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Sister Bears Calendar of Events

SISTER BEAR

A lot of years ago, my brother, Sugar Bear, changed my life.  He pushed me down the porch stairs and I landed on my head, basically unhurt, but changed forever ( old family joke).  Much later, he changed my life again.  Do you see a pattern developing here?
    I had spent the years after growing up and leaving home as Ms. Corporate America in New York.  Traveling to Denver on vacation to visit my brother, I found him, much to my amazement, in the tattoo business.  A little fascinated and a little envious of that "socially questionable" lifestyle, I asked for my first tattoo.  It's a frog looking up at a mouse on a mushroom (very 70's) on the back of my right shoulder.  I loved it--it made me feel like such a rebel!  But I couldn't see it and enjoy it as much as I would like so the next time we got together, I had a dragonfly (drawn by a painter friend) tattooed on my left breast.
    After being divorced, I moved to Colorado to be closer to my family and I tried on the corporate scene which didn't seem to fit anymore, all the while collecting a few more tattoos.  Having been drawing and painting since childhood, Bear, in his infinite, life-changing wisdom said, "Well, you can do this, too!"  And the rest, as they say, is history.
    Serving my apprenticeship at the Emporium of Design on evenings and weekends, and working in the Department of Neurosurgery at the University during the day and trying to raise two children in my spare time kept me busy for the next couple of years in Denver. With burn-out looming on the horizon, I took a long weekend over Memorial Day (with kids and tattoo equipment) to visit a friend who had moved to Salmon, Idaho.  It was such good medicine that I spent a couple of years on that little vacation...tattooing at fairs and festivals out of a classy old Airstream trailer and learning the carnie ropes.  After tattooing everyone in that area of Idaho who had ever thought of getting tattooed and lots of folks who hadn't ever though of it before, I settled in Boise, Idaho for about six months, sharing studio space with a leathersmith.  The theft of all my equipment pushed me back toward Denver and family.
Sugar Bear and Paul were good enough to take me back and set me up with equipment on the easy payment plan so I could get right to work at their satellite shop--Wizard's Workshop--in Lakewood, Colorado.  Working part-time for a couple of months, settling into a routine and loving every minute of tattooing...even the slow times...things appeared to be looking up.
One of those slow nights, with no one in the shop but myself, I heard a crash and saw something roll under the foot of the dental chair in my station...it had a fuse and it was lit!  I did the "feet don't fail me now" routine and made it to the doorway between the reception area and the tattoo room when it went off.  I happened to be in the only safe place in the building--the windows blew out forty feet, the walls and ceiling moved out and up a couple of inches and shrapnel from the chair was everywhere.  After a trip to the Emergency Room to have my hearing checked (I was deaf for a while), I spent that night questioning my choice of professions.  IN the light of day, nothing had changed, I still loved the art of tattooing.  I went to work, the shop was only closed 72 hours for repairs and it...and myself...are still going strong today.  I had expected a welcome home party after my 2 1/2 year vacation, I just hadn't expected fireworks.
I went on that spring to manage Body Creations, another Emporium satellite shop in Denver, formerly a Peter Tat-2 shop.  The studio business had dwindled in previous years and it took quite some time and a lot of blood sweat and tears to rebuild the reputation and business, but with several other artists working with me, we made it a profitable and reputable studio once again. 
More recently, I had a small studio in my home where I worked when I was in town, most say not often enough... I can't seem to deny that Viking wanderlust.  I travel to conventions and expos, guesting and tattooing wherever they'll have me and I've been blessed to be able to make a living doing what I love to do!
Opening "The Blue Door" has been the culmination of a dream for me.  To have the cleanest most comfortable atmosphere for artist and client alike has been my goal.  And what better atmosphere to have art applied to your body, than one which offers healing arts as well.  The Blue Door will have a seventh anniversary this June and my personal anniversary for tattooing and cosmetics reaches the big 25 this year!  And I can still say "I love my job!" 

LUISE

I've practiced "holistic" health for many years. The move to massage therapy over eight years ago was a natural one.
There's no more basic way to nurture our daily mental and physical well being or assist in recuperation from trauma and stress than through touch.
I have spent most of my massage career in a physical therapy setting. I also specialize in Traditional Thai Massage. I further my education on a regular basis, including energy work and physical therapy based classes.
Since coming to The Blue Door, I've had the opportunity to learn a new skill...henna art!  I found that my experience in working closely with my clients has made my new skills very comfortable and enjoyable.
I've been at The Blue Door since we opened in 1999 and can't imagine not being here! It's a great place with great people!

Cory

                           In 1980, I walked into a tattoo parlor and received the first of many tattoos.  Although it was not the original plan, I was hooked.  I was a chronic doodler as a child and from that time on I've tried my hand at many different art forms.  I started tattooing at The Blue Door in 2000.  I have found this to be the most challenging, complicated and fascinating art form I have ever studied.  Every canvas is different....and they move!  I am fortunate to be doing what I enjoy most and to be able to work with such a great group of people.  Tattooing can be a very challenging profession and to work with people who are willing to share ideas and learn from one another can make all the difference, and that is what I have found at the Blue Door.

