Portrait of an Artist

Megan "Massacre" Woznicki

23, of Philadelphia

Woznicki creates intricately detailed, colorful tattoos. If you're looking for a basic rose or vine, she's not your girl. But if you want a full-sleeve rendition of a Munch painting, you've come to the right place.

www.myspace.com/meganwoznickitattoo

For a girl who mostly deals in color, Megan "Massacre" Woznicki was having trouble choosing between black and white.

The Philadelphia tattoo artist had just decided on a new car, a Scion. And it was cool. It was good. It was cheap. But she hadn't picked it up yet because she couldn't choose between opposite sides of the spectrum.

Usually, she sees things in shades - flares of red and orange and amber and gold, like in the tattoo she made of the Muppet Show character Animal, or the glossy strokes of swirling green for an iced cupcake. Although she's only 23 - a baby in the tattoo world - her name is already on the ink radar for her attention to detail and ability to draw Japanese anime.

"My mom said that when I was little, I would say I wanted to be a tattoo artist, and I would draw on her all the time," Woznicki said.

But it wasn't until five years ago that she picked up the pen. She was selling furniture and doodling during her downtime when a friend, who was applying for a piercing job, recommended that Woznicki apply as an artist. The owner of the shop asked her to draw "an evil butterfly," and that very night she drew her first tattoo.

"I didn't even have any tattoos then," she said. How many does she have now? "Uh, I don't know. Let me count - I'd say about 25."

Now working at the Deep Six Laboratory Tattoo Shop in Northeast Philadelphia, she wields her brandishing pen alongside several other artists, all men. She likes creating intricate work - pictures that take hours, days, weeks, and months to finish. And at $150 an hour, the former doodler doesn't draw cheaply.

She asks clients to take their time before deciding on what's to become a permanent part of their mirror reflection. Because even a tattoo artist - or, maybe, of course a tattoo artist - knows inked regret.

"I would say I would get rid of all the tattoos I got in the first two years I was tattooing," she said. "They were all kind of rash ideas. I didn't plan out my arms at all; it's all random stuff."

Most customers come in with a plan, a picture, or an idea. But she will refuse customers if they make her feel uncomfortable - if they won't look her in the eye, or if they ask her to pick the design and draw it on, well, body parts where the sun doesn't shine.

People don't come to her for the basics anymore, she says, and that's OK. She likes a challenge, like the full-back design of a bird she's currently creating for a customer.

"The learning process doesn't end for an artist. You learn new things for every tattoo you do," she says. "Artists usually have their strong points, but to be perfect at everything? That's kind of hard."