While Bronwin Ironside and Samina Khokhar were introduced to tattooing in very different ways, the universe aligned to bring the two to Haliburton, where they recently relocated B. Ironside Art and Latitude Tattoo from Minden.
Khokhar had dropped out of university in 2008. She had been studying cultural anthropology, but “could not handle the weight of how awful humans are to each other.”
She travelled to Thailand, pondering what would make her happy. She knew the answer was art. She researched tattoo lessons.
“I thought it was a really interesting thing.”
She said she had the privilege of learning under a renowned and award-winning female artist named Kanthima.
She was immersed for a month, even attending a convention in Bangkok, where she met artists from all over the world. She came back to Canada and did an apprenticeship in Toronto to hone her craft.
Meanwhile, Ironside was 18, a musician, playing in a lot of bands when she first got into tattoos. She said two of her bass players worked in a tattoo studio.
“Punk rock and rock and roll go hand-in-hand with tattoos and so I was introduced to a tattoo shop that way. And I’ve always been an artist.” She, too, did an apprenticeship and has not looked back.
The two worked together in Bancroft, where they discovered they had similar senses of humour and could communicate really well. They say they help each other grow.
Ironside quips, “I think the universe directed us that way.” Khokhar adds, there’s no reason why she should have ended up in Bancroft. “I feel like the wind just kind of blew me here.”
It blew them to a studio on the main street in Minden in 2022 – and has now taken them, as of June 27, to Maple Avenue in Haliburton.
Asked about the new location, Khokhar says, “it’s wonderful. We really love Minden as well. It just came time for us to expand because we needed more space for our future plans and endeavours. It was never anything to do with Minden itself, it was just time for us to expand.”
Clients from Minden are finding their way to the new shop, as are regulars from places such as Barry’s Bay, Bancroft, Lindsay and Peterborough, even Newfoundland and the Greater Toronto Area.
Ironside said of repeat customers, “once you build a relationship with someone, especially with what we do, it’s very intimate.”
Khokhar added most clients want the same tattoo artist when it comes to continuation of art work. Sometimes people just respect their work.
The two operate as sole proprietors out of the space. As for their style, Khokhar said one of hers is watercolour. “I enjoy working with colours, so, so, so, so, much.”
Ironside said she likes to do animal portraits, and “I love to work in colour. I love tattooing, full stop, period. I am happy to do whatever comes through the door. The only things I won’t tattoo are racist, homophobic or bigoted.”
Asked for the most meaningful work they’ve done, Ironside said, “if it’s important enough for you to be putting it on your body, it is important enough for me to treat it with respect. A tiny little dot could mean just as much as doing a half sleeve.”
However, she and Khokhar said memorial tattoos can bring pressure. Ironside said “it’s a very tactile grieving.”
Ironside talks about a client in her 90s who came for her first tattoo. She said the woman had been reflecting on her life, always having other people dictate what she could do with her body. “She wanted to close her chapter with one … and to experience it.”
Ironside also specializes in covering up tattoos, saying people change. And Khokhar adds a bad tattoo can cause anxiety.
When not tattooing, the two said they spend a lot of free time drawing.
They’ve seen a lot in a nearly 40-year combined career; noting more women are now tattooists and tattoos more socially acceptable.
Ironside said they are “grateful for the warm welcome that Haliburton has given us.”
B Ironside Art is at 83 Maple Ave.
