[image]
[title]Here’s the scary thing about tattooing: unlike any other creative output, your work will remain on someone’s skin for life. Most of us would find the idea too daunting; but for London artist Mia Leo, the call was irresistible. These days, you’ll find her at north London studio Through My Third Eye most days of the week, delighting her customers with her signature botanical tattoos. Delicate, impossibly detailed and often embellished with colour, these designs are praised by her fans each time she posts one on her Instagram account.
Mia’s books open every three months, and once she makes the announcement as an Instagram post or story, it doesn’t take long for them to fill. Not all tattoo artists can boast such a steady flow of customers – but it’s been the result of eight years of practice, hard work, and experimentation when it comes to marketing her skills on social media.
With Instagram as her shop window, Mia has honed her voice and her style, posting a combination of static images and videos of her tattoos, and the occasional update on her personal life: her wedding day, a selfie, a holiday snap. We’ve asked Mia to test out new features on Adobe Express: a, free-to-use desktop app that’s set to change the way that creatives and entrepreneurs create content for social media and other marketing collateral. The possibilities on Adobe Express really are endless, thanks to a huge database of 200 million assets (we’re talking video and design templates, video and audio, fonts, images, backgrounds and shapes) – not to mention an all-in-one editor that can create captivating social content ready for Instagram and TikTok.
But if you ask us, the most exciting feature in Adobe Express is the new integration of Adobe’s Firefly Generative AI tools. Integrated into Express workflows, the AI powered technology allows users to create custom text effects and high-quality images with just a text prompt. That means business owners like Mia can easily create unique content instantly, and schedule, preview and publish it all from the Adobe Express app.
What have some of the biggest challenges been in your eight-year career as a tattoo artist?
‘I definitely think marketing myself was the hardest. When you first start out, you don’t really have many clients; you rely on the tattoo studio you work in to bring in the clients for you. In the first few years, I was hardly tattooing at all – maybe twice a week – it was hard work but once you build up a good portfolio, it does build from there. It’s important to manage your social media to bring in clients. It can feel like you have to constantly post and engage with people to get that clientele. Posting, making videos and making things look interesting.'
As a tattoo artist, do you find it’s important to connect with customers as the work you’re doing is so personal to them?
‘You’re putting something on their bodies forever, and I always keep in mind that it’s not always about business; it’s very personal to them, and a lot of clients tell me their stories and why they’re getting their tattoos. Having compassion and patience with people is so important – I just want people to feel comfortable and have a good experience.’
How do you gauge the balance of connecting with sharing your personal life with clients and keeping things professional?
‘I do connect with my clients through social media. When they come in, we always have conversations about our lives, and when you talk to people every day you have an idea of what’s important to post. For example I told some clients I was getting married, and they said they were really excited to see the photos! So I was happy to post about my wedding – it was so nice when I had people messaging me to say congratulations.’
Which features in Adobe Express have you found particularly useful already?
‘I love the Instagram Story function! I actually did a post yesterday using this on Adobe Express. I got some drawings of flowers that I’d done, and I made them sort of rise up in the photo so it looks like they’re growing. That’s a great feature to use, especially for my work. I had been using a different app for posting IG stories but my problem was that you couldn’t really customise your own photos in the same way you can do with Adobe Express.
‘When you’re a small business, you do feel like you’ve got to do more on social media. Not only do you have to be a photographer, you have to be a videographer, editor and designer. And with Adobe Express, it’s like, ‘Oh okay, so I can animate now!’. And that’s really fun. I’ve been playing around with the animations, and it’s just so much easier. I’ve been showing Adobe Express to the guys at work, saying, ‘This is great!’.
Here’s what Mia had to say about her career – and how Adobe Express might just help drive it forwards.