Another new year is upon us and I have high hopes for the manifestation of my dream to have a a non profit animal rescue! Currently, I am awaiting final approval from the federal government. Please cross your fingers for me. There are so many animals in need of a loving forever home. It is all I think about these days.
I wish for everyone out there to always have a loving place to call home. 
Always remember that there is an animal in need that could use a helping hand, a hand like yours. 
Happy new year and as always I am available to Tattoo you at my shop www.thetattooroom.com

I am very pleased to announce that I have taken the first step in starting a non profit animal rescue! Once I get approved I will be looking for properties in LA and Ventura county! I am very excited about this! It has always been a dream of mine to help animals and now I am one step closer to achieving that goal. I will continue to post updates as things come along.
I am also feeling so appreciative that we have at our shop the most amazing crew of artists! Jack Mosher Fujisaki and Hana Li Tek are world famous Tattooers and now they are both working for us in Simi Valley! Simi never had it so good!  I am looking forward to a great year! 
Best wishes to everyone out there and a very happy new year!

It has been awhile since my last blog post. 

Time seems to be going faster and faster and I feel like I can’t keep up! 

I am happy to report that I love being co owner of the Tattoo Room with Danielle Oberosler and I am honored to be her friend as well! We have a great dynamic and even though I have heard that you should never go into business with friends this situation just works! We have had some trying times lately with one employee stealing from us and another quitting with not much notice, but we are surviving like we always do!

I had the wonderful fortune of meeting Jack Mosher recently and we have become good friends. If you don’t know Jack, he is one of the most respected and just all around great Tattooers in the industry! He is helping us out by sitting in at our shop next weekend! So give a call if you’d like to get work from him.

I am auctioning off a piece that I painted for my “tattoo shop” on Ink Master. Half of the proceeds will go directly to LA Cat rescue, an organization that is dear to my heart. Please spread the word!


Ebay Auction

I am happy to say that I am no longer on the show Ink Master! Now I can go back to regular life and way less stress! I am grateful to all the people that supported me and I can promise that I will continue to do outstanding Tattoos for all my clients! Look for upcoming cool Photos and Articles in these magazines, Rebel Ink, Skin and Ink and Savage! 

More info when I get it as to actual dates of issues! 

View the original article by Pamela Chelin 

"Everyone knows I'm not going to watch it," says California based tattoo artist Heather Sinn, referring to Ink Master, Spike TV's new reality television tattoo competition series that begins tonight, hosted by musician Dave Navarro. As an unhappy contestant on the show, Sinn says it took time for her to recover from what she describes as a "grueling experience."

Though she is accustomed to being in front of a camera, having modeled for years, with appearances in music videos ranging from Prince to Melissa Etheridge, the 42-year-old Michigan native, who co-owns Simi Valley tattoo shop The Tattoo Room (with tattoo artist Danielle Oberosler), hated being in front of the Ink Master cameras. "It was a very tough experience. When I was originally told about it, I said, 'This isn't like some kind of Fear Factor thing, is it? If it is, I don't want to do it.' After I was already there, I came to find out it's a lot like that. I was in tears a lot on the show. It was very hard on me and it was no secret that I was unhappy."


From spending two hours inside a freezing meat locker tattooing dead pigs to becoming sunburned while pinstriping cars on a rooftop beneath the hot summer sun, Sinn says the challenges had nothing to do with being a real tattoo artist, that the contestants were overworked and sleep deprived, and that the judges were mean.

"I wish they'd make a show about the production side of it and show what we were actually going through," she says. "At one point, we were up at night bitching about production and a producer came in and said, 'If you want to go to bed, start talking about each other. None of this complaining about production will air.' We learned that if we wanted to go to bed, and not be up all night, we'd better start talking about ourselves, others, or the challenges."

Sinn was so emotionally disturbed by the experience that she tried to leave the show several times, but producers talked her out of an early departure and they ordered her a masseuse. Despite the demanding conditions, however, Sinn concedes she is a particularly sensitive person who probably should have suspected that the show would not be genuinely artistic. "I mean, the show was for Spike, so really I should have known. I had the hardest time of the group emotionally. I'm pretty fragile."

Sinn, who was born Heather Sutherland, kept her last name from when she was married to musician Ryan Sinn (formerly of The Distillers, Angels & Airwaves). Though she did not fare well on TV, for years Sinn persevered, doing whatever she could to be successful in the male dominated industry of tattooing.

Fifteen years ago, when she first tried to secure a tattoo apprenticeship in LA, she says doors were literally slammed in her face because she was a woman.

Determined to break into the industry, she packed up her car and drove to Florida, where she worked at a tattoo shop and bartended to make ends meet, sleeping 4 hours a night just to learn how to tattoo. Employed by a boss who seemed more concerned with Sinn cleaning the shop's floor than teaching her tattooing skills, Sinn packed up her car once again and headed to North Carolina, where she learned her craft at Dogstar Tattoo under the tutelage of tattoo artist Glenn Wilson. Immediately upon reading a magazine article about San Diego's world famous Avalon Tattoo, Sinn drove back to California and was hired on the spot at Avalon Tattoo where she worked for 12 years before branching out on her own.


While she may not have been fated to be an "Ink Master," Sinn, away from reality TV show cameras, and working out of her own shop tattooing live people instead of frozen pig carcasses, is a much happier ink mistress.

Well it is almost time to move. I am both frightened and elated. I never thought I would feel such mixed emotions about leaving this place, my home for the 12 years. I love my house and my yard but it’s finally time to move on. Time to start life over in LA. I wonder what life will be like up there this time around? I am ready but I will miss all that I gained in San Diego. My home my friends and Avalon. All were so good to me.

Thank you San Diego.

Xoxo 

Last Saturday I went with my girls, Lindsey and Ann to the San Diego Tattoo Expo. We got there kinda late so it was winding down but there was allot to see. Amazing art everywhere! Some really great Tattooing going on as well. 

I snapped some cool pix too!