The collectors: Carolyn Schoerner, USA

All of the times I've read the interviews of the women I've featured on the blog, my love for tattoos has been reassured. And thanks to this project, I met Carolyn. She wanted me to know the story behind her tattoo sleeve, and what a wonderful surprise it was. I feel so lucky and honored that she wanted to share it on my blog, and I'm sure all of you will love to read this moving story about tattoos and friendship.

"My name is Carolyn Schoerner and I am a freelance ballet dancer along with the director of a nonprofit called Books for All. I publish artists books solely with artists with mental illnesses and developmental disabilities.

As a ballet dancer it was a bit rebellious of me to get my first tattoo. I had always been the traditional bunhead and never even did something like dye my hair. But I was in college and taking a break from dancing and as my friend was getting one I decided to get a tiny little dancer I used to always draw on my hip. It was so small and I ended up covering it up. It was about 12 years ago. I had no intention of getting anymore, but then ended up getting a side piece in of an Egon Schiele drawing that I loved. It never really occurred to me to seek out artists to do original work on me, I just knew so little about tattoos. After that piece I decided I was completely done.

It wasn’t until about 6 years ago that I decided to get a small little lock heart on my arm (my first real visible tattoo) because my maiden name is Lockhart. It was through this that I ended up dating the artist who did it. The relationship wasn’t very great, but he knew Sue Jeiven and the whole crew at East River Tattoo and introduced me to them. The shop was on my way home from work, so I started stopping in there frequently to say hi to Sue because she just had this amazing energy about her. We would watch Soul Train videos and try to imitate them in the shop and it just felt like home. It was also around this time that we learned that Sue had breast cancer. A lot was going on and I decided I wanted to get a tattoo to honor my grandparents and decided to have Sue do it. It was small and on my back - a tree with two love birds. Next I had her do a portrait of my late dog smoking a pipe and wearing a derby hat. I was hooked!

Tattoos by Sue Jeiven

Over the course of six months Sue and I rapidly became best friends. I would just hang out at East River Tattoo during most of my free time and then started to become more interested in other artists such as Liam Sparkes, Maxime Buchi, and Mark Cross. I started to get the itch to get more work. But I still stuck with Sue. I felt so comfortable with her and it felt like a real bonding experience. So the next thing that I got and it is my favorite tattoo of all time is a woman inside a tiger’s head. Sue would draw flash sheets and just give them to me every time I would come in. I saw this and it immediately reminded me of the struggle she was going through. It looked hopeful yet scary and I knew I had to get it. It said “Fight the Good Fight”, but once I told Sue that I wanted it, she said it was her version of the pink ribbon. At this point I still did not have any intention of getting a full sleeve, but wanted it in a prominent place where everyone could see it.

All tattoos by Sue Jeiven

It wasn’t until that summer when Sue had major surgery, and I was sitting with her while she was recovering, and we were talking about tattoos and her wishes that she said she never had done a full sleeve on anyone with work that she really wanted to do. She said people usually already had some work on the arm or it was stuff she wasn’t as into. So it was then and there that I decided to give her my whole left arm. Life is short, I didn’t know how long she would be around and I thought I have to do this now.

So over the course of the years she has created the most beautiful sleeve. Each piece I can remember exactly what we talked about, were going through, laughing about, and the pure joy of getting to spend this time with her. Sometimes she draws something and says, “you have to get this!” and I do, and other times I will wake up and think, “oh I want a goat,” and I text her and she is just as excited about it as I am. She has created an artwork of memories for me from silly things like a palm tree that says "vacation" to a heart for my dog when he passed away almost three years ago. Every time I look at my arm I laugh, smile, and feel so honored to wear her art.

Tattoos on Carolyn's sleeve by Sue Jeiven

I think this project has made our relationship even stronger. Just through the amount of time I get to spend with her and those sessions of just talking about dogs and the silliest things that no one else in the world would get, to real serious issues that turn into an amazing therapy session. I never really believed in the idea of having one person as your best friend, but now I totally do. She is my soulmate.

Carolyn's sleeve by Sue Jeiven // Carolyn and Sue

I also have work by Liam Sparkes, Mark Cross, Spider Sinclair, Rob Banks, and Jessi Preston (she did a friendship tattoo on Sue and me of a horse with a horseshoe). I actually have gotten all my tattoos in New York, except for one, at East River Tattoo. That place feels like home. I really want a tattoo from Mike Adams, Alexis Hepburn, Christian Lanouette, and Jenna Bouma, and many many more. My right arm still needs work but that is the one that I am collecting other people’s work on. Most of the time Sue will text and say that a guest artist has an opening or cancellation and that I should come in. So I’ll run to Greenpoint and pick something from the artist’s flash and get a spur of the moment tattoo, and I love it!

On her right arm, Carolyn collects pieces from other tattoo artists // Horseshoe by Jessi Preston

At first my family was hesitant about me getting so much work done but now they totally accept it, and I think even like it. Since I work in the art world it hasn’t had much of an impact on my work life, but it is very interesting with ballet. I have been mostly doing my own work lately, but other things I do I usually have to wear long sleeves. I think its beautiful seeing the arms move in graceful ways with the tattoos.

One thing I did not expect was the amount of attention I would get from strangers because of having so many tattoos. Everyone makes comments, some sweet and very welcomed, others I could do without. There is this assumption that since you have tattoos that you should want to talk about them to every stranger and that I do not like. However, I wouldn’t trade them for anything.

This process of getting tattoos, and especially from Sue, has been the most amazing experience. I have met people who will be friends for life and I feel very honored to wear such amazing pieces."

Thank you so much, Carolyn!