Tattoo Artist Lehla-Faith Schlachter

As one of Fallen Heroes thriving junior artists, we bring you Lehla-Faith Schlachter as our featured Tattoo Artist. Get to know more about her and her work below…
Brought to you by Zappa.

Full name: Lehla-Faith Schlachter

Shop: Fallen Heroes

Years tattooing: 2 and a half years

Tattoo style: Fine line, ignorant, illustrative, who knows. all of the above

Hourly rate: R950 at the moment

Tell us about your journey into becoming a full time tattoo artist?
I have Covid 19 and my mom to thank for this career. if it weren’t for covid, I’d be a yachty or a volunteer overseas right now, and if it weren’t for my mom’s motivation and final push, I wouldn’t have asked for the apprenticeship at Fallen Heroes.

What first attracted you to the tattoo world?
My mom (there’s gonna be a lot of her in my answers). She got an apprenticeship at Fallen Heroes when I was a teenager so I’d go to the studio after school every day and just hang around. The vibe was intriguing and I knew then that I wanted to know more. I knew I wanted to participate in that scene in some way, I just wasn’t sure what way yet.

What do you feel were some of the hardest skills to learn when first starting out?
People skills yoh! I still struggle with them to this day, and decision making. You’ve gotta be able to think fast and efficiently when you’re a baby tattoo artist. I’m still learning.

What do you feel has been the most important progression of the trade in recent years?
The diversity I think. Tattooing used to be very black and white, and now we’ve got the whole spectrum. Not in terms of colour, in terms of culture.

What does a day in your life usually consist of?
Running late, cleaning up spills, laughing off nerves, having fun or no fun at all tattooing and then joking about how weird it is that this is what I do for a living.

What does it mean to you to be working out of the renowned Fallen Heroes shop?
It’s the tits man! I got mentored by eight of some of the best artists I’ve ever met. And now they’re just my mates. That aside from the reputation of FH. People that I don’t know and have never tattooed walk up to me just because I work at FH. I feel a little bit like a celebrity.

Given the opportunity to tattoo any one person, who would it be and why?
Hmm, a musician for sure. Someone I can have a good music talk with. Like Mike Scott from The Waterboys or Finn Andrews from The Veils. Just so (hopefully) we could word vomit about music at each other for hours, that would be the most fun for me.

What style of tattoo do you enjoy creating the most and why?
I’m really enjoying micro realism and recreating great artworks on skin. Like Klimt & Schiele artworks. They’re so fun. I think recreating famous artworks on people is a form of realism in a way because your aim is to replicate the artwork as best you can, which is similar to realism artists aiming to replicate their reference perfectly on skin.

How do you like to make sure you keep progressing as an artist?
This is gonna sound a tiny bit sketchy but I make flash pieces that are a bit above my skill set. I force myself into learning how to create textures and shapes and gradients I’ve never tattooed before. I deliberately put myself between a rock and a hard place so that I’m forced to find ways to achieve my goals.

Where do you see your career taking you?
Hopefully overseas.

For anyone wanting to book and appointment with you, what’s the next step?
They can either message me on my business Instagram @lehlafaithstattoos or email the shop. You can find all our details on our website.

Fallen Heroes
Contact: 011 028 0994 or info@fallenheroes.co.za
Address: 249 Barry Hertzog Avenue, Emmarentia, Johannesburg.
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