About Anne Kirk
I’m primarily a tattooer, print maker, screen printer, seamstress, and photographer — as the Lunachicks say, a “jerk of all trades.” I’ve been thinking back lately on how the artistic work I’ve created throughout my life has utilized similar tools. I’ve created original works with all manner of needle + thread, needle + ink, ink + paper, camera + paper. I think it would be fun to combine these elements in new ways I haven’t tried yet, but this idea is just growing inside me, and I’m not sure how it will manifest yet.
Biography
My name is Anne Kirk, and (((I Am))) an artist, photographer, printmaker, mother, and graphic designer originally from Baltimore, Maryland. In 2016, I relocated to Capon Springs, WV (pop. 95), with my partner and infant daughter, knowing no one. Back in Maryland, I worked as the shop manager, then apprentice, and eventually became a fresh tattoo artist at a prominent custom tattoo studio. Working in this shop for six years is where I truly found my creative path. I knew I had found my path because the highs soared and the lows were soul-crushing, so I was all in. But I struggled to maintain a budding tattoo career alongside new motherhood in a new state after my husband suddenly lost his job.
Shortly after our move to WV, I quickly fell back on my graphic design and photography skills, soon taking an offer for a part-time 9-to-5 day job as a Marketing Director at a local non-profit. What I expected to be a temporary, steady income boost while I figured out the next leg of my journey in WV slowly turned into a full-time+, micromanaged, bureaucratic nightmare, where I felt absolutely suffocated. I tried to disentangle myself for seven solid years, but debt, bills, healthcare, and the harsh reality of providing for my family in a town of 95 mostly retirees was nothing to scoff at. My tattooing dreams weren’t just on the back burner; they were under the floorboards. But thumping away, nagging like the Tell-Tale Heart. It felt like my brief tattoo career was turning into my college-era glory days, stories I’d tell at a bar to old classmates about who I used to be. This thought really scared me, but I had seen Office Space enough times to know what I needed to do to get my groove back.
By March 2025, timed perfectly before my 40th birthday, I finally left the financial crutch and unhappiness of my 9-to-5 job. I’m both proud to have done it and embarrassed that it took me so long. I often think of myself as a slow-moving snail, but here I stand, inching forward toward — what? I’m working freelance as a photographer, selling my linocut prints and upcycled clothing at craft shows, and rebuilding my tattoo practice. I now have the freedom of time, but not yet the funding or infrastructure to open a dedicated creative space — a place to tattoo, make art, and build something creative and passionate in this area.
I’m actively seeking collaborators, mentors, and supporters who see the value in collaborative, radical, community-rooted creative work. Let’s be friends and keep each other awake on this long, spiraling journey called life.
[email protected]
Other Creative Skills
Tattoo & Body Art
Printmaking
