Today we’d like to introduce you to Aeron Maurbjorn.
Aeron, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My step dad was in the national guard. In second grade the Gulf War popped off and he was deployed. We drove him to Colorado Springs to ship out and while we were there he and my mom got tattooed together.
They took me along and I fell in love with everything about it; the smell, the sound, the floor to ceiling flash, it was everything I thought was coolest in all the movies and cartoons I was watching, it was magic.
The artist was this dude Snake, a tall bearded cat who gave me candy. There’s a picture somewhere of me in Mickey Mouse pajamas pointing at a trad tiger, I remember how perfect that tiger looked to me in that moment, I vowed to wear it one day (I still don’t)
We went home to small town South Dakota where the idea of body art was a million miles away. We didn’t have a shop in our town and my family, though they had a couple small ones of their own, never respected the craft, career or what they thought the lifestyle of it was, so it was suppressed.
In 1997 the internet was still young, but Spaulding Roger had a website- real barebones, but I imagine if you knew what you were looking for you could get it.
I’d had a job since 4th grade and save up the small fortune to order one of the “kits” they offered. I called the number, so proud of how grown up it was of me to have saved it. A terse voice asked what I wanted, I said the kit and product number or whatever, they asked how old I was and I told them and they hung up.
I think I maybe tried again? But ultimately realized there was no way they were selling to me (lol) so I kept looking around and found some prison ingenuity sites and sorta reverse engineered and hodge-podged what I read and what I knew and built myself a rig out of a remote control car motor and some junk drawer tape and battery.
On and off through high school and the few years after I gave myself and my punk rock friends some trash scratches but couldn’t figure out how to take it seriously.
I kept working and hating jobs and fell in and out of relationships with mostly alcohol but other chemical loves, and eventually made my son and sorta changed everything.
I’d long let go of the idea of tattooing but was never ready to fall into a loveless 9-5, and didn’t really know what I was doing. So I enrolled in college.
I was declared an English major for a semester or two but ultimately fell into art, emphasizing on sculpture. I pushed myself hard in a lot of ways that weren’t exactly making art, I started a non profit artist space and lived in a cooperative, I worked in a local museum and the campus gallery. I learned a lot about professionalism and business.
And after college everything sort of stopped, all my momentum hit a wall and I didn’t know what to do with myself. Down the road from where I was living was a strip mall with a subway. I walked down to apply for a manager position, and next door was this little dirtball shop and on a whim walked in and started asking questions.
A couple hours later he’d agreed to take me on, and I stayed with them for just six months- there were issues there, but it was a doorway. I moved on to another shop, and those first few years were rocky and tenacious. What I learned was mostly from my own stubborn vigilance and refusal to bow out.
Way earlier than I should have, I hit the road with my then partner, a dog trainer. She did a sort of stunt dog performance at state fairs, festivals and theme parks and I would act as her assistant in three shows a day, managing 8-13 dogs in a 40’ motor home, and pick up guest spots at shops in whatever city we were in for the week or weekend.
Eventually I did a guest spot in Sioux Falls SD and it was very successful. I did another, and eventually ended up staying here.
I worked with that shop for a few years until a number of personal crises led to a path to sobriety and dealing with a lot of my… shit.
I’ve now been here 8 years, own my home and am right in the middle of opening my own studio, opening fully August 1st 2026.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I pride myself on my customer service.
My life has been a whirlwind of experience, I’ve worked dirty labor jobs and been to jail, and I’ve spent time among the upper class and luxury. I like to think I walk between these lives and make every client feel human, feel welcome and important.
As tattooers we play double duty as therapist, which is largely just giving someone a platform to talk their way into their own answers.
I love to hear the perspective of all the different people I come across, and I love gassing people up- I love helping people think about their own creativity in new ways, empowering people to realize their own power and divinity.
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
As the whole world barrels into the technological future it seems folks are more and more reluctant to show their face, use their voice or be exposed, but tattooing is one of a very few practices that can only and will only ever be two people, in person, face to face.
We get a lot of emails and phone calls asking about an apprenticeship, sometimes even parents or partners calling on behalf of the would be apprentice, but you have to make yourself known, you have to show up- get tattooed, draw, bring your drawings, show up to events, see how you might fit and make yourself fit
This goes for all areas of life actually, the world is much more accessible than most people think- call up a cheese factory and ask for a tour, just to learn about how cheese is made. Start walking through doors, just be curious, if someone tells you to leave, leave, but you’re almost never going to get in real trouble.
Don’t let the bastards get you down; carry a goodness in your heart and intention and know you belong everywhere you are, the world will open itself to you.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Coyoteharvest.com
- Instagram: https://Instagram.com/coyoteharvest
- Facebook: https://Facebook.com/coyoteharvest
