Tattoo Artist Jamie Sawyer | Interview

I met Jamie Sawyer when I taught at the Omega Institute (which was awesome) and she was super nice and gave me one of her decks. So sweet. I love the colors and style – similar to tattoo style (she also tattoo’s) (and does henna) and I fell hard for it.
Jamie is working on a Lenormand deck, and I can’t see what else she’s got up her sleeve, but she stopped by to talk and say hi!
 

Tell us about yourself!

I’m short, crafty and have a lack of vices… My creative mind likes to fill my “free” time with all the things; drawing, sewing, jewelry making, Henna. I’ll think of something, and have a prototype within a few days… it’s how my busy brain works.
I have been lucky enough to make my living as a Tattoo Artist for the past 16 years. Each day that I get to bring people’s ideas into physical form for a lifelong memory, makes my heart swell a little more. Lately though, my tattooing has become more of a conduit to share soulful experiences with my clients. It’s so much more than just the artwork.. We talk about everything from the mundane to soul expanding issues! I truly am grateful each and everyday, for my clients- who have become friends, and some feel like family after all these years.
I have always been interested in the metaphysical, from crystals, to alters and rituals, to cards. I got my first oracle deck back in 2000, The Faeries’ Oracle, by Brian Froud and Jessica Macbeth. (I still have it). Shortly after that I gifted myself the Morgan-Greer Tarot. It was and still is a deck that I align with. A few years ago, a tattoo client of mine asked me for a 3 of cups as a tattoo. I had so much fun illustrating it in my style, that I went home and began to sketch the Queen of Swords (She’s the card that at the time was my significator). I wanted to see how I’d turn her into a tarot-style tattoo. After I finished the red pencil sketch…. I thought to myself “Oh crap, did I just begin drawing my deck?!” Yep… and like that it had begun.
The whole sketching process took me just over 2 weeks for all 78 thumbnails, my brain had become a conduit for creation…. I would watch TV with my partner, Tim and our Basset Hound, Barney- sketchbook/ pencil in hand, research books on the side and all my notes…. It took me 2 years to line/ color, scan and tweak all the cards, as life tends to happen and projects get put on the side burner. I made peace with the Deck and knew that it would be birthed at the perfect time and not a minute before.
At the end of 2017, I decide to take a social media break and color the last 36 cards, it’s amazing what one can do when they don’t have the digital distractions. At that time, my mother Gail was needing a distraction from her daily life and I asked her to write the “blurbs” for my LWB. She took my notes, meditated on each card and wrote what came to her from looking at my images… That’s when “Sawyer’s Path” A Tarot Journey was named. It became a collaboration at that moment in time. I’ll cherish her words for many years to come. They may not be the traditional explanations for the cards, but they are her wit, wisdom and feelings of my drawings. I knew then that it was the perfect time for Our deck to come into the world.

What’s your idea of happiness?