Azha Tattoos: Helping Others Tell Their Stories Through Body Art | Jackson Free Press

Azha Sanders sits in entrance of the 10-foot-by-12-foot mural she painted at Kirksey Center Faculty in partnership with Metropolis Coronary heart Church in Jackson. The mural’s theme, “royal,” is supposed to encourage power and worthiness. Picture courtesy Azha Tattoos

You might have determined so as to add a little bit artwork to your bodily canvas. You might have researched and chosen a tattoo store and artist, and you’ve got selected a design, fashion and placement. As soon as the paperwork is full, you chill out in an typically dentist-style chair, and the artist sanitizes the realm and transfers the stencil.

Tattoo machine in hand, the centered artist traces the design and fine-tunes the linework earlier than including shading and possibly a splash or two of shade. A protecting layer of ointment is utilized to the finished tattoo to keep away from bacterial an infection, and a clear bandage seals the realm from the open air. As soon as the tattoo has healed, you are prepared to indicate off the artist’s laborious work.

Azha Sanders has labored as a licensed tattoo artist for 11 years and at present works at Solid True Tattoo in Brookhaven. The Kosciusko, Miss., native moved to Jackson when she was 13 years outdated, and he or she has held a ardour for artwork her entire life.

“I have been doing artwork for so long as I can bear in mind,” Sanders says. “It is at all times been my number-one interest. It is my protected place. Happily, my household inspired creating artwork. I simply at all times liked to attract and paint on issues, and once I began tattooing, it was actually a lightning-bolt type of second.”

On the onset of COVID-19 in Mississippi, Solid True Tattoo needed to shut down, however it has since opened its doorways, sustaining health-safety pointers.

Past tattooing, Sanders creates murals, portraits and work, and he or she typically enjoys utilizing watercolor and markers.

A few of Sanders’ extra notable works embody 7-foot-tall panels of Oprah Winfrey and Elvis Presley within the Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers Worldwide Airport; two portraits for the characters Grizabella and Mungo Jerrie from “Cats the Musical, which had been auctioned off at Thalia Mara Corridor to learn the Mississippi Spay and Neuter Clinic; a mural at Kirksey Center Faculty; and a mural for the current “#ArtofVoting” sequence that Eli Childers organized.

“Artwork is a means for me to have the ability to communicate my fact and to talk my language. I can present what I care about and put it out on this planet and encourage somebody,” Sanders says. “And thru tattooing, I get to assist one other particular person do this. I get to collaborate with another person and inform their story. To me, that is so unimaginable. With the ability to set up that connection is priceless.”

Sanders manages a web based retailer the place patrons should buy prints, stickers, magnets, garments or equipment that includes her art work, depicting each unique and current fictional characters.

The 32-year-old artist spends the majority of her spare time together with her husband, Josh, and their two cats, though she additionally enjoys going open air and patroning her native fitness center.

For extra data or to view her art work, go to azhatattoos.com, discover her on Fb, or comply with her on Instagram at @azha.