Nikki Rouillet-Thrun tattooing a back piece on her husband Kevin Thrun on Sunday afternoon at Rouillet Tattoo. This fourth session marked a combined 12 hours of working on this tattoo.

The smell of peppermint soap fills the nostrils of a Lethbridge tattoo artist as she presses the permanent ink into her client’s skin. She can hear the buzzing sound of the coils and rotaries coming from the tattoo machine as she begins to pierce into the skin.

Nikki Rouillet-Thrun, Rouillet Tattoo shop owner and artist, recently achieved her lifelong goal of opening her own tattoo store. She said the experience was stressful, exhausting and, testing, but the absolute best decision she ever made.

Since opening her shop in late July, she said the experience has made her fall in love with tattooing all over again.

Rouillet-Thrun always knew she wanted to own her own shop with the ultimate goal to act as her own boss.

When Rouillet-Thrun was 15-years-old, she wrote down a list of goals for a class. She said she wanted to become a tattoo apprentice by 19, full-time tattoo artist by 22 and tattoo shop owner by 25. She successfully fulfilled these goals.

“I think my 15-year-old self was one of my biggest motivations to ride out any hiccups or speed bumps that came up during the whole process of becoming a shop owner,” she said.

Rouillet-Thrun began professionally tattooing when she was 19-years-old. She actually started tattooing in her early teens when friends would ask her to do it spontaneously.

As soon as she was legally allowed to work in a tattoo shop, she started looking for someone to teach her. She was an apprentice for roughly eight months before she was allowed to tattoo clients.

After completing her apprenticeship and tattooed in Calgary, for three years, she appeared as a guest artist at Nectar Fine Arts Tattoo Shop in Lethbridge. She was offered a permanent position and remained at Nectar for until opening her own shop.

“I learned a lot from Nectar, and it was an amazing steppingstone in my career that lead me to where I am today,” she said.

When she first began her career, she found it difficult because tattoos were still not as accepted as they are now. She said she was labelled as an outsider growing up, but she said that is what drew her to the industry and lifestyle in the first place.

Since she was also a young female starting out in the industry, it created even more challenges.

Quickly after she began tattooing, she was told to enjoy it while she could, because it wouldn’t last long.

She found this discouraging at first because these men were in the industry for more than 20 years at the time and still thought the industry was going to stay very male-dominated. However, she is proud to say that nowadays it is completely different.

“There are so many amazing female tattoo artists who are absolutely killing it and I’m so happy that we’ve been able to overcome all the things thrown at us and become successful,” she said.

Selena Osborne, a tattoo artist from Libertine Tattoo Shop, said there is growing support for female artists and that is one of her favourite things about being a tattoo artist.

“I get to talk to a lot of great women and hear their stories that are totally different than mine. These are people I probably would have never meet otherwise,” Osborne said.

Osborne also said that she loves discovering the online community for support such as the “Ladytattoers” Instagram page.

Instagram played a huge part in Rouillet-Thrun gaining success. She has been able to promote herself, find inspiration and gain clientele by spending time interacting with followers and other artists.

Recently Rouillet-Thrun reached over 11,000 followers, which makes her the most followed tattoo artist in Lethbridge.

“Seeing the number climb over the years has been extremely humbling for me. I came from nothing and worked so hard to get where I am today, and Instagram has definitely been a huge help,” she said.

Rouillet-Thrun said the biggest reward of being a tattoo artist is being able to help clients love their bodies.

“I know first-hand what it’s like to hate the body you’re in and how tattoos can change that,” she said.

When clients open up and tell her the work she’s done has helped them feel comfortable and confident in their skin, she said it is the highest level of compliment she can receive.

Rouillet-Thrun hopes to continue to make her clients love their bodies through her work and to keep finding new ways to re-inspire herself.