Interview with Aaron Davis-Holloway – Motivations and Inspirations of Afro Americana Tattoo Style

In the dynamic city of Atlanta, where artistic expression and cultural identity seamlessly merge, Aaron Davis has carved a niche for himself by propelling the Afro Americana tattoo style to the forefront of cultural significance. As an Atlanta-based tattoo artist, Aaron has emerged as a pivotal figure in the Afro Americana movement—a style rooted in American Traditional aesthetics with a deliberate focus on celebrating black people, black culture, and black history. He skillfully redefines the traditional tattoo style, infusing it with subjects that resonate not only with himself but also with his community.

Co:Create Ink Co-Founder Tara spoke with Aaron, unraveling the layers of his inspiration, motivations, and the intriguing path that led him into the world of tattooing and establishing himself as a key artist in the Afro Americana style. The dialogue revealed Aaron Davis as a truly cerebral and deeply empathetic individual, whose inquisitive nature shines through in the art he creates. His work within Afro Americana has become a mosaic of expression, serving as a powerful source of representation for black individuals in art.

Starting his career as an illustrator of children's books, Davis found joy in creating works of art that kids would read and remember into adulthood. He found a similar emotional connection in leaving permanent works of art on people's bodies. The pursuit of differentiating his work and creating something uniquely personal ultimately led him to the Afro Americana style.

Explore the full interview below to gain insight into Aaron's esteemed position in the art world and a deeper understanding of the profound importance embedded in his work.

TRANSCRIPT

Tara:

We'll start off with some really easy questions. Where are you from?

Aaron:

So I'm from South Florida. I grew up down there. I was born in Hawaii though – my mom, she was in the military and stuff like that. But yeah, I was definitely raised in South Florida. So the Broward County area. I'm in Atlanta right now. After college I had moved to Atlanta in  2015, like maybe 2 days before Christmas.

Tara:

And tell us, how did you get your start in tattooing?

Aaron:

So it was kind of random, honestly. Before I started tattooing I was working full time as a freelance illustrator doing children's books, album covers, posters, all that, and I happened to be at an art show that was taking place at a tattoo shop. I was participating in that art show.

And I was basically helping out with the marketing, doing video interviews of the owner and everything like that. And after one of the interviews we did of him, I just kinda was like, “Hey, so what does it take to get an apprenticeship here?” Because I know, for one, apprenticeships could cost a lot of money. And also take a lot of time. And also have, you know, weird hazing things going on, too, which I wasn't too excited about.

But he was like, man, I just want other black people to learn how to tattoo and be dope in this industry. So I'm not gonna charge anybody. And I don't do the hazing stuff. So you know, just get through and learn. And yeah, that's kinda how I got into it like super random like that.

Tara:

Amazing. And it sounds like you knew some of the questions to ask ahead of time like you knew what was an apprenticeship, and how sometimes they aren't the best situations. Did you get exposure to this industry before you decided to try to join full time?

Aaron:

Honestly like not too much. It's just that I liked getting tattoos and stuff like that. And one of my friends was a tattoo artist, but he was mainly just working out of his home. But seeing how he did the step by steps, and everything I was like “Oh, I think I could do this, too.” But I didn't wanna just tattoo out of my house, cause I didn't wanna fuck up like thousands of people before I actually knew what I was doing, you know. So you know, I care. I care about people's skin, you know? So yeah, I just did my own research. I was like, how does one become a tattoo artist? And then it just became like a Youtube spiral of horror stories like apprenticeship horror stories and stuff like that. And I was like I don't know if I'm ever gonna do it then, but you know, if it works out, it works out.

Tara:

And just I'm curious what drew you to tattooing over your work as an illustrator cause those are both different art mediums. What made you more inclined to want to go and become a tattoo artist versus stay focused on being an illustrator?

Aaron:

Well, it's kinda interesting, especially with children's books, cause that was like the main way that I was earning my money. Children's books and tattooing kind of fill a similar emotional void, because of the kind of joy of knowing there are millions of children that are reading the books that have my illustrations in them. And they're getting personally impacted and growing as human beings through art. It kind of feels like the same emotional weight of somebody trusting me with their skin to have my art on their body forever. 

It's like it's like my art has been through those mediums. My art has this very intimate relationship with a human being. And that just felt right, you know?

But honestly another big reason, too, is just that tattoo just paid more as well. I was able to sustain myself and pay my bills. Before, I wasn't really able to save for retirement, or really get ahead in my life. With tattoos, now I'm able to save. I have a Roth IRA, I'm saving for retirement.

Tara:

Can you tell us more about your style and the Afro Americana tattoo style. And what differentiates it from American traditional styles?

Aaron:

Okay, so yeah, my style is Afro Americana. It's essentially like the traditional style, but focuses on black people, black culture, black history.

