Humans have marked their bodies with tattoos for thousands of years. These permanent pieces of art — sometimes simple, sometimes painstakingly-detailed, but almost always personal — have served as a status symbol, a declaration of love, a talisman or sign of religious belief, and even as a form of punishment. But for local tattoo artist Sondra Simmons Kretschmar, they’re a family thing.
Kretschmar works by appointment at both of her sons’ shops, Lucky In Love Tattoo in Temple, Texas and Bubba’s Family Tattoo Parlour right here in San Marcos. The proud mother and grandmother has been tattooing for 25 years.
Kretschmar got into tattoos when she was married to her first husband. He wanted more tattoos, and her being a gifted artist with a pen or pencil, he thought it would be a great fit. But it wasn’t until she was laid off in a plantwide layoff from a chemical company that she started down the path. Kretschmar took the package she was offered by her former employer and instead of moving on to another chemical plant job, she went to talk to a tattoo artist, art portfolio in hand.
“At that time, he was the only tattoo artist in Waco, so there was no other shop in town,” Kretschmar said. “So I went and talked to him, showed him my portfolio and he hired me on the spot.”
She trained to use a tattoo machine and she’s been tattooing ever since.
At one of the work stations, Kretschmar points out the details on one of her tattoos for her four-year-old grandson Fletcher as she lets him "tattoo" her with an empty tattooing machine.
Kretschmar never had formal art training until around 10 years ago though. She had stopped tattooing for a time after her husband was killed in a motorcycle accident in 2008. But the accident pushed her to seek formal art training.
She enrolled at Texas State University, and it took her some time to get back into tattooing, but the classes expanded her art into painting, and she was able to find some relief for her grief through that.
“My artwork has been a very important outlet, emotionally for me, because of all the grief I’ve gone through, the art gives me a way to release it,” Kretschmar said.
Kretschmar’s multi-focus approach at art – as she also in addition to being a painter and tattoo artist, is a lino printer, a mosaic maker and seamstress – is something that she feels gives her strength as a tattoo artist.
“As an artist, I‘ve been told to focus on one thing only, like my paintings. But I think that what I do makes me more appealing to clients.”
She said all her forms of creative expression lend themselves to each other.
“When I design a tattoo, I really concentrate on the contrast of colors – whether they are complementary, the contrast between light and dark and textures,” Kretschmar said. “And the contrast I’ve learned from tattooing, I’ve carried over to my paintings. And there are lots of things I’ve learned from painting that have gone into my tattoos. My different artworks feed each other.”
Kretschmar is a capable tattoo artist, able to tattoo in most any style, but her forte is a more traditional style that is of course permeated with her own flair.
“I’ve been tattooing for so long that I’ve adapted to all styles,” she said. “But I prefer to do a more traditional style, and over time, my personal style has developed to where it is more traditional, but it’s got a little bit of me in it. People that know me can look at my tattoos and tell I did that.”
Kretschmar said that working alongside her sons has also made her a better artist and tattoo artist.
“I work with both my sons and out of all the shops I’ve ever worked at, theirs are definitely my favorite because we feed off each other,” Kretschmar said. “I’ll draw something and ask their opinion or they’ll draw something and they might ask me what I think. And it’s great because there is that camaraderie that we share with each other.
“In the past, in tattooing, you didn’t share secrets, because you wanted to be on the top and you didn’t want anyone to be up there with you, but now we all want to be on the top together.”
Kretschmar also creates sculptural and drawn artwork. This one is that decorates Bubba’s Family Tattoo Parlour depicts San Marcos' endangered Blind Salamander as a dragon.
Kretschmar said both of her kids exhibited artistic talent from a young age and because they grew up with her in the tattoo shop, it didn’t seem anything but normal for them to continue in the line of work.
“They grew up in the tattoo shop, it was normal for them. Maybe not for other kids that are not involved in this industry, but my boys they would come up to the shop to see me all the time,” Kretschmar said. “They worked in the shop when they were younger cleaning and stuff. It was just a normal part of life for them."
As a mother and grandmother, Kretschmar said it’s important for her to have creative expression in her family’s life. She encouraged her kids to draw and now she encourages all of her grandkids.
“They’ve always been excellent artist and I get so much inspiration from them,” she said. “And it’s exciting to pass that on to my grandkids as well. I know that their parents can teach them to draw too, but it’s much more fun if grandma teaches you.”
To see more of Kretschmar’s portfolio, visit her Instagram at @luckycharm1911. To make an appointment for a tattoo call Bubba’s Family Tattoo Parlour at 512-938-1010.
