecooler. And it was about a guy
who was unlucky, so unlucky, hehad infectious bad luck. And

(33:18):
that is only born out of thefact that I just spent time
around these interestingcharacters. And that life lesson
was around, had I gone toschool. I mean, I just wouldn't
have had

Leslie Young (33:30):
that so jaded to about everything.

Frank Hannah (33:34):
Yeah, so I think, you know, there's, like I said,
somebody can be set for kind of,you know, yeah, I mean, going
your own way, and really justbeing you, so that you're not,
because one thing's for sure.
It's like, if someone looks atyour tattoos, they're not going
to say, Oh, she's like, there'slike 50 other 100,000, other
Lesley Young's out there, I cango and get something like this

(33:57):
room. It's like, you have anoriginal English style, don't
you think? I mean, there'senough traditional about it that
you say, Okay, it's not so outthere that it's, you know, and
that may change, right, like 10years from now you may have a
have adapted into somethingcompletely different. That's
true. Yeah.

Leslie Young (34:17):
I mean, I don't it's funny because a lot of
apprentices like their mentorswill have them start off with
American traditional, because itteaches you all like the basic
stuff, but that wasn't the casefor me. And so eventually, had I
gone through like different, youknow, different styles. And then
it was like me being like, whyhaven't I done any American

(34:40):
traditional yet? Like, what isup with this? And then I tried
to check it out a little bit anddraw on that style and like I
would coffee like Sailor Jerryor, you know, stuff, and then I
was like, oh, that's actuallyreally neat, like, very flexible
in terms of,

Frank Hannah (34:57):
but yeah, but you wouldn't know that from just
looking at it. Right, right.
Only through the process ofdoing it right. I think that's,
that's awesome. So when you arethinking about your art career,
maybe you aren't even thinkingabout your art or you're just
thinking, what am I going to do?
Right? You're not maybe the asput together about it

Leslie Young (35:15):
in your head, like what's gonna happen next month,
right?

Frank Hannah (35:18):
So how do you come to? Like, do you get a job
working in a tattoo shop withthe idea that you're going to
tattoo or where you're like,hey, it's an artistic place.
It's got a lot of creativity.
I'm gonna go there and seewhat's up.

Leslie Young (35:33):
Like for me specifically, or anybody for
you? All I really wanted totattoo once I figured, like,
once I found out what tattooingwas, and I was like, well, we'll
do this like what? I reallywanted to do it, but I had no
friends that had tattoos and ourfriends that tattooed and no one

(35:53):
in my family has had to like Ihad no leads, like not a single
one. That's what's weird to me.
It's not like it wasn't like Ihad a friend cuz you know,
everyone who's like, oh, well,my friend had to so I you know,
it's always like that literallyis just nepotism in a bad way.
But like, it's like your friendgot you into something like, Oh,
my room. But so I did a lot oflike, it was really scary.

(36:15):
Because I didn't know anything.
And I don't think that shopreally wanted to apprentice.
Anybody to be honest. I thinkthey just wanted extra hands.
Which is like, fine, because Ilearned so much while I was
there, even though I wasn'tapprenticing.

Frank Hannah (36:32):
Well, yeah, because you who goes to work at
a tattoo shop without aninterest in tattooing? Yeah,
some people. But um, I mean,maybe because it's like a cool
place. Yeah, it's a cool placeto hang out. But, you know,
that's not a long term solution.

Leslie Young (36:48):
I mean, yeah, I mean, I definitely wanted to
tattoo it was clear to me. Ijust didn't know like, what was
going on. I didn't, I didn'tknow any of the etiquette, or I
didn't know the traditions, howthe whole I know, the
traditions. And I didn't know Ijust like kept going though. I
just kept like, going to worklearning different things every

(37:09):
day. Like no matter what wasgoing on, who's even if it was a
slow day, I was like,

Frank Hannah (37:12):
so. So really, what you're saying is, you just
kind of I don't wanna say youjust wandered into it. Because
it sounds like you, you had

Leslie Young (37:20):
no level I tried really hard to like, even like,
not necessarily in furniture,but like, even just work at our
shop. Like was kind of stressfuland hard. Because all obviously
didn't No one's like, we needYeah, like,

Frank Hannah (37:37):
they're not real friendly to people that right?
Like that's,

Leslie Young (37:40):
I think the only place like I don't even know how
they would like push, like, it'snot like yellow pages where
you're like, we need like shophelp or whatever, where you can,
like, I just like contacted allof the tattoo shops that were
within my vicinity, not knowinglike, what they did, or like who
they were or anything. I justreally wanted to be in the scene
and be like, with these creativepeople, because I knew that they

(38:03):
knew things that I could atleast watch.