Part of the reason that it basically got developed, in terms of me trying to push the style and push the name of it, was when I started my apprenticeship – my mentor was like, Oh, draw a bunch of different styles. I didn't know what I wanted to do, what style I wanted to do. He was just like, “just do a bunch of different shit.” I never really thought of traditional as a thing for me to do in my head. Because, in the black community, it's not really a thing. A lot of people, especially black people, associate American traditional with a certain type of whiteness, you know. Like they are associated with white people, and also the potential negative associations we have with white people just in general. You know what I mean? It's not like you see a lot of black people with traditional tattoos. So I didn't really think of it as a form of tattooing that I would even even resonate with.

But when I first started just kind of practicing doing some traditional designs, I was like, oh, this is like really fucking fun. This is like a good time. I really like this a lot, but I already know that I wasn't going to just draw white ladies' heads. I'm black. I knew that all my clients were gonna be black. I just knew that, you know. I wanted to just draw people that reflected the skin that this is going to go on. And I didn't even think of it as the thing. Honestly, I was just like “Oh, yeah, I'll just do traditional. Just make them black, just because that's just what I'm gonna do”. I didn't realize that that wasn't as big of a thing. Cause I even initially went on to just Google and just search African American traditional, just to see what I would see. Okay, let me see how other people are doing this. Just to see how people draw it, you know. But after like, like 2 or 3 months of searching I only found, like, maybe, like 2, 3 people who are doing this type of style, and I just felt like that was crazy, you know. Just like this style that has like a hundred years of history. But I can't find black people drawn in this style like that's insane, you know, and even the few people that were doing it. They were doing a great job, but it's like I wanted to also help get them exposure, because I know that if I want to see this, I know many, many other people want to see this. 

And I was just like, Okay, let me let me just try to at least push this name of affirmative account so people can find it easier. So people could really, you know, have a way of searching this cause if you search just black traditional, it's just gonna show traditional without color. If you search African American traditional, it's really not gonna pull up what you're looking for. It just pulls up other things, it might pull up just African art in general. You know what I mean. Not necessarily like tattoo art. It's very, very weird. It was very difficult trying to find people and find this specific imagery that I was looking for just on any other form of searching for it.

You know, that's basically kind of where the origins are for me. At least, I put in the name that was unique, that honestly worked with all of the search engines that we have, so that people could understand it as a category, as the style of tattooing and tattoo designs. And I try to tell people all the time, I'm definitely not the first person to do this ever. You know, I'm definitely not the first but honestly, the reason that people know about me is because I have been trying to push it to the forefront, you know, just to help the people that have been doing this for decades also get the shine that they deserve too, because they've been putting in the work, and they just aren't getting any of the attention that they should rightfully get. You know.

Tara:

Why do you think it's resonated so much? Why do you think it's important to other people?

Aaron:

I mean, like for one traditional - it's a beautiful style, you know what I mean and you could if you just kinda scroll through my comments on just random videos, you see, so many people say, like, Oh, I didn't even know that I like traditional before I found your page. I didn't even know that, traditional could be some that I could get because most people are very, very visual.

Artists know this like, if you don't show a client a design in front of them, they won't really have an idea of how to picture it in their mind. Honestly there are some people who, if you tell them to think of a cat. They can't even have a mental picture of a cat. They just think of the word cat. It's a the interesting thing about how the brain works. But yeah, like, I mean, traditionally, it's a beautiful style. And like we just as a people want to be recognized, you know it doesn't matter who you are. It doesn't matter what your sexuality is, what your race is. Whoever you are, you want to see yourself represented in art, you know. I think that it resonates with people, because for so long, like I said, like with traditional a lot of black people just don't associate with it because we just think of whiteness. Because that's really all there has been. You know, you search traditional. You'll see a thousand white lady heads before you see a black one. That's just what it is like. You will see, you'll see so much imagery that resonates with white people. But it doesn't have that same effect and hold on us just because of our history, because of who wears the tattoos. Even, you know, we could even go back into history and think about the fact that traditional in like the seventies, in the past, the fifties resonated with biker gangs and stuff. And you know, black people in biker gangs don't necessarily have a great history overall.

There are just a lot of these associations the really pushed us away as black people from traditional but just knowing that we can be represented in this style, it gives people a feeling of like, Oh, wow! Like this is a new avenue of tattooing that I've never even thought of. 

Tara:

What about how the black American experience is different from the white American experience, or than other races experience. What is it like being a black tattoo artist in America?

Aaron:

It's very interesting, especially being in Atlanta, because Atlanta is mostly black, I might be tripping on the percentages of demographic, but I think Atlanta is at least like 50% black. So at least in Atlanta it feels very comforting to be able to just be a black artist and tattoo pretty much all black clientele and black clients. But there are definitely times where people are just ignorant. You know people are really ignorant. They don't respect black artists. They don't respect black artistry. A lot of people think that black artists are just naturally inferior artists to white artists. And that's just a thing that we have to deal with. Just on a regular basis, you know.

It's interesting because I feel like the black tattoo industry is a very specific industry, like as a black tattoo artist you tend to work pretty much with other black people. You might be a black artist, might be in the city where, you know there might not be that many black people, but when you are involved, and talk to other black artists it feels like a family. It feels like we all kind of know each other. I know Kevin Leroy, Oba Jackson, I know, like Made Rich, I know a lot of just people. Even before Inkmaster and stuff like that, they're these artists that I have these connections with, where we understand. We're all in this together, you know.

