Amy Jem Zelix has always considered herself to be an artist.
While her passion was kept to paper and canvas, about five years ago the recent Canadian Forces Base Borden transplant decided to take her passion off the page and onto skin.
“I’ve always been interested in tattoos,” she tells BarrieToday, adding after attending college for art, she ultimately realized she wanted to apply the skills she learned over the years to tattooing. “I wanted to be able to do what I could do on paper or painting on a canvas on skin. It was a challenge for myself to apply my skills to a new medium."
At the beginning, Jem Zelix, who is a self-taught tattoo artist, focused on honing her skills by tattooing herself, but says now she tattoos herself simply because she likes how she feels covered in her own artwork.
After a few years of improving her skills, Jem Zelix opened her first shop in Petawawa, located approximately two hours northwest of Ottawa, in 2019.
This summer, she and her family relocated to Simcoe County after her husband was posted this past summer at CFB Borden, about 20 minutes west of Barrie. Wanting to get back to doing what she loved, she recently reopened her shop — Black Lamp Tattoos — right on the base, making it the first tattoo studio ever to open on any Canadian Forces base, she says.
“It’s just me as the artist in there, but it works for what I need it for. My husband, being in the military, was really excited about it. I was mostly concerned about just having a place to work again," she says. "There’s a lot of excitement about having a tattoo shop on base from service members. It seems to go hand in hand with military culture.
“A lot of them want something to commemorate their service… and I am excited to be here.”
With tattoos becoming a more acceptable form of self-expression over the years, Jem Zelix has tattooed clients from a variety of backgrounds — including doctors, nurses and teachers — along with many people who serve in the Canadian Forces.
Although she says her own personal style tends to lean more toward “realism,” Jem Zelix says she has the skills to pretty much do anything a client could want.
“I love that style of tattoo, but I still do other styles for my clients because what’s most important is that my client loves their tattoo,” she says, adding her ability to get inside her clients’ heads and create something that truly meets their vision is what makes her most proud.
“I’ve been told many times by clients that I gave them exactly what they wanted. It might be that I am good at taking notes, I don't know, but it's really just important to work with them to make sure that they get exactly what they want," she says.
Even though she loves being able to spend her days being creative, the gig doesn’t come without some challenges, she admits.
“Tattoos come with a price tag and people relate that to just chair time, but there’s so much work that goes on behind the scenes. So if I don’t force myself to take an extra day off every once in a while, I might be working every single day just running the business and working on designs,” she says. “I take pride in making pieces unique, custom, and in a way, my own art.”
Jem Zelix is also battling to be named a covergirl on Inked Magazine, which, along with bragging rights, comes with a prize of $25,000.
“There is a free daily vote that people are able to use if they have Facebook and there is also the option to purchase additional votes with the proceeds going to the Musicares charity, so it does have a good cause as well," she says.
