Daily Inspiration: Meet Alyssa Leister

Today we’d like to introduce you to Alyssa Leister.

Hi Alyssa, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My name is Alyssa Leister, I also go by Poca. I’m 25 years old and was raised in both Yorktown and Nordheim Texas. Two small specks in south Texas. When I was very young I knew I wanted to be an artist. Cliche but true to a T. Once I started getting into jr high and high school my parents told me artists can’t realistically support themselves so I decided to find something more “reasonable”. I transitioned into sports, making my high school career revolve around it. Coming from a small town I was able to play just about every sport. I loved basketball and track the most. Making it to state in track multiple years, setting state records, as well as landing a scholarship to run for A&M Kingsville. Furthering my sport-related goals I was majoring in kinesiology, I felt like I was doing what was best but wasn’t sure if it’s what my heart felt was right. After a year there I moved to Virginia and married my girlfriend of 3 years at 18, I also ran with Virginia Wesleyan College there as well. Around this time I wasn’t very social and stayed at home most of the time it was a rough secluded part of my life and I got into collecting Pokémon cards. I loved the anime as a child and found comfort and nostalgia in it and found myself getting back into art, selling and trading Pokémon art and cards with people online all over the country. Things didn’t work out as planned in Virginia and so I made my way back to Texas and went through a divorce at 20 and went through a really deep depression after such drastic life changes and also withdrew from my college courses. Being from such a small town there wasn’t much to choose from for work. I got my first job as a hostess/waitress there at the restaurant in town, 5D Steakhouse. After a few months there I started driving to Victoria Texas to work at Texas Roadhouse. Every place I worked at I faced different adversities and unfair disadvantages. From there I started working as a gate guard for the oilfield, I did that for two years, it was more my speed considering my anxiety could be crippling sometimes and less interaction with people worked best for me at the time. Being in that field I faced even more issues, considering I was a younger girl surrounded by nothing but older men. Which eventually led to some unfortunate and traumatic situations and ultimately led to me quitting. Right around that time I had still been drawing while at work for those 12-hour shifts alone in a shack almost every day of the month. Both my best friend since pre-K and my mother happened to bring up tattooing. At this point, I only had 3 or 4 tattoos and I thought the craft was unique but I couldn’t see myself doing something so permanent and precise with what skills I had at the time. They encouraged me to look into it over and over again and I would just say “yeah maybe” and push it to the side because I wasn’t confident enough in myself. One day my mom calls me and mentions a shop opened up in our town. Which surprised me because it’s such a small country town. But she mentioned she knew the owner from high school and told me to go talk to him. So one day I just decided to take a leap of faith and I gathered my drawings and put them into a portfolio and made my way to the shop. The name was King Crow Tattoos, I walked into this tiny shop and saw one station set up and a guy tattooing someone and a bunch of people standing around talking. I started looking around and no one said anything to me so I got nervous and left. A few days later I got the courage again to go back in. When I walked in he recognized me from that day and I was extremely embarrassed and we laughed about it, I asked him if he’d happen to be willing to apprentice me and showed him my work. He told me he thought it was really good. He wasn’t sure about apprenticing me but he did mention that I go talk to a female artist in Victoria he used to work with about the industry and her opinion on everything. I made my way there and met with Sara at Tried and True, she looked at my work and saw potential and gave me the spiel of female tattoo artists in the industry. She told me it would be hard to get out of the little towns once you start out and she recommended I start in a bigger city. I left there with so much encouragement and so much motivation. 5 days go by and one day I’m sitting at home and my iPad goes off and it’s a Facebook message from the owner Drew from King Crow, he had messaged me for the past few days and I didn’t see because I only had my app on my iPad and he had asked multiple times if I still wanted the apprenticeship and if I’d want to come hang out at the shop. So I went up there immediately. I went up there for 3 days and sat and talked with him. On the 3rd day, March 25th 2019, my friend walked in and I mentioned she was my friend that offered to let me do my first tattoo on her. When I said that he said “Well what about right now”

