Blazing a Body Art Trail

Kirsty York is charting a path for artists and entrepreneurs 

By Chloe-Anne Swink  »  Photos by Alisha Light

Twenty years ago, finding a female tattoo artist in a tattoo shop was like spotting a unicorn. If a woman worked in a tattoo shop even a decade ago, she was likely the only one, surrounded by a cast of men in a masculine environment. 

Tattoo shops were a different scene in the ’90s and early aughts. Flash sheets featuring flaming hearts, snakes and eagles often adorned the walls, loud music thumping from the shop speakers, and it wasn’t unusual for passersby to be too intimidated to enter.

Many modern tattoo shops have come a long way, boasting beautifully designed interiors, spotless front desks and artist stations, and featuring diverse groups of artists. 

Kirsty York, a business owner in Boulder County, owns and operates such a shop. York’s tattoo shop, Blackbird Ink, started as a three-woman operation housed in a strip mall in Lafayette seven years ago. In the last two years, York has expanded the lovingly appointed Blackbird Ink to a new, larger hub on Longmont’s Main Street. Here, her business has grown to include four artists plus herself, as well as a retail shop called Blackbird House, run by her life and business partner, Taylor Hood.

Not only is Blackbird Ink a woman-owned business, but it also features a roster of all-female tattoo artists—a stark contrast to the traditionally male-dominated tattoo industry in which York came up. 

“I was the only female in the first shop I worked at,” York reflects as she details her experience navigating the pressure to put on a “tough tattooer persona.” This attitude was pervasive in her early career and deterred women from entering the shop, making many potential customers feel uncomfortable inside tattoo shops. 

Today, York has created a space where women can just be artists. That same come as you are mentality extends to Blackbird Ink’s clientele. York takes pride in the fact that her tattoo shop has become a haven where women, non-binary individuals, the LGBTQ+ community, and anyone who has felt intimidated by traditional tattoo shops can feel comfortable walking in, being themselves, getting art put on their bodies, and even sharing music and literary tastes. What was once a somewhat fringe art form and a counterculture industry full of machismo is changing. 

York compares the shifts in the tattoo industry to the recent growth of Longmont’s Main Street, saying, “There’s something about these past five years.” An outpouring of female tattoo artists entered the scene and opened their own shops. Especially in Colorado, which seems to be a hub for the evolution of the tattoo industry. 

York represents not only a shift in tattooers within the industry, but tattoo artists within the landscape of business and entrepreneurship. She’s a talented tattoo artist with a fine arts background in illustration from the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, but she’s also a savvy entrepreneur. 

Blackbird Ink is thriving as a hub for community and a home for local artists. Now, York, alongside partner Hood, has grown Blackbird House to profitability in the first two years in business. And they did so with no loans or outside investment. 

The plants, crystals, and oddities shop and apothecary, which shares a building with Blackbird Ink, is fully self-funded. The growth was intentionally slow and methodical. York explains stocking the shop with minimal inventory and slowly growing its product selection with each dollar earned and reinvested. While she acknowledges that the self-funded route to opening Blackbird House presented a larger challenge up front, York says if she were to do it again, she’d do it the same way.

After two years of steady growth, Blackbird House is bursting with life and inventory. Both shops see significant foot traffic on Longmont’s Main Street. York is thrilled that the community has embraced both businesses with open arms. 

Running two successful businesses in Boulder County is no easy feat. She doesn’t have a traditional business education, but York clearly possesses entrepreneurial chops. She credits her success to her willingness to take leaps and speaks to the importance of having the confidence to take risks, ask for help and charge headfirst into uncomfortable conversations. 

Blackbird Ink, especially, has demonstrated that unicorns do indeed exist, and no matter your interpretation of the metaphor, York embraces it through her confluence of business and art.

Visit Blackbird Ink and Blackbird House at 437 and 439 Main Street in Longmont.