Brynn Potts-Thorne: Artistic talents now on display in living ink

For Brynn Potts-Thorne, artistic talent and being able to adapt to new mediums has always come naturally. Today, Brynn is using her talents to create permanent, unique masterpieces for customers at Liquid Image, a tattoo and piercing parlor in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

Brynn began her artistic career as a child, and though she always had a fascination with tattoos, it wasn’t until two years ago she began to try her hand as a tattoo artist.

“I’ve liked tattoos since I was really little, I was fascinated by it,” Brynn said. “But I didn’t know how to break into that industry.”

A 2000 graduate of Ritzville High School, Brynn attended Central Washington University after high school and received a Bachelor of Arts in graphic design. She traveled to Seattle and took a graphic design position, but quickly realized her passion did not lie in that field.

“It was zapping me creatively and I realized I wanted to do something completely different,” Brynn said.

Brynn took a job at a pet shop and in 2006; she began raising parrots for a living. Brynn described the job as “fun, but not very lucrative” and began searching for her true calling for a career.

Brynn currently lives in Spokane with her husband of six years, Mark Thorne, who is a Lind High School graduate and currently working as a graphic designer. While the couple was residing in Spokane, Brynn discovered an advertisement online for a tattoo apprenticeship and decided to apply for the position. Brynn quickly compiled a resume and portfolio of her artwork and went to the shop to apply.

Brynn’s enthusiasm combined with her extensive and elaborate portfolio quickly gained the attention of the parlor’s owner and she began her apprenticeship. She got her start with Larry “Tex” Bartowski and has been working with him for the past two years.

With her natural artistic ability, the main focus for Brynn was learning to put ink to skin, a medium she had not yet worked with. The first tattoos Brynn completed as an artist were on herself, a common practice for tattoo artists.

“I was really frightened that it was going to hurt, and ruin my ability artistically,” Brynn said about the first tattoo. “I was so concentrated on what I was doing mechanically the pain was secondary. The color hurt and I had to stop, but I’ll honestly never fix them. It’s sentimental.”

Her first tattoos were above her knee and of two dinosaurs, a decision that is symbolic because of her youth.

Brynn remembered spending many nights drawing with her father, who preferred sketching to reading bedtime stories, and the animals still hold a place in her heart.

Brynn began tattooing on herself in June and has since earned a full-time tattooing position at the parlor. She commutes from Spokane every day, after Tex relocated to Coeur d’Alene and offered for Brynn to continue her apprenticeship with him there.

Now that Brynn is working full time with clients, the nerve-racking portion of the job has lessened slightly, but there is always an element of concern because of the permanence of the tattoo, Brynn explained. She focuses on line work and making sure she has a clear understanding of the client’s idea before she even begins sketching the tattoo.

Brynn explained the best part of working in a tattoo parlor is the lack of hierarchy and ability for coworkers to recognize and appreciate each other’s individual talents. Brynn explained that many times clients will come in with a tattoo idea that they want a specific artist to sketch, but many times the artist will recommend a coworker if the sketch plays into the strength of a coworker.

“We care about the person and their end result,” Brynn said.

For Brynn, she enjoys large color pieces and cartoon-like tattoos because those are the tattoos where she can express her creativity and talent. She appreciates the challenge of creating something new every day, and believes one of the largest benefits of her job is the downtime she has to relax and experiment creatively.

Brynn has a wide variety of tattoos herself, and explained that while not every tattoo has meaning, each one has been thought through. She said she is very picky about what she puts on her body, and many of her tattoos are symbolic of people or important elements in her life. A few of her tattoos include parrots, a koi to match the tattoo of her father’s, memorial tattoos to friends and a tribute to Tex, who taught her how to tattoo.

Brynn credits her artistic start to her parents, but also to her high school art teacher Linda Schrag.

“She really opened me up to a bunch of different mediums,” Brynn said of Schrag. “She opened up my ability to work with mediums. She was very supportive in helping me do that.”

The most important aspect of entering a career in the tattoo field for Brynn is the outstanding support her family has provided her. The daughter of Steve and Karen Potts, Brynn explained her parents have always supported her artistic talent.

“Both of my parents, in different ways, are very creative people and when they learned I was creative, they were very supportive and encouraging,” Brynn said. “My family is so supportive of what I’ve wanted to do, and I’ve always been very appreciative of that.”

The true moment of family love and support for Brynn came from her grandmother, who insists that she is going to get a tattoo from Brynn.

“My grandma said, ‘When you’re all done, I want to get a tattoo. How else am I going to show people what my granddaughter is capable of?’” Brynn explained. “She’s from a generation where that is frowned upon, it really choked me up when she said that.”

Brynn said she still hasn’t had the opportunity to tattoo any of her family members, but hopes the chance will present itself soon. She hopes to one-day work in Spokane to eliminate the 45-minute commute everyday, but for now is content working in the supportive atmosphere of the Liquid Image shop.