Frank Hannah (38:07):
Did somebody take you under their wing in a way
that say, Hey, let me Are youinterested? Because if you hang
around long enough, they'regonna know that you're not just
somebody who's going to be therefor a couple of months and then
leave, right?

Leslie Young (38:22):
Yeah, it's kind of a tricky situation. And yes,
someone did take me under theirwing, and I'm super grateful for
them, because they basicallygave you good advice in my life.
We don't really talk anymore.
But it's I still like, admirethis person from afar. But yeah,
um, so the shop doesn't reallydo a good job of like teaching

(38:42):
that shop in particular. I mean,I know there's lots of shops
that do this, they'll just kindof like have you around. Or like
they tell you your apprenticing,but they don't really teach you
anything, but I did learn aslike someone who is good at
like, watching and like, okay,they're doing that thing, like
write it down, or like rememberthat or whatever. So that's how

(39:03):
I learned what just kind ofworked out for me. Because
understand that other peoplemight need someone to tell tell
them or they might need like,different Do people just learn
differently, right? But I thinkfor someone like me, I was
pretty happy with like, justlike stealing information,
whatever you like gettingsomeone up and like learning
what their setup was. Or likebreaking someone down being

(39:27):
like, oh, like, why are theyusing this?

Frank Hannah (39:30):
See, that's a highly motivated way to look at
it. Right? Because you'rethinking if somebody's not
offering the information, I wantto and I wasn't a way to get

Leslie Young (39:41):
it. Right. And I wasn't even sure if I was
allowed to like ask questions,because you know, sometimes,
like it just didn't I didn'tseem I didn't feel like Welcome
at all, to be honest. In thespace. Well, there was a lot of
like, older dudes that Iwouldn't even talk to them
because I was so scared of like,what they were Say, I knew one
of them didn't like they wereprobably scared of you. Well,

(40:03):
one of them didn't like me atall, because so I was working
for the shop at the moment. AndI would like, I would basically
like pay to help pay out theshop, pay out the artists at the
end of the day. And since I waslike really good at math, I
could like do the calculationspretty easy. And like I would, I
would just double check withthem, hey, you got this. And it
was just pretty simple stuff forme. But one of the artists was

(40:23):
like arguing with me about like,what the number they got. And I
was like, No, it's this. Andthey were like, No, it's this.
And I was like, we got into it.
And I was like, dude, like, I'mjust explaining to you like
basic math is math.

Frank Hannah (40:35):
I'm not like this.
Nothing is facts like

Leslie Young (40:37):
this is it. From then on, it was like, it was
like a weird tension. But asidefrom that, it didn't help. This
doesn't help. But I really likeidolize them too, because I'm
like, oh my god, I do this witha lot of tattooers that I made
to my God, they're so good.
Like, I'm just, I'm like too shyto tell them that like I draw or
like I tend to or whatever to.
And that plus just being nervousaround people was like, not a

(41:01):
good combination to be like, oh,like, so I noticed that you were
using this? Like, why are youWhy do you do that? Or like, how
did you get started or somethinglike that. So I had to resort to
just doing like my thing of justbeing observant and just
watching and seeing, watchingand then copying and seeing
what.

Frank Hannah (41:19):
And so the reason why I'm kind of going down this
road is because one of thethings that I talk to people
about in these interviews is, iscreativity and the idea that
you're not a creative person,because you had one great idea
one day, at the top off the topof your head. You're creative,
because the first 1000 ideas mayhave not been quite there. But

(41:45):
you went to the 1000. And firstidea, right? Or you kept on
going. Yeah, and so it's a noone talks about. And that's one
of the things when I say whenpeople kind of underestimate
what it takes to do somethingartistic, they don't understand
that the creative process is

Leslie Young (42:00):
stupid, like, it's, you're insane,

Frank Hannah (42:03):
you're insane. And that it is something that is the
difference between a creativeperson and a non creative
person, at least in their mindsis that they just stop. They
stop, you know, they might say,Oh, I tried to think of
something, but my two ideas andthey suck. So I just stopped.
I'm like, well, that's, that'swhy it's just my theory is

(42:25):
creativity is problem solving.
And if anybody in the world, ifyou've ever solved the problem,
you're being creative. So that'sthe kind of thrust of this whole
podcast. But the idea isdifferent. What I'm hearing from
you is, you have seen a lot ofwhat would be conceived by
others as barriers as a closedgroup of people that aren't

(42:45):
necessarily interested andrevealing their secrets to you.
And you're like, well, I'll justkeep going. And so why didn't
you because you because fromwhat you're saying to me, and
correct me if I'm wrong, you areshy?

