By Stacie Boyls | Arts & Life Writer

Creativity and entrepreneurship run wild with Sherman junior Mazie Ann Petelski, who reframes artistic success through her work as a tattoo artist. Petelski, a fine arts major with a concentration in printmaking, is also a first-year tattoo apprentice at Southpaw Ink in Waco.

As an apprentice, she is balancing studio courses and tattoo sessions and building a portfolio that leans heavily into gothic, surrealist and illustrative styles. The product of her artistry is a stunning portfolio filled with impressive details, shading and realism.

Petelski always had a long-harbored passion for inked skin and artistry.

“I think I’ve kind of secretly, almost unknowingly been in it for my whole life,” Petelski said.

Before ever tattooing skin, Petelski spent years drawing on friends with pens until high school, when she started experimenting with henna to re-create tattoo designs. Her first experience with skin tattooing wasn’t until the start of her apprenticeship last January.

“It’s very taboo within the industry to tattoo without an apprenticeship, without a mentor kind of monitoring you,” she said.

With one year under her belt and one year to go, Petelski has enjoyed experimenting with every tattoo aesthetic and style. However, detail-oriented, gothic tattoo styles have become her signature.

As an apprentice, Petelski said working with different styles has helped her understand her artistic voice and develop her individual style as a tattoo artist.

“I really like semi-realism and a lot of illustrative, gothic work, a lot of really small details, very kind of complex designs, lots of patterns,” she said. “I think it looks good on everyone and is just so beautiful — it’s one of the hardest styles, it takes so long with eight-hour sessions most of the time.”

One of her favorite ongoing projects is a large stained-glass-inspired sleeve she is creating for Victor Boswell, a Waco-area resident and returning client. The piece features Gothic cathedral imagery rendered in blackwork and negative space.

“It’s gonna be his whole arm,” Petelski said. “We’ll black out all of the spaces that are in between every window. So he’ll have a full blackout arm, and then the places where his skin shows through is all of the windows.”

Boswell said Petelski’s artistic ability stood out to him early on.

“What’s crazy impressive to me is her being so young and such a fantastic artist,” Boswell said. “Honestly, looking at her portfolio and the things that she does — it’s really impressive.”

Beyond her technical skill, Boswell said Petelski’s collaborative approach keeps him coming back.

“She works with you on stuff,” he said. “I’ve gotten tattoos all the way from Scotland to Denmark, and by far, Mazie is probably one of the best people I’ve gotten to work with.”

Petelski said building relationships with clients has been one of the most rewarding parts of her apprenticeship.

“It’s almost like I can’t believe it most of the time because I’m just so new,” she said. “Whenever people will choose to come back to me, it’s just heartwarming.”

Balancing tattooing with being a full-time Baylor student has been difficult, Petelski said, especially with time management and finances.

“Whenever a week is really heavy on school, I can’t just pull back on tattooing necessarily,” Petelski said. “Time management is just kind of hard for us.”

Petelski said she has experienced judgment based on both the projects she creates in art class, tattoo studios and how she presents herself.

“I’m not conforming,” Petelski said. “I’m not really going to try to fit in anywhere here.”

Petelski described her art as “very gothic” and “kind of surrealist,” noting that it can feel out of place in a conservative environment. She recalled moments when strangers questioned her faith based on her appearance.

Rather than discouraging her, however, Petelski felt validated in her sense of self and identity.

“I’ve experienced some direct judgment for the things that I tattoo and also the way I present myself and the art I make,” she said.

Petelski said people have gone so far as to question her faith in public simply because of her appearance.

“I’ve genuinely been on campus and had people approach me and ask if I know who Jesus Christ is,” she said. “It honestly really humor[s] me and almost kind of ground[s] me in my identity.”

While in Waco, Petelski strives to create accessible spaces for people who live outside the traditional Baylor aesthetic and to normalize alternative appearances in conservative or religiously-concentrated spaces.

“Giving people who don’t normally have that space … a way that they can absolutely have a place to go to make themselves feel more comfortable in their body, that’s kind of been my goal while being an apprentice here in Waco,” Petelski said.

After graduating, Petelski plans to tattoo full-time before pursuing a master’s degree in printmaking. Eventually, she hopes to leave Texas and continue growing as an artist elsewhere.

For now, Petelski continues to balance campus life with long tattoo sessions and artistic devotion and to carve out a place for herself and others through art that refuses to conform.

Check out her work on Instagram at @inkby_mazieann.