Faces Behind “Still Waters Run Deep Ink”
By Justin Jimenez, Eric Hennen, Marina Fuhrman
Stillwater’s Tattoo program has officially commenced.
On October 23, 2023, classes began in Stillwater’s new tattoo shop. The journey to get to this point has taken a year and has presented many obstacles to overcome with all hands-on deck. Some of the obstacles included finding and renovating an adequate space to build a tattoo studio within the facility, identifying vendors and ordering equipment, creating assignment compensation workflow, working with other state agencies to meet all regulations and receive licensure, creating policy and security directives, creating a curriculum based educational process, and last but not least, finding qualified individuals to participate in the program and many other tasks.
This program is the first of its kind and will provide an authentic tattoo apprenticeship to Incarcerated individuals who want to pursue a career in the tattoo industry. The goals of this program are to create a healthier facility by slowing the spread of bloodborne pathogens and to reduce recidivism by providing a career path for incarcerated individuals upon release.
The program began with two tattoo apprentices with two open spots still available. Over the course of the program, the men will learn the basic tattooing principles such as understanding cross contamination, bloodborne pathogens training, professionalism and the history of tattooing to name a few.
In the future, more technical aspects such as machine function, art composition, different genres of tattooing, tattooing fake skin and ultimately leading into tattooing on skin will be learned. The tattooing instructor will also be conducting live seminars, in which a few randomly chosen staff will be tattooed, to show the apprentices firsthand techniques and knowledge of tattooing applications. The first of these live seminars will likely commence by the end of November 2023.
As we move forward with this new innovative program, we would like to take the time to thank everyone involved in this process whose hard work and support made this happen: Nanette Larson, Deputy Commissioner; William Bolin, Warden; Guy Bosch, Warden; Andrew Darling, Captain (retired); Lisa Connors, Captain;, Captain; Andrew Bischel, job assignment; Brendan Byrne, job assignment; Aaron Huntsman, facility maintenance; Dawn Paul, tools; Steve Turbeville, security; John Sofie, keys; Dan Moe, AWO; Lisa Stenseth, Warden; Jim Stodola, plumber supervisor; Tim Tarentino, maintenance; Derek Drake, maintenance supervisor; Wayne Niles, safety; Richard Specht, chief engineer; Eric Johnson, painter; Maika Xiong, HS budget/procurement; Emily Lundahl, HS budget/procurement; Sandra Tobias-Kotyk, HS budget/procurement; Andy Skoogman, communications; Chris Tollefson, electrician; Peter Gunderson, electrician; Michael Shepperson, plumbing; Patty Popp, Education; Cheri Short, Health Services; Kathy Reid, Health Services; Gabrielle Root, Health Services; Kwesi Pasley, CFO; Sarah Fitzgerald, communications; Christian Cadwell, plumber; Damian Denuccio, security; Chad Effertz, maintenance; Mary Sturm, policy; Kristi Cisar, finance; Dianna Kryzer, finance; and the staff at the MN Department of Health, Body Art Regulatory Unit.
We could not have gotten to this point without your help. Thank you!
