Today we’d like to introduce you to Nipinet Landsem.
Hi Nipinet, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Boozhoo! I’m a tattoo artist, muralist, and comics artist currently based in Minneapolis. I grew up just outside St. Paul, but moved to Milwaukee for college, then Madison for a job, and ended up living there for about eight years. I moved back to Minnesota just over a year ago. I’m a descendant of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa and a citizen of the Manitoba Métis Federation and my Anishinaabe and Michif culture is very important to me as a mixed Indigenous person. It informs a lot of the art I create, as well as how I connect to my community.
I’ve been an artist literally as long as I can remember– I’ve been drawing ever since I picked up a pencil. I never thought I would be able to “make it” as an artist professionally, though, so I didn’t go to art school, didn’t get any formal training. In 2017, after quitting my first and only corporate job after six months, I received a tattoo apprenticeship at Art and Soul Tattoo and Gallery in Middleton, Wisconsin– a suburb of Madison– and that’s when things really started to take off for me. Since then, I’ve collaborated to open two tattoo shops (Red Clover Tattoo Collective in Madison in 2020 and ishkode in Minneapolis in 2024), tattooed countless people, and taught three apprentices between two states. I try to make my tattoos accessible– I’m very fast, so I price by sliding scale. Tattoos are a luxury commodity, but also a part of so many cultures all around the world. I want my work to honor their deep history, especially as my culture is one with this tradition, and I want to be able to give back to my community with my work.
Outside of tattooing, my career has expanded to include residencies, murals, illusrations, and graphic novels. I held a printmaking residency at Cellar Press in New Ulm in April of this year, and was the artist in residence for a water conservation education program in Madison in 2022. In 2023, I started creating murals and public art with two murals in Madison and Verona, and since then I’ve created a mural for the Aliveness Project in Minneapolis, one on the back of an antique store in Stillwater, and one with youth at Lower Sioux Indian Community this summer. I have two more in progress! I’m represented by Becca Langton at Darley Anderson Illustration Agency and have been part of three comics anthologies so far. I really enjoy making comics and hope to have a full graphic novel out one day.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I don’t know if anyone ever has a perfectly smooth road. Mine hasn’t been– I opened my first tattoo shop a month before the first COVID lockdown in 2020 and immediately had to close until August of that year. It worked out, though. It gave us time to do things the slow way, rather than rush to make everything perfect in a month of work. I learned a lot in that experience. I usually find that things work out– even the really bad ones. I had a case in 2022 where someone stole my art and claimed it as theirs, and even that worked out, as when the people they sold it to found out about the fraud I got my first mural job.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
As a tattoo artist, I specialize in freehand custom designs, Anishinaabe florals, blackwork, and color gradients. I’m known for my bold lines and bright colors and the abstract river tattoos that I do. My custom work is freehand, which means each tattoo is drawn with sharpies on my clients, rather than drawn ahead of time by me. I find this leads to a better final product: the tattoo is perfectly formed to the client’s body, rather than drawn on a 2D surface; it’s unique, it flows, and it’s deeply and intentionally collaborative. The client is a part of the creation process of their tattoo every step of the way. We make it together, in person, and that really lends something to the experience of getting tattooed. It gives people more ownership of the piece, and allows me to make sure they’re really happy with it and it’s exactly what they wanted.
Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
Thanks for reading 🙂
Contact Info:
- Website: http://anaamibiig.com
- Instagram: http://instagram.com/nipinet
