Meet Gabriella Baker of Kansas City

Today we’d like to introduce you to Gabriella Baker.

Hi Gabriella, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Growing up, I’ve always been incredibly creative. I’ve always been an artist, and I knew I didn’t want to spend my life in a cubicle. I’ve been fortunate enough to have been born in a family who has always been supportive of anything I wanted to do, and especially my mom, who always told me to go after my dreams and has always gone out of her way to make sure I was supported in any way she could. I’ve always believed that settling for a job just to survive and pay the bills wouldn’t lead to a fulfilling and happy life. I’m someone who has always felt— even as a small child— that I was meant for something bigger than myself. So I’ve made it my purpose as a human to find that one thing and to run with it. It’s a very long story, and there’s is so much that surrounds it all that I won’t even be able to fit in there, but everything I talk about in here is all important to how I ended up here where I am today.

I’ve always wanted to be a tattoo artist. Initially, it was a bit hard to answer, but when I thought back on the moments in my life that foreshadowed this path, the fated connections and puzzle pieces that string together a carefully orchestrated fate fueled by the intense desire to change my circumstances— I think it all began with the fact that tattoos are quite common in my family. I’ve always been fascinated by them, and as an artist, I’m naturally drawn to beautiful things. I’ve always wanted to be covered in body art. It’s always been that one thing that I just always have known that I wanted.

The first memory that comes to mind when I think about how it all started is from when I was a child, probably in kindergarten or first grade. I can’t recall the exact age, but I was sitting in the lobby of a tattoo shop, while my mom was getting tattooed; drawing all the flash on the wall in my little notebook. I remember being excited and showing all the artists in the front, seeking their advice. Looking back, I find it funny that those drawings were definitely not great, but I’ll never forget how carefully they were looking through them and taking their time. I just remember thinking how exciting this was, and they ended up giving me advice, telling me that if I kept practicing, worked hard, and kept at it, I would eventually achieve my goal.
Fast forward to high school, I used to draw so much and filled countless sketchbooks. I daydreamed about pursuing art as a career, but by the time junior-senior year arrived, I had changed my mind. I convinced myself, “I don’t want to draw for others; I’d rather draw what I want.” This fear stemmed from the thought that “it could never be me in a position of power over people’s bodies” and the fear of making mistakes.

Additionally, a graphic design class I took made me despise the idea of working for others and being paid for their ideas. As senior year approached, the school encouraged everyone to apply to colleges and explore universities. My family also pushed me to consider my options, considering my lack of interest in anything other than art. So, I applied to the Kansas City Art Institute, thinking, “What else is there?”

The only thing that truly worried me was my ACT score, which was quite low. I blamed myself for not caring and not studying, as most colleges only accept applicants based on their scores. This realization brought me to the moment when I received an email informing me of my denial. I wasn’t overly surprised, but I wasn’t discouraged either.

The email suggested that I retake the ACT, which I reluctantly agreed to do. As I was about to sign up for the retake, I received a text from my mom. She told me they had mailed me a letter and asked me to open it when I got off work. I eagerly opened the letter and stood around the table with my family, my heart literally pounding in my chest.