Leslie Young (43:03):
Yeah, first of all shy, and then also there. It's
just like, I'm glad that Ididn't just like barely, like,
you know, elbow my way throughand just be like, what's this?
Because like, yes, while thatmay have sped up my learning
process a lot. And I think a lotof people do that. I also think
that's incredibly rudesometimes, like, I'm like,

(43:24):
they're just doing their job.
Like they don't need someone tobe at them all the time. So
being conscious of that, Iwas like, oh my god, like, I
don't want to be that person. Idon't want to be like that
annoying shop health girl whowas just like, What do you? What
are you doing that? Yeah, like,That's

Frank Hannah (43:41):
so rude. Well, you kind of erred on the side of
caution, right, but

Leslie Young (43:45):
but a little bit too much. I think like, I think
it would be totally okay, if Iwas like, you know, here and
there being like, what's this?
And I think that because Iwasn't asking those questions.
People might be like, Oh my God,she's not even interested in
learning. Do not ask me anyquestions. When in reality, I'm
just,

Frank Hannah (44:01):
you're just dying to ask a question, but you just
haven't. Yeah, so it's

Leslie Young (44:04):
really difficult to like, surpass that barrier?
Or be like, is it okay for me toask or like, is it okay for me
to like, do the thing with allthese like social things in
mind, which I think is reallyinteresting, because my next
point is that the mentor thathad taken me under his wing is
Japanese, and he learned inJapan, all those social rules

(44:26):
are super relevant, especiallyin a traditional Japanese, like,
mentorship, you don't even askquestions allowed to so it's
like, well, I could as like, youknow, someone in America and
like, whatever. I still waslike,

Frank Hannah (44:41):
you're kind of honoring the kind of and like,

Leslie Young (44:43):
the way I was raised to like, Confucianism and
like, you respect your elders,you know, like, be a disturbance
for your elders. So it's like,all those things coming together
and way and the way that I gotinto tattooing while it was
drawn out, it's incrediblypainful. Because of those
things, yeah. It's kind ofliving about it. Now I'm like,

(45:06):
wow, that was stupid. Well,because

Frank Hannah (45:08):
we never, you know, maybe our own self concept
isn't the same as what otherpeople see, like me, I see you
as like this kind of rock star.
Right? And you may say, I don'tknow if I believe that, because
you're just you. Yeah, but, butother people have, they see you
as this, this thing. And maybethat's not fair. Because you
live your own life and you, butwe, we tend to admire the people

(45:31):
that one go after something thatthey really want. And two are
really good at it. And three,are humble, like, humility is a
huge thing for me, like, I hatecocky people. Totally hate,
like, it just makes me sick.

(45:52):
Because people can have amassive amount of skills. And
that's great. But then they'reblessed in that way. And they
may have worked really superhard for it, which totally I
get, just, you know, just anounce of humility kind of goes a
long way for me. And I do feellike you're, you're not you're
fairly unassuming as a person.
And I'm not just kissing yourass. I'm just trying to say that
you kind of have kind of gonethrough a little journey to get

(46:16):
to where you're at now, right?
But you didn't step on anybody'shead to do it. You were kind of
one minded about like, Okay,well, this is what I want, this
is what I'm going to do. And Ithink that's important for other
people to hear. Because peoplefeel like, they don't know what
their options are. But there's acouple things like my generation

(46:40):
is like the low self esteemgeneration, right? Where, like,
our parents are the ones thatare like, children should be
seen and not heard. And you'renot supposed to have feelings
and right. And so we feel likewe're not good enough. So
therefore we find something thatwe think we want to do, so that
we will end up proving toourselves and to whoever it is,

(47:01):
are the voice of our father ormother, brothers or who our
family that were good enough,right? And that's fine. So for
me, that's why I wanted tobecome a writer, my dad was a
big movie fan. So I thought,well, I become a movie writer,
then then I'll be good enough.
Well, the thing is, you're goodenough anyway. But but you don't
know that at the time. And whenthat all kind of came to

