Abel Ramirez will tell you he was chosen by the gods to be a tattoo artist.

The owner of Ink Bar Tattoo in North Aurora earned a Fine and Applied Arts degree from the University of Illinois and had taken film classes at Columbia College, but was still trying to find his path.

During his search, Ramirez scored an apprenticeship at a tattoo shop through a connection he had made with a friend from art school.

“That’s the actual factual, but not as cool answer of how I became a tattoo artist,” he says.

After completing his apprenticeship in 1998, Ramirez worked in video production in Los Angeles with a crew from Chicago until the Sept. 11 attacks happened.

He returned to Illinois after his L.A. stint went belly up and has been tattooing in various capacities ever since.

Ramirez’s story is as unique as the thousands of designs he and other area tattoo artists have inked.

As unfortunate as it was for Alexis Pitts to get COVID-19 during finals week at Waubonsee Community College in 2020, the disease helped her become a tattoo artist.

After receiving a failing grade due to missing a final exam because of her illness, Pitts turned frustration into motivation as she began her tattoo apprenticeship the following year.

“It ended up being the best decision I could’ve made,” she says.

Her decision to get her first tattoo was life-changing. Today she’s the owner of Obsidian Ink in Batavia.

“The experience itself was far from meaningful,” she says. “I was 18, in Florida, and walked into a shop that felt cold and unwelcoming. I was treated more like a number than a person, and it stuck with me.”

The experience helped shape the way she interacts with her clients today.

“I wanted to create something different,” she says. “A safe, welcoming space where every person who walks through the door feels heard, respected and generally cared for.”

Tattoo artist Brian Pinto began his apprenticeship in 2012, a year after his son was born.

“I have always been a creative whether it be random drawing with all mediums, graffiti, graphic design or making music,” he says. “Almost 16 years later, I own and operate a four-time award-winning tattoo studio, The South Elgin Tattoo Company, located in South Elgin.”

Pinto did his first tattoo when he was just 16, using a homemade tattoo machine on his forearm.

“That didn’t work out and the tattoo didn’t stick,” he says. “I think it was a four-leaf clover. I started collecting since, and still collect today at age 41.”

Batavia tattoo artist Chris Toms got his first tattoo – a skull with bat wings – also when he was 16. In a garage.

“Looking back, it wasn’t the best decision,” Toms says. “But at that age you don’t always think about things like that.”

Just a year later, Toms began tattooing in Berwyn.

“I began by helping around the shop answering phones, helping with customers and the artists while gradually learning how to tattoo,” he says. “My apprenticeship lasted about a year. After that, I wasn’t taking on everything right away. I was limited in what I could do and built up over time.”

He’s built that into a 20-year career.