Nervously, I explained that I had received an acceptance letter. My portfolio had convinced them to reconsider their decision, and they had even offered me a $44,000 scholarship! It was an incredible moment, and I couldn’t believe my dream of pursuing art was finally coming true. Which sounds like a lot, but for that school, it definitely wasn’t enough, but I was pretty excited and felt blessed by the universe that I didn’t have to re-take that dumb, stupid ACT test. This was also the year I turned 18— which, of course, is around the same time I got my first tattoo. Sometimes in life, despite all of the things I’ve been through, I consider myself lucky in a lot of ways too, being lucky that the first tattoo I ever got was from someone who is exactly the kind of art style I like and didn’t even look at their portfolio. The person who did my first tattoo is an amazing artist who used to work at this local shop down the road from where I lived. His name is Benjamin, and he did these beautiful roses on my shoulder— literally the coolest first tattoo ever. I still, to this day, get compliments on it, and it is now probably about 8 1/2 years old. I remember thinking he was so cool, and he was super relatable, and I ended up going to him for all of my tattoos and did my whole sleeve—something that really stuck with me to this day— while talking with him during one of my appointments, I had learned about how he changed his mind a lot in his life about things he wanted to do, and it kind of helped me in the moment thinking about how I felt I was at this impossible crossroads of what to do with my life. It made me realize it’s okay to not know and it’s okay to try things and then change your mind. Despite all of the circumstances that the universe throws at you. It’s crazy to think in life how you can say this one thing to someone, and it can stick with them forever. Y’know, because we always talk about things and don’t think twice about it, thinking maybe who would even remember what you said, until later you find out that that one thing is something that impacted their entire life in a big way. Anyways, before I get too lost in the details, fast forward to my first semester at KCAI. I remember my professor going around the room and asking everyone what their plan and goal was to achieve by coming here, and everyone had pretty solid answers like “gallery curator,” “freelance artist,” “animation,” etc. He finally got to me. I felt panicked because I really didn’t know what to say, so I just told him “an art teacher, an art therapist for kids, and maybe a tattoo artist.” And I just remember the room got dead silent, and he laughed a little and told me that I was “wasting my time and probably shouldn’t be there,” which, at that time, just genuinely hurt my feelings, and I had to kind of excuse myself to go cry in the bathroom, basically. Which, looking back now, he was just being blunt and honest, and I can’t blame him for it. I felt so lost on everything, but I always kept moving forward anyways. I struggled a lot as a kid. I’ve never really been good at school or anything. I was shy and was bullied a lot, and I felt like I had no real idea what to decide as far as career goes. While I was in school, I wanted to try everything. When I picked my first major, I chose something different, even though I was a more hands-on artist— I chose filmmaking. Ended up hating it, then moved to the printmaking department. Hated that even more, and then finally settled for the painting department, which is where I decided to stay. Mind you, in between all of this, I dropped out like five times. I even left art school as a whole for a semester to go to community college to get certified as a personal trainer, then went back. I fell down so many times and got back up because I really relied on the fact that I cannot let myself settle and do what everyone else does and just do whatever pays the bills. I loved the painting department. I felt as if I could make whatever, and I was lucky to have such an amazing professor. But like always, I struggled. I struggled to make friends, I struggled to show up to class on time, and it just felt like everything I made was lackluster. I’ve struggled a lot throughout my life with many things, which was a result of depression, bipolar 2, and ADHD (which wasn’t diagnosed till I was 23). I also had some childhood trauma stuff that was all just this concoction of a super really fun feeling of being essentially a swarm of bees trapped in a skin suit that had a few too many bees and not enough room inside of the suit.
Which explained my whole life with school. I ended up dropping out officially towards 2019 because I was not doing well mentally, and I was going through some pretty rough things at the time, and I just couldn’t do it anymore. I remember listening to a CD in my car after class on one of the last days I was there, and the lyrics from this song kept repeating “you have to leave this place,” and my mind lingered on it, and that was the moment I was like, “ I need to let go of this chapter of my life.” I think this was the turning point at that time. The biggest lessons of being open to death and rebirth and the concept and ideas of transition and walking away when it’s time to let go and move forward elsewhere. It was that very same day, I came into my studio class at night, grabbed all my stuff, and left without saying anything to anyone. Which is kind of the magic of my life in that way; yes, it was chaotic, but when one door closed, another one opened. The universe has always given me answers when I needed them the most— even if it doesn’t make sense to anyone else, it