Take a deeper look at three other exceptional graduates who forged different paths and obstacles to reach their goals.
Walking into her room in Lawrenson Hall, it鈥檚 obvious what Ann-Adele Blassingame鈥檚 passion and skillset are. She has sketches of people and geometrical shapes lining the walls 鈥� all works of her own, and she has hand-crafted jewelry on display along with posters and wood carvings. It鈥檚 clear how much space art takes up in Blassingame鈥檚 life.
鈥淭here are so many different types of art that I think everyone can do art,鈥� Blassingame said. 鈥淚 also go by a rule that everything is an experiment, so I challenge myself to make mistakes and fail, though I don鈥檛 consider them failures because I鈥檓 creating something new, regardless.鈥�
Blassingame鈥檚 variety of impressive works doesn鈥檛 stay in the confines of her dormitory walls, though; she showcases her muses wherever she goes in the form of her tattoos.
The artist, who is about to graduate with her Master of Business Administration in Marketing, has 30-plus tattoos, a good number of which she did herself, and has already established herself as a working tattoo artist.
鈥淭attooing at the beginning for me was a way to re-love myself,鈥� Blassingame said.
Blassingame got her first tattoo during her first year as an undergraduate at UNC, studying Printmaking. It's a set of six vertical rainbow hearts on her arm.
鈥淚 had a lot of insecurities with my skin, which I think comes with growing up Black in Colorado. I didn鈥檛 grow up with a lot of other Black people in my classes, and tattooing helped me process and come to love myself more,鈥� Blassingame said.
Her journey of self-love is what motivates her as a tattoo artist.
鈥淚 use tattooing as a way to give people a reason to appreciate themselves more and recognize that there is beauty in themselves, regardless of how they look,鈥� Blassingame said. 鈥淚f they want to get beautiful art to make them feel that way, then I want to be able to provide that for them.鈥�
She describes her tattoo style as cutesy-traditional and has already inked around 100 clients with different images, including a galloping horse, a pair of cowboy boots, a Hello Kitty phone, flowers, a sword, a blackbird, an intricate sun and a scorpion made out of hearts.
鈥淚 really love bold and colorful art, but I also love patterns and geometry and just anything in the bold realm really,鈥� Blassingame said. 鈥淚 try to bring different elements of the artistic process into my tattooing.鈥�
She currently tattoos in a Loveland studio called the Catalyst Arts Syndicate, based out of the Soul Stone Tattoo Shop. She works two to three times a week when she has time between her graduate school courses. The inspiration and skill to become a tattoo artist blossomed during her time at UNC when she was perfecting woodcarving, shadowing and printmaking as an undergraduate.
鈥淵ou don鈥檛 go to a university to learn how to tattoo, per se,鈥� Blassingame laughed. 鈥淏ut I wanted to find a way to implement it.鈥�
Growing up in Thornton, Colorado, Blassingame toured 猫咪tv and fell in love with the housing options compared to other schools in the state. Her academic route was less obvious, as she changed her major three times as an undergraduate until she landed on Printmaking with a minor in Anthropology.
鈥淚 did a lot of printmaking, which informed me of the tattooing process, because there are a lot of very permanent things in printmaking, especially with wood carving. If you carve in the wrong place, you can鈥檛 necessarily change it,鈥� Blassingame said. 鈥淎nd then Anthropology taught me about different cultures, especially Black cultures, and how rich the history is, and I wanted to connect that with tattooing, and that鈥檚 how it evolved.鈥�
Her undergraduate experience was so pivotal to her growth that she has a permanent reminder of it on her right arm. Fusing the skills she learned in a printmaking class with the community she made with her classmates, Blassingame and six other people got matching tattoos to stay connected to that specific time in their lives.
鈥淸The tattoo] is of a phrase that represents the environment and the co-creation process of everyone working together in one space,鈥� Blassingame said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 my favorite thing about art school; you have all these people around you with whom you experiment, so it represents a key aspect of my university time.鈥�
Achieving everything she wanted to as a Printmaking major, and having the purpose and skill under her belt, Blassingame was ready to step into the next chapter of her life 鈥� continuing her education.
鈥淚 realized as an artist, something we don鈥檛 often get taught is how to market ourselves as artists and how to become profitable. So, I wanted to get my MBA in Marketing to find out how to handle my finances, do my taxes and not feel behind and confused about all of these things that were happening,鈥� Blassingame said.
One of the main courses that helped Blassingame with this was her digital marketing course. She learned how to revamp her LinkedIn profile, something that isn鈥檛 often used in the tattoo industry as much as Instagram is, but she discovered how to brand herself and the image she wants to convey to her clients.
鈥淚 also did a lot of content curation and creation in that class. That helped me better think about the exact message I wanted to say and who I was targeting within my audience,鈥� Blassingame said.
Ultimately, Blassingame wants to open up her own tattoo beauty shop using the knowledge she learned as an undergraduate and graduate student at UNC.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 believe I would have been able to grow nearly as much as an artist without having the artistic community I had during my undergraduate years and after."
鈥� Ann-Adele Blassingame
鈥淚 have a lot of friends in the beauty industry in other facets, including lashes and nails. So, I want to create a space that someone can go to and get all of these appointments done and create an environment that鈥檚 very welcoming and inclusive to a lot of communities of people that historically haven鈥檛 had the space in tattoo shops,鈥� Blassingame said.
Building community has been an important part of the tattoo artist鈥檚 educational experience. The Residence Hall Association (RHA), which has funded her living on campus in Lawrenson Hall even though she鈥檚 attending graduate school online, is one of those communities. Blassingame is the president of the organization and helps enhance the college experience for students living in the residence halls, university apartments and university-owned houses.
鈥淚 get to connect with community members and create events that use different resources across campus and help students become leaders,鈥� Blassingame said.
Blassingame also works in the mentoring program at the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center to connect students with faculty, staff and graduate students who are also queer with help navigating campus life.
鈥淔or example, we put together a tie dying t-shirt event for Trans Day of Visibility, so that was fun for everyone to get together and engage with different people from different areas of campus that they might not engage with normally,鈥� Blassingame said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 really cool to help support students and allow them a space to be able to explore and hang out and have fun being themselves.鈥�
Much like how the ink leaves a permanent mark on her customer鈥檚 skin, Blassingame has worked hard to leave an impact at UNC, and she鈥檚 not done yet. While she鈥檒l be working to open her tattoo beauty shop and continue to help others feel a sense of belonging at UNC, she鈥檚 already planning to return for her second master鈥檚 degree in Art and Design with a concentration in printmaking and jewelry starting this fall.
鈥淲hat I really love and value about school, and specifically university, is that there is so much learning to be done purely from experiencing life with others in a new, immersive community that pushes and challenges you in the right direction,鈥� Blassingame said.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 believe I would have been able to grow nearly as much as an artist without having the artistic community I had during my undergraduate years and after. If there is one thing I hope I never lose from my time in university, it would definitely be the extensive community I have built.鈥�
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