(47:23):
fruition. Something reallyamazing happened. It was also
kind of tragic in a way, whichwas that none of it delivers on
the promise, like whatever inyour mind, you think it's going
to solve by gaining the successin the field, you want to work
in its own reward and has, it'sa huge accomplishment. And

(47:45):
there's lots of pluses andminuses to that. But that has
nothing to do with all yourchildhood shit. And you're like,
that is not going to get solvedat least directly. Right? So
that was one of those things forme is that that came from much
more my point, low self esteemand going okay, I will be good
enough later generations. And wekind of know people like this

(48:07):
where they have way too muchself esteem. But they don't have
the neither the talent nor theabilities. But they but they
think that they're the greatestthing ever. Yeah. And that's a
strange thing. And that's,that's not everybody, but I'm
saying this is something yousee, it didn't used to be that
way. It used to be somebody whois really down on themselves.

(48:30):
They don't feel like they'regood enough. And then now you
have people who think they'regood enough, but they they
haven't done any of the work to,because they've learned all
their entire life. That is thegreatest thing since sliced
bread.

Leslie Young (48:41):
Yeah, I mean, I really, I don't I mean,
sometimes I meet people likethat, but it just like, doesn't
make sense to me. Because, like,what, like, What are you even
doing? Or like, what are youdoing? Right? But I think that
also like social media playslike a big part of this, because
a lot of people are super big onsocial. And I think that like I
can imagine it being like a hugeconfidence boost being like, Oh,

(49:02):
I like have these many peoplelike saying that I'm amazing. I
don't know, I think that I do alot of internal work. When I'm
working, trying to be creativeor trying to do my work. It's
always just me, talking tomyself. And like, no matter what
someone is saying, even ifthey're like, I love this, it's
like still my own word that likewhat worries me the most

(49:23):
essentially,

Frank Hannah (49:24):
like, what I try and tell people too, is that the
barrier to creativity for a lotof people is the self critic
that says, Oh, you suck. Right,or That's lame.

Leslie Young (49:33):
Yeah. I mean, it's not necessarily a very because
it's the same person that'smaking me do more like continue
to keep

Frank Hannah (49:39):
pushing. Well, that's true. But, but the
difference is, you don'tnecessarily listen to it, right?
Because some people hear thatand stop. You hear it and go,
Okay, I can always be better,right? And so then you know, as
long as it's not perfection,because you'll never reach it so

(49:59):
much Question to you then wouldbe like, what keeps you going
whenever you feel like you'vereached the end of your rope in
terms of creativity, orsomething, some creative
project? Because at some point,like, how do you talk yourself
into? Yeah,

Leslie Young (50:15):
cuz, okay, this is funny because I'm year of the
ox. And growing up my parentslike made fun of me for it
because I was born. Yeah,you're, you're the OGs. And then
in September when school starts,then also like four or 5am in
the morning, and to them, it'slike, really funny, because

(50:35):
that's like, what a really hardworker does gets up really early
in the morning, right at thebeginning of the school year,
like when things are startingnear the office is like super
hard work hard working, and willsymbol and like the Chinese
zodiac. And so they're like,lovely, you're like Doom to like
a word of life full of work,labor. And I was like, okay, but

(50:56):
like, it didn't, obviously,doesn't matter. It's just like,
you know, I

Frank Hannah (50:59):
think you've you may have picked on something
that is important, which is thatyou do work all the time. But
you do what you love. So it'skind of like, it's a little
easier to

Leslie Young (51:12):
well, this is funny, because even if I wanted
to say, oh my god, I'm BrainJuice is emptied. I am not
creative at all. I'm done. Like,I've, I've messed up this flash
sheet. I can't finish it. I justfeel like so I did feel this
actually, really recentlybecause I'm doing another flash

(51:34):
batch for this month. But I waslike, ah, like, I hate myself
right now. This sucks. So I putit away. And I was like, I
should just quit like, you know,just like in my mind, like, I'm
so bad.
I have nothing left, empty. Thisis I've peaked
like it's just down. But thenliterally, like I woke up, like

(51:56):
the next morning and I was like,oh, you know what, let me go
back. So I can't even help it.
If I like felt that way. It'sjust like, I'm stubborn. And I
will go back and try to finishit. Even if it's like, no, this
is a lost cause. Give me liketwo hours. Like, I'll be back on
it. Like it's just

Frank Hannah (52:13):
see. And I'm not saying that other people can be
like that. Because I thinkpeople can train themselves to
say, Okay, I'm gonna give thisanother go. But it's that's the
difference between somebody whocan be successful in their own
way. And somebody who just says,the hell with it, because

(52:34):
there's nothing wrong withsaying, I have nothing left to
give. I'm over, I'm done.