made sense to me. I was just overwhelmed. After the dust settled in that, I just ended up working in the restaurant industry from part-time to full-time and bartended for a while. I loved it; it was fun. I was okay with the fast-paced environment, and it also distracted me from the awful stuff I was going through at the time. I remember when COVID hit. I think I was burnt out, on art, on life, and was too tired to do anything. I used to sit in my living room and dissociate for hours. I felt no motivation for anything. I couldn’t even drink water or move out of my bed most of the time. I was really just like stuck in freeze mode. I couldn’t even find joy in literally anything. On top of all of that, I was also putting myself down for not doing art for not doing enough and being lazy, like it was honestly so scary thinking at the thought of me never doing art again, which was and has been a lifelong part of my soul. And I was just here letting myself rot. It was just such an endless cycle that I couldn’t get out of. I was just so tired and I felt literally nothing and couldn’t force myself to even do anything at all. I was so ashamed of myself and I felt like a big fat loser. I remember being at work at this other place I used to work at, which was during Covid for a short period of time at a senior facility bartending there. On one of our slower days, I decided I had enough of my own mental prison and I ended up calling the doctor’s office to get back on medication to help me emotionally regulate myself so I can start doing something more with my life or even just to feel even a little bit of something. After I did that , it did help a lot and I began to start doing art again. Slowly and inconsistently, but I was so desperate to get that part of me back that was gone and literally died inside of me because I was stuck in survival mode. After that, I decided to try everything. I made an Etsy account and decided to sell resin art, which was popular at the time. It was a lot of fun, and unfortunately, I only ever sold one thing on there, but I was lucky enough to have people I knew in person buy stuff from me. After a few two months of intense hyper focus, I ended up losing interest and gave up. A little fun fact about me or maybe a weird fact I have always been really into esoteric practices, and I began to really dive into tarot and astrology around 2019. But funny enough, I bought my first deck when I was 16 years old. But I never really got into it until 2019. So I’ve always after that point started to make that something I offered too. Another thing I considered making into a career option. But I felt too overwhelmed about it overall, and it just took so much energy out of me to do it. I was pretty good at it, and I’m better at it now, but it still takes a lot out of me and it’s something I love but not anything I’d ever want to make a life out of for money. I had been bartending since the moment I turned 21, but I never had any formal training at first, so I had to teach myself all while being screamed at by my male peers saying how stupid I am and how women shouldn’t be behind the bar and refused to train me properly. Threatening to take my shifts because I was incapable of taking a full bar, patio, and dining side by myself with two other servers (shocking I know). Over time I got better at it and ended up leaving that place and started working at this other place which was the last place I bartended at and stayed with for three years. This was also the time where I had finally decided that I’m tired of being treated like I’m stupid and being verbally abused and I circled back to the idea I had abandoned so long ago that I wanted to pursue being a tattoo artist. I then started to force myself to draw every day, something in which I hadn’t really done in three years at this point. I was nervous, and had no idea where to start. I knew no one besides the guy I had been going to since I was 18, and I asked him if he would want to apprentice me but he kindly declined and it was because at the time, he didn’t feel qualified enough- which I appreciate the honesty because I would rather be told that than to make someone feel obligated to such a large responsibility they weren’t feeling sure of. Moving forward, I kind of looked online and asked around and tried to shoot my shot got rejected here and there, I had no real idea how to do any of this I was so new to the idea of taking action that I just was clueless – I remember feeling so discouraged and frustrated at first, then I was like yknow what, you never know- and I remember that same day being in my room with a pen and paper and wrote down my intentions and burned it with a candle and let the universe take it- I had hoped maybe something- anything would work. It was about two weeks later, my uncle called me saying he was getting tattooed by this guy named Jakob Ristau, and that he went to school with who was his buddy that played soccer with him and that I should come up and meet him up at his shop Landlocked Tattoo, because they were looking for front counter help. So my uncle sent me their address the day of his appointment, and I came up there to meet him. They told me they weren’t looking for an apprentice, they just needed front counter help, and he asked me if I still wanted the job and I said, “yes I do!” I took it anyways because I figure if I want to be an artist someday I might as well learn how a shop runs atleast and I got my foot in the door. I never held expectations, I never anticipated anything or pushed for it. I respected their feelings on everything and wanted to make a point and show them that I wasn’t here to just