I am often asked how or why I became a tattoo artist and my usual reply is that I had a job once and didn't like it, there is more truth to that than not.  Tattooing is my work, not just a job.  I love my work and from the beginning of my tattoo career have never looked back.

As a tattoo artist, I have had the opportunity to meet and work with some truly outstanding people and I look forward to the same for many years to come.  Thanks to all.

www.corystattoos.com

Sherry

Tattooing, a career for me now, came from the depths of a dream.  My life has been an interesting path of change after change.  Each change was a growth spurt.  The one thing that has "grown" with my life is my love for art.  As a child, I explored all the mediums I could master.  Somehow, I knew that I had to be a tattoo artist.  From blue prints, stainless steel stock, copper wire, a lathe and some help from "Machine Shop Doug" I built my first tattoo machine at the tender age of 21.  Many things happened between building that first machine and actually putting ink in skin.  My husband and I moved from New York to Colorado and opened a restaurant and stayed open for nine years.  There was so much work involved in owning a restaurant it was all-consuming.  I did find ways to indulge my appetite for art, but a divine chain of events led me to The Blue Door.

Through nine years of consistent sixty hour work weeks at the restaurant, I was able to become a tattoo artist.  In July, 2000, I was told that my neighbor's uncle, a tattoo artist, was in town and working.  I went to see this and brought the machine I had built eight years earlier.  He was so impressed with the effort I put into the machine that he offered to teach me to tattoo.  This nice man let me finish an incomplete piece on his back.  His inspiration and confidence-boosting was the push I needed to get moving toward tattooing on my own.

A picture in a tattoo magazine of a lady smiling while doing a tattoo caught my attention and I found she was local.  I went to see this lady, Sister Bear, at The Blue Door, and asked her for an apprenticeship.  I was declined, but she did offer some valuable information about the prevention of disease transmission.  I even took the class she teaches on that subject.  I did a short apprenticeship at Celebrity Tattoo, but with the restaurant consuming most of my time, I experienced very long weeks.  I eventually started my own company, tattooing in a studio at my home.  As a legal corporation, with insurance, safe practices, my own studio, one day off a week, whatever free time I could conjure up and a never-ending flow of restaurant employees wanting tattoos, I was rolling in clover!

In May of 2006, my husband and I decided to leave the restaurant business.  After taking a couple of well-deserved months off, I again went to that smiling face at The Blue Door.  I am honored, proud and happy to be working at this shop, whose roots are tied to a strong, solid and respected reputation of excellence in tattooing.  The paths of change have been good to me and I am happy to be here.  I look forward to a long relationship with The Blue Door and I hope that I can continue to be an asset to this shop as I grow and learn.  I take pride in working with people, to display what they want through my art, forever.

www.myspace.com/Sherry528

  Stacy

Born in the back of a Gran Turino, I was picked up...still wet...by a nun with strong hands who slapped my butt, clearing my lungs.  My first breath was a testimony to the power of human hands.  Despite such an early influence, I took the circuitous route to massage therapy.  An astronaut, a journalist, one of those adventure-bound girls chasing storms and looking great with wind touseled hair...I wanted it all!

It was only after a rut when I wanted nothing, except more daytime television, that I discovered massage.  "Call now and start an exciting new career!" the commercial said.  They said nothing about the long bus rides early in the morning or the study sessions late at night.  The TV said "Get certified!", but did not tell me that I would gain an overwhelming faith in the strength of healing energy.

I realized crowds of people walk through life with their tissues steeped in pain and stress.  I found few understood the earliest form of treatment, which dates to the first groaning caveman rubbing the ache from his tubbed toe, still works wonders today.

So many years ago, the knowing...if a little harsh...hand of a nun released my new voice.  Today I revise her lesson.  I believe
"safe touch" is too rare in this world, and it is my purpose to make my life a testimony to the true healing power of human contact.

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Laura

For as long as I can remember, tattoos have intrigued me.  After getting my first tattoo at 16, I was hooked.  As a self-taught artist, most of my work consisted of sculptures and paintings.  I found myself doing charity art auctions and custom gifts for friends and family, and after designing my first tattoo for a family member I decided to look more into this profession.  I heard about Sister Bear through a family friend.  After meeting with her and showing her my drawings, it turned out she had a recent opening and I was given an apprenticeship.  I've been here almost a year now and I love it!  I am the official piercer and well on my way to becoming a tattoo artist.  I definately feel lucky to have found The Blue Door.  The people and the atmosphere are unlike any other shop I've seen, it's like finding a second family.  I can't imagine this experience being any other way.

You can contact us at: contact@thebluedoor.net