Leslie Young (52:41):
I think I'm just like, really stubborn and like
stupid to because this will showand like other things if I'm
doing something wrong. But Ithink if I just keep doing it,
like something will change,like, I'll just keep doing it.
And that's also really like anox, bullish type behaviors, like
you're ramming into, like a walllike, this is the end. That's

(53:02):
it? Like no, no, I'm gonna keep.

Frank Hannah (53:04):
So yeah, so maybe it makes sense that you're,
you're the octopus you are.

Leslie Young (53:09):
I'm not like thinking either really
necessarily. Like, I guess likethe logical side of my brain.
I'm just just

Frank Hannah (53:16):
going for it. This is the message people need to
hear in life, whether it's fromyou from me or from anyone else
is that because what will happenis I'll work on a script, you
know, that could take me months.
Yeah. And then it goes out intothe town. And it'll be it could
be dead within 72 hours. Friday,sometimes this is great. But

(53:38):
then by the time Sunday rollsaround, it's dead. And that is
such a bummer. Because you putall of this time and effort into
it. And what I tell people whatI do is, and it's a weird
conscious choice I make is Isay, I give myself one day to be
really bummed about it. Okay, IYeah, then I'll have my little

(54:02):
pity party for one day. And thenthe day after that, I just get
on with it. Yeah, because it, Iget it. It's disappointing, but
like, what am I going to do? Ihave to keep going.

Leslie Young (54:13):
Yeah, I think that's really relevant, or tend
to stuff that like, I want to dolike personal projects. Like, I
don't know if you know, but Ilike sent out these emails with,
like, designs that I like, andsometimes it's, like really
successful. Like, every, almostevery design gets taken or like,
you know, people want modifiedversions of all them or

(54:36):
whatever. And that's like,great, like, Wow, I can't
believe like, thank you. Butlike, sometimes I send them out
and like not a single personreplies and it's just like no
one wanted and I spent all thisbug effort like drawing these
coloring, like doing pre coloreddesigns, like all this stuff.
And like cricket, or I'll getlike an email being like these

(54:57):
are great, but like not Yeah,and again, I'm tired too. Dude,
I'm like, thinks

Frank Hannah (55:02):
you should try something crazy. You should send
the same flash out like the nextmonth and see what the responses
negative these are. These areawesome. You're like, Okay, you
focus on even look at the lastemail.

Leslie Young (55:14):
And like, it's funny because like the email
blasts thing that I have, likeshows me like, who opened them
and like,

Frank Hannah (55:21):
Oh, so you just torture yourself at this point.

Leslie Young (55:24):
I'm like, Why do I even bother? Like, why is this
part of the program? Like, whydoes it allow me to look at
these things, but I reallyshouldn't even bother. And for
the most part, like people dorespond pretty positively to
them. And I do hear a lot. AndI'm thankful. Well, I

Frank Hannah (55:39):
think the thing that I think it's interesting
about with that you do that isthat, and maybe a lot of tattoo
artists do it, but I don't have,you know, relationships of
working relationships oranything with a whole bunch of
tattoo artists, right. But youpretty prodigious, like you send
out stuff, like all the time.

Leslie Young (55:59):
I mean, I try to I try to be consistent about it.
And like, it's kind of funny,because I used to get really
down when someone would like,cancel an appointment, or like
reschedule. So I'm like, damn,like, I really was looking
forward to doing this on like, Ireally wanted to, yeah, but then
I spend that time drawing othernew designs instead. And I think

(56:20):
it really helps

Frank Hannah (56:22):
to separate yourself from the situation,
right? Because there's a millionreasons why someone isn't here.
Probably number one is probablyfinancial. Right? Yeah, it's a
financial commitment to right,you get it done. When I was
looking to have somebody whomight tattoo and I would send,
hey, this is what I'm lookingat. And I would get this kind of
forum. Email back. Yeah, thatbasically says, It's $300 an

(56:46):
hour. Yeah. And it's six hoursminimum. And it's $1,800. And I
want like, X amount upfront, andI'm like, I don't even fucking
know you. And you're like that.
I'm sorry. Like, I'm sure you'regreat. You know, and they are
like, you can see their work.
It's not that they're bad. Butyou're like, Whoa, whoa, whoa.