get what I wanted to leave. I was happy to work for them anyways despite not wanting to apprentice me. I was ok with it and respected their feelings in the matter. You just Can’t expect that out of anyone especially if you don’t know them. I worked Fridays and Saturdays, I sacrificed my weekend shifts at my other job happily to work for them. It was hard at first learning things and it took me awhile to really adjust. I’m awkward and just shy and this was that kind of job where you really have to be pretty outgoing. It was all so new to me because I’ve only ever worked in a restaurant so I just felt so slow at everything. I was definitely intimidated by them in the beginning, But they were so kind and patient with me the entire time and they were so easy to get along with. I think the part that was really hard to get used to was how nice they were to me. I was so used to working with people who had constantly looked down on me. I learned so much being there and I had felt that this was genuinely the coolest job I’ve ever had and I was just happy to be there. Despite the clients asking if he ever would apprentice anyone ever and him outwardly saying no-
I never felt any way about it I was just excited to even be in that position. Greatful to even be there and felt lucky at even the smallest opportunity. While being there I would just draw and clean and answer phones, mop floors yknow all the good stuff. After being there for a little while, Jake then offered to help me with my portfolio so we kind of worked on that for awhile, and it was like these little bread crumbs of oppertunities and I took them all while still not expecting anything, I just went along with it and yknow I’m a little slow to start stuff but once I did it gradually grew into this bigger opportunity that later then over time turned into an apprenticeship. Once that happened I shifted my priorities and walked away from alot of people and things to focus in on my future.
Of course as life always does, I was going through some pretty tough times in general especially around the time of my apprenticeship, I had lost everything, lost my means of transportation and all my money I’ve saved up, lost some friends, and yet again my whole life just changed just like that, it was basically stripped of alot of things due to certain unforeseen circumstances. I was at yet another low point in my life at the time but I was no stranger to adversity and trauma. My entire existence has always felt I was a fish swimming upstream against a current. I know that a lot of times most peoples problems come from their own actions but it really has felt like it was all for no reason at all and it made me wonder what kind person I was in a past life. I’m not someone to sit here and have everyone feel bad for me. I hardly talk about my problems or what I’m dealing with to really anyone. I just took it as it was and dealt with it. Despite all of life’s challenges I still showed up every day, I sacrificed working on big money days (by choice of course) at the bar just to be at the shop and it was so hard but it was worth it. I knew If I kept going that someday it will get easier and that life can’t possibly be this way forever (right..?) and That all of these sacrifices will lead to something bigger and better- I was over the moon when I was given my apprenticeship but at the same time it felt like I had imposter syndrome
Thinking I am so lucky but am I really worthy of this ? I felt like I had came acrossed something so incredibly rare and huge I just couldn’t really believe it. We started on small stuff like tracing roses, script, making little flash pages, small clean line drawings, and my favorite of all time tracing HUNDREDS of tiny circles tiny stars and tiny hearts.
Man my hands hurt so bad and I had to do them every week for a couple of months. I feel like it took me way longer than it should have and I can only imagine how painful it was just to watch me take forever on somthing so simple. Eventually I practiced on fruit, then fake skin, then myself and then friends and family. I was so nervous I felt like I could throw up I was so scared to mess up bad but I guess that’s why it’s free because then you can’t say anything. I swear it took me two hours to tattoo this dollar coin sized tattoo that looked like garbage and they were saying it looks great you’re doing good and I’m over here like yall cannot be fr right now. But being encouraged and slowly over time got better and better I was tattooing more and a little faster and got better month by month my work improved a lot and I was determined to make everything better than the last. I think the one thing I really like about my mentor is how he critiques my work, because I think that kind of structure is what I needed and it really helped me a lot putting into perspective of how a good tattoo should look. Things I never even considered or thought about. Showed me shortcuts to things I severely overcomplicated- I feel like I got really lucky to be in a good clean shop that really cares about integrity and doing things the right way and are actually passionate about what they do- Just hearing from everyone’s personal experiences it really sounds like it can be hit or miss on that kind of thing with shops. Over a course of a year or so, I was given more freedom with my tattoos, I had ended up quitting my last bartending job after being fed up due to certain repetitive circumstances, so I was left with not a whole lot of money and just tattooed as much as I could- to learn as much as I could to improve to get me closer to being able to get licensed so I could start my career, start my life. It was definitely a struggle bus financially around that time- my finance and I were living off of ramen and granola bars for a fat minute to save money. However, I was lucky to be able to be surrounded by people who were more than happy to help me, by giving me odd jobs, things to sell, and of course doing tarot and astrology readings and my boyfriend (now fiancé) carrying the rest of the team and paid the difference of whatever I didn’t have. As the new year came around it was now 2024, I became busier and my work improved and I was making a more money tattooing, and then came around in April on my 26th birthday they had asked me to come in early that day and gave me a couple of gifts and a card.
