Squid Vicious
Written By: Lauren Sega | Photos By: Ben Leeson
“I try to be very open and create a comfortable place for people to come and get stabbed”
Sydney Grubb’s hand moves with precision and ease as she completes the line work for the mandala tattoo on her client’s wrist. She sits in her Parlor Suites studio near a large window, the only source of light. It looks out onto Gay Street in Downtown Columbus, and from it is a clear view of Current, the 500,000- knot sculpture suspended over High Street. Other than the distinct buzzing of the machine, the room is quiet.
Just 15 months ago, Grubb was at Evolved, the studio where she cut her teeth shadowing her mentor, taking walk-ins, and bumping elbows with other artists and piercers. After three years at one of the area’s most renowned studios, Grubb, donning the moniker, Squid Vicious, has struck out on her own. She’s left behind the chaotic energy of a walk-in shop for a private space where she decides everything, from the clients she takes and the art she makes, to the schedule she keeps and the rate she charges.
“It’s just nice to be able to curate your own space,” she says.”
In many ways, Grubb, 28, had a head start in the industry. Born and raised by tatted up 80s punk rockers, she became familiar with the sights and sounds of the practice at an early age. While most kids were getting lectures about permanent body modifications, Grubb tagged along with her parents to their tattoo appointments.
In those days, Durb Morrison, veteran artist and owner of RedTree Tattoo Gallery, was usually the one behind the machine. Morrison also entered the industry at an early age, inking his first tattoo at the age of 13 before opening his first shop, Stained Skin, in 1994. Now the organizer of Hell City Tattoo Fest in Columbus and Phoenix, AZ, Morrison has made a name for himself locally and nationally.
When the time came for Grubb to get her first tattoo, Morrison did the honors, tattooing Grubb’s own design on her and her mother.
“Any time you give a person their first tattoo, it’s a bonding moment,” said Morrison on a phone call. “To see her drawing that first tattoo for her and her mother – I’m sure it sparked her interest to see her work tattooed on someone else.”
That mother-daughter tattoo wasn’t exactly the first time she’d seen her art on someone else’s skin. Those close to Grubb in high school often went home with temporary tattoos done in pen. An avid attendee of concerts and music festivals, she was the friend marking everyone with Sharpie tattoos, free-handing the designs on the spot.
“Any time you give someone their first tattoo, it’s a bonding moment”
In spite of all this, Grubb’s original life plan had nothing to do with tattooing. After being accepted into the Savannah College of Art and Design, the Pratt Institute and other acclaimed art schools, she attended The Ohio State University to study graphic design. But the tattoo gods had other plans.
At the end of her freshman year, Grubb was robbed. All of her equipment was taken, including a laptop with a year’s worth of work on it.
“I look back and I’m thankful that that happened, because I feel like that was the universe pushing me toward this,” she says.
Still carrying a love for art and design, Grubb switched to a fine art major, where she stayed for over two years before leaving academia for good. While there, she explored illustration, sculpture, and mixed media. One art project, “Send Nudes” – an exercise in sexual liberation and body positivity – was displayed at the What? Music and Arts Festival in 2017. While her passion for art never wavered, her field of focus certainly did.
“I dropped out like any true artist,” she says, now adding the shading to the mandala.
With a packed portfolio, Grubb began searching for the right tattoo apprenticeship. She learned early on that there are some artists and studio owners with ulterior motives and intentions. Hearing stories from other women in the industry – of mentors crossing boundaries and creating hostile work environments – Grubb has been vigilant about who she works with and for. She chose to work with some old family friends at Evolved, where she entered a fast track apprenticeship. Within a year there, she was taking clients on her own.
Since then, Grubb has made a name for herself as an expert fine line and dot artist. With a clear mind, she inks out delicate designs. Her specialties are mandalas and ornamental illustration, intricate pieces that require plenty of experience and a steady hand.
Having a full night of sleep, enough food and water, and years of practice goes a long way as well. For Grubb, practice comes more readily than the other stuff. Her iPad is like another limb, a permanent accessory she carries with her everywhere she goes. When she’s not tattooing, she’s thinking about tattooing, sketching out pieces for upcoming clients, and creating flash designs. The work rarely ceases.
“My goal is to kind of collect from my favorite artists all over the world and learn from them,” she says.
While the end goal is to open her own studio right here in Columbus and mentor the next crop of artists, Grubb is still on her own path of learning and discovery. She travels to collect tattoos and experience from her inspiration artists, including Black Casket in Scranton, and Aston Reynolds and Bradley Tompkins in London. She has plans to hit Colorado, England, and Amsterdam, where she’ll be working on the road, doing guest spots at area shops and conventions. And she still has a few body parts left as open canvasses.
“My goal is to kind of collect from my favorite artists all over the world and learn from them,” she says.
In her fifth year of tattooing, Grubb boasts over 1,000 clients. She receives hundreds of emails with requests for appointments every time she opens her books. Her follower count on Instagram is at 15,000 and counting.
“This is the coolest job I’ve ever had,” she says. “I won’t lie, I feel like a rockstar. But I also put in a lot of work to be here.”
Published December 28, 2023