Obviously, there's the societal bullshit that goes on from just being black in any industry, in any field of work. But you know it's nice to know that at least at the very least, I have just family that I could rely on to call on. Just be like, hey, what do you think about this new machine that came out like, what kind of needles do you use? What brand is this color right here and it is a welcoming sense of community and openness where I could just talk to people, and people could talk to me. You know, I'm an open book. So it goes both ways. You know what I mean?

Tara:

Yeah, that's beautiful. And I'm curious. If you were talking to another black artist that's just starting out in the industry. Do you have any advice or guidance you'd give them?

Aaron:

It's all circumstantial. But I mean, just keep grinding. That's really that's really the main thing, like, honestly like, if you're just starting out in the industry, draw as much as possible. Just keep grinding, do tattoos. Always work on your artwork, because that's really the most important thing. If you could draw it, you could tattoo it.

And just be as good of a person as you can be, because a lot of tattooing is about being a good artist. But it's also just being a good person, being a good person for your clients, being a good person for your other shopmates, being just an ethical person, you know, making sure you don't treat your clients just disrespectfully and make them uncomfortable and stuff like that. So it's like just do good art. Be a good person, and just just keep working. Don't stop.

Tara:

Yeah. And I think one of the things that you do so well is for people who follow you on Instagram, you feel so connected to you. You are a feature of so many of your reels like you put your own face on there. You have people feel connected to you. You have your own humor, your sense of style. Do you think that's an important component for someone starting out as well as to put themselves out there? Not just their art out there?

Aaron:

Yeah,  I definitely think that that's like a big part of being out in the world right now. Like to be kind of successful on social media. You do have to put yourself out there a little bit more. But also I'm just kind of a naturally open person like I could go to like a party to any party. I don't even have to know more than one person there. And like, I'll just make connections. Yeah, you know, I'm just. I'm just the open book like, and I'm just friendly as fuck.

People could just talk to me. Like I'm like people be surprised when I have like 80,000 something followers on Instagram, and people be legitimately surprised that I like to respond back to their messages. I don't know if they'll reply, something funny to my story, and I'll just be sending some laughing emojis, or have an actual conversation with them, and they'll just be legitimately surprised that I'm engaging with them.

Tara:

How long have you been tattooing again? I know you graduated in 2015. Was it? A few years after that you started?

Aaron:

I started tattooing in 2019 and that's when I graduated from apprenticeship. So it's been four and half almost five years ago?

Tara:

Do you have a sense of what your future tattoo goals are?Are you going with the flow or is there somewhere you are trying to get?

Aaron:

This is specific to me, but I'm really good at career stuff. like anything that I've wanted to do. I've basically done. To be honest, if I have a goal, I'm going to focus on it. I'm gonna make sure I'd have you know my goal set up like these small steps to get to that bigger goal, and I'll achieve it. You know I'm very good at managing that type of stuff. But right now I guess I'm focused on honestly, like, really, my personal life, more than anything, just because I could tend to overwork myself and really push myself too hard. So like right now I'm working on just focusing on my health, my body like my time, my personal energy, and honestly, to be honest, like, even with me focusing on that, I'm a really hard worker. So like me, just cutting back a little bit is still me working harder than like most people to be honest. So yeah, I guess right now, my goal is to just get a bigger shop, just keep doing fun tattoos have like, have a lot of fun tattooing and just really build the Afro Americana community, you know, like pushing out an Afro American a book, putting out more flash just stuff like that, you know. Nothing major, but you know, just having a good time. Honestly.

Tara:

Alright. And so now it’s rapid fire time. Not related to tattoo. What do you do for fun?

Aaron:

I watch a lot of anime just like a shit load of anime. Honestly, drink with friends. Just get high as fuck just like, I don't know. Just enjoy life, you know. 

Tara:

Favorite food?

Aaron:

Mac. And cheese, like, easily.

Tara:

Okay, it's Sunday. What are you doing?

Aaron:

Probably drawing, because I'm a workaholic to a certain degree, but I like drawing. Watching anime, just watching some one piece or something like that and just being in my bed because my bed is like my favorite place in the world, like I travel a lot, but my bed is 100% my favorite place.

Tara:

You know, I used to feel guilty because sometimes I would work from bed, and it's just like, and then I found out that Winston Churchill and Mao Zedong both worked from bed. So I'm like, okay, some people that were successful, not saying I agree with, but they were very successful. They work from bed, so it seems like it's a thing.

Favorite song or artist?

Aaron:

D'angelo and Lauren Hill had a song together called “Nothing even matters” so that's probably like my favorite song, and D’Angel is definitely my favorite artist of all time.

Tara:

Well, this has been awesome. Thank you so much, Erin. Anything else you want to leave us with?

Aaron:

No, not too much. Yeah. Like I mentioned, life is good. I'm glad that people are fucking with the movement. I'm glad that people are also like seeing other Afro Americana artists, and really like building them up as well. So I don't know, like everything is cool.