Local artist gets start as art major, realizes passion for tattooing

Tattoo artist Susanna Schneider insists that her job isn’t as rock ’n’ roll and glamorous as people think.

Schneider, known more commonly as Zanna, arrives at Genuine Tattoo Co. LLC half an hour before she has to open to clean, stock supplies and sanitize piercing equipment.

“There’s a lot of odds and ends you have to do around here,” Schneider said. “Sometimes people are at the door before it even hits noon, so you push things aside and take care of what needs to be done.”

Schneider was trained by the shop’s creator and owner, Shannon Simpson, in 2005 and has been working

 professionally ever since. But she said she didn’t always plan on working as a tattoo artist. She spent the beginning of her college career studying art history at IU-Southeast New Albany but said something “just kind of snapped.”

“I wanted to be an oil painting professor, then I realized I didn’t want to teach,” Schneider said. “I didn’t want to be a starving artist, I didn’t like graphic design at all; I figured there was nothing left for me in the art world, so I transferred up here to Bloomington to do the fitness specialist program.”

During her first year away from home, Schneider went to Genuine Tattoo and got her first tattoo from Simpson.

“When I was in the chair getting my first one, it hit me what my second one was going to be,” Schneider said. “I was back a few weeks later getting a second tattoo, and everything just kind of fell into place after that.”

Another change in major, leading to a degree in general studies, an apprenticeship turned career and 14 more tattoos fell into place, to be exact.

Unlike her career plans, Schneider said her love for art has stayed consistent through the years.

“I’ve been doing art my entire life,” Schneider said. “Ever since I was a kid, I would cut up pizza boxes and paint with Bob Ross on the television.”

She said her love for creative expression applies when a client is open to new ideas.
“When I get to tattoo on someone who’s really open-minded and cool and lets me take my artistic freedom into it, I take the reins and go with it,” Schneider said. “That’s my favorite part.”

Melissa Kott is about one month into her apprenticeship at Genuine Tattoo and has known Schneider for almost two years.

“She started doing all my tattoos, and we became friends that way,” Kott said.
Kott works with Schneider and the other artists as she practices drawing and shadows piercings.

“So far it’s been great working with them,” Kott said. “I don’t feel like I have to be here, I want to be here. It’s fun.”
  
Schneider said many of the clients she serves are not the type of people many would expect to see in a tattoo shop.

“Back in the day, most people just figured if you had a tattoo, you were either in the Navy, the military or you went to jail,” Schneider said. “Now, it’s almost kind of rare to find someone who doesn’t have one at all. Or at least if you find someone who doesn’t have one, they’re open to it.”

She named Hollywood — both its stars and past reality television shows about tattoo parlors — as having an important impact on public acceptance of tattoos.
 
“If a celebrity gets a tattoo, then all the sudden everybody wants something similar,” Schneider said. “Right now, it’s writing. Before, it used to be just a couple words. Now everybody wants these big long quotes, and it’s usually on their ribcage.”

She said trends in tattoos and piercings are more predictable than the kind of business the shop receives daily, which is primarily walk-ins.

“Every day is different; you never know what’s going to walk through the door. There will be some days where I do mainly piercings, a bunch of piercings. There (are) some days I won’t get any,” Schneider said. “There (have) been days where I’ve come here and been here all day, and nothing happens. There’s also days I’ve been here (until) three o’ clock in the morning because I was so busy. It’s always a surprise.”