(57:07):
And so, yeah, did it burn me outof? Yes, it did. Because it's,
it's not that it's not worth it.
But like, if I have a tattoothat's a certain size, and
they're saying it's a six hourminimum, but they're essentially
saying is, I don't want to doany small tattoos, I want to do
big pieces. Right. And I thinkthat you get to a point where
you can start demanding thistype of thing, you know,

Leslie Young (57:29):
yeah, I think like, and they're right, if they
want to do work that they don'twant, there's like work that
they don't want to do, theyshould be able to say no to
those things.

Frank Hannah (57:39):
So, okay, so if you not so much like a young
tattoo artist out there, butjust in general terms of your
creative process. Like whatwould you say to somebody that,
you know, if somebody you meteither came in here, or you met
them somewhere, and they'rethere were up and coming

(58:01):
artists, and they wanted to,they just didn't know if they
had it in them or not, but youcould kind of see that they're
doing more than just doodling ona, like they have some skill
there that could be developed?
What's the advice you give toartists that to kind of push
them over the top?

Leslie Young (58:19):
For what like they just in general,

Frank Hannah (58:21):
I mean, because not so much to say, to be a
tattoo artist, which is its ownthing, but yeah, I mean, do you
not give people advice,

Leslie Young (58:30):
like much to say, because it really is your own,
like, voice telling you what todo. You know what I'm saying?
Like, if you personally arelike, I really want to do this.
And like everything about youinside of you is telling you
Yeah, do this, that like you'regonna do it right? If you're

(58:52):
feeling hesitant, because XYZand the voice inside you is
stronger than those hesitations.
You're gonna end up doing it.

Frank Hannah (59:03):
Okay, last question. And I think I asked
you this before, but I want tohave it on tape. Oh, this, this
fascination and love ofGarfield, like, where did that
come from?

Leslie Young (59:15):
Oh, okay. So this is funny because, okay, so as a
kid, I went to the publiclibrary a lot. And we would do
all like the reading programsfor kids, like, you know, summer
reading where you like, read allthat. And then you get like,
coupons to Rubio's? Like okay,candy, and like, I don't know,

(59:36):
whatever. So we did all thoseprograms. So it would go all the
time. And I loved the library.
It's like, the best thing ever.
And they got they came to apoint where I like got bored of
reading because when you justread that much as a kid, you're
like, I read the library. Butthere was a section for like
comics and stuff and I foundlike booklets of like Garfield

(01:00:00):
Comment collections and they'dbe like, from this year to this
year, so it was like a lot. AndI would get all of them at the
same time because no one everchecked them out. They were like
just sitting there likeuntouched. And so I would get
like, like six books of likeHormel or Garfield comics. And I
would just read them all thetime. And they were so I

(01:00:20):
remember them actually. Therewere like a few that I liked
that I would like bookmark andbe like, Oh, I really like this
one of Garfield calm. Yeah. Butactually went back pretty
recently to read some andthey're really not that. Well,
Jim Davis. Like Garfield'scharacter is like really

(01:00:41):
charismatic, I think becausehe's so sassy and like, violent
towards someone who I used tofeel bad for, but now I don't.
Anyway. So I read those, like,aggressively for for a few
years, actually, like, one oneyear maybe, like I would read

(01:01:03):
them, return them get otherstuff or the next week, get
other stuff in the next week.
And then like, go back andreread them. So it was like, I
have this like weird bank oflike Garfield knowledge.

Frank Hannah (01:01:15):
Listen, I've taken up enough of your time. I hope
this wasn't too annoying. Righton time. And if somebody wants
to come and schedule time withyou, what's the best place to
find you? Whether it's Instagramand or

Leslie Young (01:01:32):
your website? Look up? Yeah. Lesley young issm.com
or Instagram. Lovely. And thenmy link like there's like a
booking link in my bio.

Frank Hannah (01:01:45):
Yeah, so they can just find you there. Yeah,
exactly. And she's veryreasonable. She's very good.
Thank you. And thank you verymuch for taking the time to talk
to me. I appreciate it. Yeah, metoo. Okay.