Artist

Hey, I’m Dahlia Moth, a Los Angeles-based tattoo artist with a professional background in fine arts. Originally from Vancouver, Canada, now a permanent resident at the California Dream, specializing in dark, macabre realism tattoos ⸺ Have you ever had a bad tattooing experience, and what was it? I was working at a tattoo shop in Venice on a hot summer day when a man came in and asked for a tattoo on his butt cheek. I had him lower his shorts as I began to place the stencil when the most horrendous scent hit my nostrils like a freight train. Considering before I even sat him down in the chair, he was sweating like he had a snowsuit on in the middle of July, I should have seen it coming. The design was fairly detailed, and I knew I was going to be stuck in the danger zone for longer than I would have preferred, so I rubbed a little bit of A&D ointment underneath my nose to try and mask the smell, which did help a little. This man’s swamp ass could have exterminated small rodents. The tattoo turned out really nice, though, and he did tip me well, so it could have been worse ⸺ What do you enjoy most about tattooing and working with clients? I really value the time that I spend with my clients, as tattooing is an extremely intimate experience. You’re in each other’s personal space for so long; there’s a lot of trust that goes into that. I love hearing all the stories that my clientele trust to tell me about. As an artist, you really get to peek into the minds of every person you tattoo.

I hear the good, the bad, and the ugly doing my job. By just listening and letting my clientele know that they’re being heard and in a safe space, I’m able to be a better person and have more compassion and empathy towards other people as well as myself ⸺ How do you balance the demands of being a successful artist with your personal life? Honestly, that’s something that I’m still trying to figure out to this day. When you make your passion your career, it’s difficult to separate the two. I’ll tell myself that I’m taking the day off just for me, but I still find myself drawing as it was my hobby before it was my career. Working at the California Dream has definitely allowed me to take more time for my personal life, as we all go on little adventures together as a tattoo shop regularly. We are like a little tattoo family. ✕