Between the Ink and Skin: A Tattoo Artist's Reflection on the American Dream, Art, and Attitudes in Texas

“Being Filipino in America means you fulfill your destiny and become a nurse. That was never going to be me.”

Ever since I was a little girl I made a promise to my parents that I would become a nurse when I grow up so that I can take care of them when they get old. For some reason being a Filipino in America means that you have to fulfill your destiny and become a nurse. It's the American Dream for most of us. Not for me though, I always knew that I wanted to be an artist. I grew up Catholic and I would include becoming an artist in my daily and nightly prayers not knowing how it actually works and that anybody can be an artist. 

As a kid I would show my mom my drawings and crafts and I wouldn't get any applause or encouragement from her, she would even go as far as ignoring me or dismissing me. She knew if she encouraged me, I might start getting ideas of being an artist and abandon her dreams of having a nurse in our family. It eventually worked and it deterred me from drawing, but I always found my way back to it throughout the years, but I just always viewed it as a hobby and would never dare make a career out of it.

My parents are super religious and traditional Catholics — my mom was part of the church lady group in our town in the Philippines — so I started going to college to become a nurse to appease them, but deep down I had no desire to work in the medical field. Now in Filipino culture, a girl's 18th birthday is monumental. It signifies her transition into adulthood. It's the most important day for a young Filipina's life and on my 18th birthday all I wanted was their permission to get a tattoo. My dad had gotten a tattoo decades ago that he regrets ever since, so he was absolutely against them, and I knew my 18th birthday was the only excuse I had. 

So, on my 18th birthday, with the $80 I had saved up, I walked in and got my first tattoo. From that moment, nothing could stop me. I fell in love with the culture of it and thought it was the coolest thing ever and I wanted my whole body covered in it one day.

For my first tattoo I got the word "ikigai" in Japanese going down my arm. It's a Japanese concept that translates to "reason for being." I didn't really care for the meaning to be honest, I just thought the symbols were pretty and I was drawn to it for some reason. And eventually it clicked. This, overall, reason for being here, to be enthralled by art and a passion for creating. This was what I was looking for when I walked into that shop. I just didn't know it yet.

I mustered up the courage to break my parents' heart and told them I want to become a tattoo artist. I felt as though I betrayed them and all their sacrifices of moving our family to America. I felt ungrateful and selfish for coming after what I want and living my life for myself and not through what my parents envisioned it to be.

I chased my American dream.

I went on to drop out of college and landed myself an apprenticeship at a tattoo shop in Corpus Christi back in 2019 and started tattooing. I ended up moving to Dallas in 2021 and have been tattooing for 7 years now. My reason for being here turned out to be exactly what it looked like all along, as a girl who wanted to make and pursue art, who found the form of it my parents couldn't take away from me. My parents have come to terms with my career, and I even gave my dad a tattoo and had my mom give me a tattoo. It has a lot of ups and downs, but I couldn't be happier with the path I've chosen.

My name is Samantha Olog. I am a 27-year-old artist based in Dallas, TX. I am a tattoo artist by trade but I'm also a painter. I hope to inspire other young Filipinos that you don't have to fill in this silhouette of a person wearing scrubs holding a Tupperware full of lumpias to be shared in the hospital break room. Follow your bliss and do your best and you will end up where you want to be, whatever that may be.