And my brain just exploded. The reasonable part in me didn’t think I was capable because realistically I’ve never held a machine, I wasn’t properly taught anything, and fear, doubt, and my lack of confidence started settling in… and then a part of my brain took over and I had this overwhelming feeling of fate, I just FELT exactly just what kind of opportunity had presented itself to me and felt like I was meant to take it, and my mouth said yes before my brain could tell it to. The design she chose was just two words I had randomly drew up days before that, “MAKE ME”. Those words were the start of my tattoo journey and after that I continued tattooing as an apprentice, learning as I went. A close knit community in a small town, willing and allowing me to use them as my canvases and grow. After almost a year there I landed an apprenticeship in San Antonio, I had my heart set on San Antonio since moving back to Texas. I would always visit my best friend there and admired the city and couldn’t wait to live there. There was so much more opportunity and energy than in our small town. The apprenticeship fell through and I kind of felt defeated. I even had family members instead of reassure me they told me to get a real job. A little while after that I made a trip to San Antonio, and while I was there I decided to look at some shops and see if they’d be willing to take on an apprentice or hire an artist. I went to Twitter at the time and asked for recommendations and I got countless shops mentioned to me and one person said “Blackline Tattoos” so I searched it up and I loved the work and the aesthetic. I had a list of 5 shops to visit that day. One I actually had an offer to work at being the shop I was going to originally get an apprenticeship at. The first shop I went to talk to that day though was Blackline and immediately after walking in an employee recognized me and said he actually already knew of me and had seen my work. He happened to actually be a former apprentice of the mentor that was going to apprentice me as well! He said he had already seen my work I didn’t even get a chance to show my portfolio. He spoke with the owner and I got into contact with him and landed an interview. I went in for my interview and spoke to them about the artist position my passion and my drive and motivation to create and to hone and further my skills as an artist and how I’d love to be a part of their team. I told them I lived an hour and a half away but was looking to move at the soonest chance possible. The interview went amazing and I loved how comfortable I felt in that particular environment opposed to all the previous places I had worked at, as well as the artists being very welcoming and laid back and down to earth. It wasn’t a hard decision to choose that shop, I really felt like it was all meant to fall in place and I was meant to find myself there. I drove back and forth from Yorktown to San Antonio for two-three months. At the time I was driving an old Mazda 3 with no ac and it was HOT, at that same time too coincidentally the shop ac (which was right above my booth) broke. So during this time, I would sweat for an hour in a half in the morning, all day at work for 9-11 hours then drive back and sweat for another hour and a half. I did this for two-three months. Then in June 2020 I got my first apartment here in San Antonio and in august, I bought myself my dream car I had wanted since I was in high school. Fast forward two years later and I live 10 minutes away from the shop in my apartment that is home to all of my fur, scale, and plant babies, I have a reliable vehicle that won’t die out or not keep me cool or warm, I have a close knit tattoo family I see just about every day both in and out of work who have my back day in and day out, I get to meet new people every day, hear their stories, share mine, make an impact, create beautiful and meaningful art for them all while I get to do what I love.

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?
Being able to overcome different adversities throughout this journey has definitely played a big part. From completely giving up my passion at a young age, to finding my way back to it. Supporting myself while transitioning into the tattoo industry as an apprentice and fighting to pursue it for instance only having three or four people walk in the shop a week during my start or getting the opportunity for another apprenticeship and losing it. To getting the new job in San Antonio and driving an hour and a half to and from work each day in a car with no a/c for months, to going months without work during the period when COVID broke out.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
When it comes to styles I find myself flowing more towards black and grey, whether it be realism, neo-traditional, or anime. I love tattooing animals, especially tigers and big cats, snakes, pet portraits, anime, Greek gods/goddesses, statues, plants, handwritten messages or autographs/signatures, and realistic objects or images. I like to think I do have an eye for detail and I really love to get as precise as I can and I love getting to create my own artistic interpretation of someone’s idea and bring it to life for them! I love doing a lot of different unique designs and styles but you come to me for something I specialize in that’s when you get the best work from me!

Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
I’ve learned that through everything you have to remain true to yourself as well as being kind and understanding towards others. To be able to step out of your comfort zone and push yourself to new limits and have the confidence in yourself even when you don’t actually have the confidence. To be able to set your pride aside when needed and accept help when it’s given. The patience and willingness to learn and to take advice and apply it when it’s given or when you come across it. And to always try and be better than only one other person, the person you were yesterday.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pocatattoos
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pocatattoos
• Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/pocatattoos

Image Credits
Tattooing photo taken by John Lopez @Jlopeztattoos