Leslie Mah and Roxx
Ages: unknown and 37
Shop: Tatumi, San Francisco

Leslie Mah has been getting tattooed since her teenage years and has always created art, so it just seemed natural to get into the field—though it wasn't right away. “I was in punk rock bands for a couple of decades,” Mah explains. “Late-night practice and constant touring can keep you from getting an education or a career, so even if your band is making a little money, you're still always broke.” It was after a friend suggested that Mah might be the perfect apprentice for Diane DiMassa (creator of the Hothead Paisan alternative comic book) that Mah discovered her knack. After DiMassa moved back East, Mah was basically self-taught. “I love working with color and creating an image that flows with the client's body. I make the beautiful people into works of art.”

Leslie's partner, Roxx, grew up in London during the '70s, in and around the beginning of the punk rock revolution, and remembers seeing punks and thinking, “They are so beautiful and colorful and scary! I'd think to myself, ‘When I grow up, I want to be just like that!'”

Roxx had a talent for drawing, and her art teachers encouraged her to pursue a career in the arts. At 13, she decided she wanted to be a tattoo artist. Later, getting an apprenticeship didn't come easy. “I realized quick that as a 16-year-old girl I would have to teach myself. I started tattooing my friends by hand with needles sewn together, then got the side of my head tattooed by Micky Sharpz in Birmingham during the late '80s and got some of his machines. They're working just as great today as the day I bought them!”

Roxx has worked the world over, from Amsterdam to Africa, and she's one of the few artists rocking the Polynesian-fusion style in the Bay area. “People always have remarked on how lucky I am to have known what I wanted to do from such a young age,” she says. “I think we all know deep down what we really want to do is live a productive, creative, inspired life. Following your heart and doing whatever you most enjoy will always pay off in the end.”