I opened the card and in the card I was reading it through and I thought I had read somthing about getting licensed but I think my brain had glossed over it in a weird sense of denial as if I had just imagined it-Then they were like did you even read the card ?? And I was like huh?? what do you mean- and then my mentor handed me the paperwork for it and that was the day I got licensed. I was in total shock I didn’t even know how to react
I was genuinely so surprised I froze up it made my brain shut off. Not in a bad way I just honestly had no idea at all and I genuinely thought it wasn’t gonna happen for awhile. I was so shocked I felt like I had to mentally re calibrate where I was in the moment. I couldn’t even process anything I was just so surprised. But afterwards I was literally so excited and happy thinking to myself how did I even get this far coming from where I started I never imagined it was somthing I could ever be. That I could be someone in a really cool job surrounded by a bunch of really cool people who are just actually genuinely really good at what they do, we all get along and it just feels like a little work family. I genuinely wake up everyday still shocked that I’m here today, I have now been licensed for almost a year now. I’ve always wanted to be a tattoo artist. I don’t even care about making it big or being super instagram famous or whatever. I am not competitive, I just try to strive for steady growth and I learn something from every tattoo I do. I am only in competition with myself I am just happy being where I am. Happy that I get to go to work that doesn’t feel like a chore. My ultimate goal since the beginning was just be happy. I feel as if I’ve lived hundreds of lives just in this one existence fighting to crawl out of whatever deep hole of darkness I have been in my whole life. I used to think about how I would always expect the worst out of situations but hope for the best. And that my life might actually be this way forever and just that thought alone scared me more than wallowing in sadness forever. I constantly thought to myself it’s “sink or swim” and even if I drowned for a little moment or two, I ultimately chose to swim. Now I’m here, still building, definitely still learning and not even close to done with my goals. I just go where the universe takes me. But I’m genuinely grateful I made it this far. Something that may have been so easy to many others, wasn’t so easy for me, but I’m happy I was able to see it through and didn’t give up. I’m not successful by any means, but I am happy; and that’s all I ever wanted.
Success will come when it’s meant to.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
My struggles really manifested in just being held back by my own life’s circumstances. Constantly having to fight between imposter syndrome, self esteem, and just surviving with life in general and moving past my own mental barriers. I’ve always been that person to get up no matter how much I fell down, but just the idea of the unknown and lack of resources was really hard for me to feel confidence in my direction. Especially when I had been met with so many disabling circumstances to try to push me to give up. Just to even make certain choices between settling for being a bartender forever or to see the thing through and see where it takes me despite the financial hardships. Constantly being belittled by other jobs and people- dealing with being in the wrong crowd, my own self, Just mental health in general can really make it hard to do anything. I’m lucky to be the kind of human I am where even if I’m sad or feeling stuck, it still never put out that drive in me to change my circumstances even if was just one small thing every day to bring you closer to your goals. In the past I used to be so hard on myself for not being faster at stuff, but as I got older I realized that you can’t put a time frame on things and you absolutely can not ever compare yourself to anyone else because you don’t know what it took for them to get there. The path is never as easy as it seems. And you can’t ever assume that someone has it all figured out. And that was something that took me a very long time to realize. But I’m glad I did.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am a licensed tattoo artist working at Landlocked Tattoo & Body piercing.
My style leans more twords American traditional, but I don’t want to commit to one style quite yet since I am so early in my career.
I love doing work that uses lots of bright colors, as well as anything super silly, cute and girly to even some super witchy/esoteric tattoos.

What’s next?
My plans for the future is to just make sure everything I do is better than the last. To continually grow as much as I can and learn from every tattoo I do. To make people feel better about themselves and to have fun with it.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wwhiterrabbit?igsh=MTlmODlib2liaGF1dg%3D%3D&utm_source=qr