Tattoo You: Q&A with Ink & Indigo tattoo artist Katie DeMaria
Syracuse-born and raised in Rome, New York, and South Carolina, Ink & Indigo tattoo artist Katie DeMaria has had art in her blood since her first daydreamy doodles as a five-year-old. She later became fascinated with patterns and designs, and in high school wrote her senior paper—with a “full-on PowerPoint presentation”—called “Are tattoos safe?” Afterward, she attended Pratt Munson university in Utica and the College of St. Rose in Albany, intending to become a teacher.
DeMaria graduated with an art education degree in 2010 . . . right in the midst of the recession. An art-school friend had gotten into tattooing, and convinced her to apprentice with a local artist. “It was everything that you could possibly think of if you were to walk into a tattoo shop 20 years ago, 50 years ago,” DeMaria says of the studio, with its stereotypical mess and wall of faded Polaroids, and the gruff, face-tattooed owner, who spoke in a heavy Brooklynese.
Since those early, restrictive days of apprenticeship, DeMaria has found greener pastures, and studios where she could spread her wings as an artist. In September 2023, she opened Ink & Indigo in Averill Park (in the building where the Mess Hall, now in Poestenkill, used to be), which is where I first came across her. A tattoo newbie, I’d been looking for an artist who not only had her own distinctive viewpoint, but could take an idea I’d been noodling over for years, make it feel more original, and convince me to take the tattoo plunge. I sat down with Katie to talk tats and the personal nature of design.
Robin Catalano: Why did you choose Averill Park for the location of Ink & Indigo tattoo studio?
Katie DeMaria: [laughs] I live here. My wife and I have been out here for six years. Her whole family is from around this area. Also, there’s not a tattoo shop within, like, 20, 25 minutes of where I’m located.
RC: That can be both good and bad, right? Good that you don’t have immediate competition, but is it hard to get people to notice the shop?
KD: I was very worried about that. Fortunately, my wife’s family actually owns the building and the property. Her cousin’s husband had brought it up to me, like, “Hey, that little place on 43 might be a nice little tattoo shop.” And I was like, “There’s no way, out here in the middle of nowhere.” I ended up not being an issue at all.
RC: So this was the next step in your evolution?
KD: I had worked in Hudson and East Greenbush, but I knew I needed something else to learn and grow, and to have better financial opportunities. I had taken a chance on working in a shop in Albany, but when I went there, I lost all my clients. [Laughs] No one would go to Albany. No one. It was literally a 10-minute drive right down 9 and 20, right over the bridge. But my clients were like, “Really? You’re going there? I don’t go to Albany.” I’m like, “What do you mean, you don’t go to Albany?”
RC: It’s a whole thing, crossing the river. Some people just will not do it.
KD: Right, don’t trust the river.
RC: After Covid, you were able to branch out on your own. How has your style has evolved from when you first started?
KD: I think whenever you first start, you are you’re doing anything and everything, every style possible. There are these silly little pieces of silicone they call fake skin that you can tattoo for practice, but they suck that they’re nothing like skin. Nothing really is a substitute for using a human canvas. Just your poor, willing friends that will allow you to tattoo terrible things on them while you are learning.
For a while, I was very sure I would specialize in biomechanical, a style that has roots in Polynesian and Samoan and Mayan styles of tattoo—like the Rock has [laughs]—but that looks kind of like an H. R. Giger painting. That and pinups. Why that duality? I’m not really sure, but thought it would be my specialty. I tried for a little while, but that’s not what everybody wants.
At some point, after trying a million different things, it clicked. It usually happens when you’re not paying attention and not trying so hard and just drawing because you like to draw. Somebody at a professional development seminar once said, “Treat every single tattoo like it’s your own drawing.” So even if it’s an infinity sign a rose or a butterfly or something that seems on the outside to be really inconsequential, draw every single one of them how you want to draw it, and it becomes your own.
RC: How do you deal with people who want to dictate every little element of their design?
KD: I have learned how to tell people, “If you want my best work, this is how you’re going to allow me to design it for you.” Because you’re coming to me for a service, and this is how I know best to provide this service for you. You can of course give me insight on how you would like things placed, but I know how it’s going to lay the best on your body. I know how I am going to be able to tattoo it so it looks original, and not like a million other tattoos that you see on Instagram.
RC: What are some of your favorite designs to work on at Ink & Indigo tattoo shop?
KD: I very much love anything pop culture and fun. I like dinosaurs a lot. I finally got to do a sleeve of dinosaurs the other few months ago, which was a big pride-and-joy moment for me. I’m also obsessed with very tedious work that most people would be really annoyed with, geometric patterning and things like that where it’s like the same patterns over and over. It’s tedious to do in the moment, but looking at it from afar when you’re done it, it’s just very satisfying to see, and know it’s my own personal aesthetic.
I love anything with faces, you know, the kind of ambiguous lady face, where she is surrounded by flowers for no apparent reason. There’s no real apparent reason for the lady heads, but they’re a constant in tattoo culture and tattoo art.
RC: What kind of projects are you working on now?
KD: I’m getting projects that I really like. I’m getting I have clients more often than not say, “Do it however you want. I want a cup of coffee with steam coming off of it. Draw it however you want.”
RC: How far do you typically book out at Ink & Indigo tattoo?
KD: At least a month to three months. It depends on the time of year.
RC: Besides your own, can you name a few of your other favorite upstate businesses?
KD: I do love Sand Lake Merchant. They’re lovely. And Gipfel. I think they’re such a great coffee shop. For restaurants, I like Norte Azul in Stephentown. Best Mexican food in the Capital Region. And Birch Baked, a gluten-free bakery in Troy. I am not gluten-free, but one of my best friends is. And the owner is just a really nice guy, and his baked goods are delicious.
RC: What do you do on a day off?
KD: Chase my 2-year-old. [Laughs] I like to try new restaurants. I love to cook myself. And I also try to dabble in as many DIY art and creative projects as I possibly can. My daughter and my wife and I made DIY stained glass for the whole family last Christmas, and I love that she can be involved in that. I’m a wannabe designer of everything. My hand is in so many cookie jars.
