Blyth artist Abigail Bos finds new canvases as Goderich tattooing apprentice
BY SCOTT STEPHENSON
Since it first started making its mark on the people of Huron County, Goderich’s Tribute Studios has developed a rock solid reputation for providing high-quality tattoos and body modifications in a professional, positive environment. The latest addition to the team is apprentice Abigail Bos, a Blyth native who first started working at the shop while she was still in high school. Bos has officially been apprenticing under shop owner Matt Cottrell for just under a year, but in that time, the driven young artist already has at least 100 tattoos under her belt. Bos was kind enough to spend her whole Sunday off to contribute some thoughts, feelings and a couple of custom tattoos to The Citizen’s permanent record.
Tuesdays are officially “Walk-in” day at Tribute, but Bos is always happy to take walk-ins whenever she doesn’t already have an appointment. “Saturdays are our busy, busy days. On Saturdays I’m pretty much tattooing from 10 a.m. to five. There was one Saturday when I tattooed until, like nine o’clock... I’m always willing to do those overtime hours because I really love what I do.”
Besides the actual act of tattooing, Bos’ favourite thing about her apprenticeship is learning the trade from Cottrell, who also happens to be the tattoo artist she admires most in the world. “I always thought that, being born and raised in Huron County, I would leave. Once I figured out that this is the industry I wanted to be in, I knew I wanted to learn under him.” Bos isn’t just picking up tattoo techniques from Cottrell - she's also adopted the calm, professional demeanor for which her mentor is known. Whether she’s setting up her space to maximize client comfort or checking in mid-ink to make sure everybody’s still having a good time, Bos projects the sort of confidence that puts people at ease.
It was a bit of a whim that brought Bos to her chosen profession. “After COVID, I was going into my senior year, and they told me my odds of graduating were pretty slim. So I came here just to get a piercing on my lunch break with some friends and I asked if they took co-op students, and they said, yes.” At the time, she was in the process of applying for an entirely different co-op. “I brought all of my paperwork here instead,” she recalled.
Scoring her co-op spot at Tribute made Bos into a bit of a trailblazer - she’s the first Central Huron Secondary School (CHSS) student to do their co-op at a body modification studio. “There was a lot of persuading the school board, and a lot of permission from my parents.” Even though she didn’t take traditional art classes in high school, her co-op at Tribute did earn her the credits she needed to graduate, taught her about different styles of art, and inspired her to draw and paint.
“There was also encouragement. We do [an] annual art show [at Tribute] every year, and Matt would let me design things for the studio, so I think that’s where I noticed I have a bit of a knack for it.” By the time her co-op was complete, Bos knew that she was going to pursue a career as a tattoo artist - it just felt right.
The end of her co-op signaled the beginning of her apprenticeship. Bos approached this latest stage of her endeavour with unflagging fervor, and it wasn’t long before she was approved to start inking clients. “The first person I ever tattooed was on Tattoo Tuesday last summer. These two guys came in off the salt boat - they had like, three hours in town just to get off the boat, so they both came for tattoos.” While Cottrell worked on one of the lake-faring gentlemen, Bos designed a dead fish for the other and helped him choose the right placement. Her mentor chose that moment for her to take the plunge, and the client was into it. A short-time later, the deed was done, and the man returned to the salt boat with one permanent piece of original Abi Bos art richer. “He left town and I’ve never seen him again.” When Cottrell feels she’s ready, Bos will graduate to the next step in her training. “Once you’ve mastered every skill, then you go to junior artist,” she explained.
As a lifelong resident of Huron County, Bos has certainly seen local attitudes about tattooing and body modification mellow over the years. “Has Goderich become more accepting of tattoos? Well, we have the mayor here, right now,” she confided. Goderich Mayor Trevor Bazinet later confirmed via e-mail that the rumours were true - he had indeed been at Tribute that Sunday, getting tattoos of both Goderich Town Hall and the Town of Goderich flag. Not only did he admit to being inked by Cottrell, he instructed The Citizen to “Feel free to mention me as often as you want.” He also advised that anybody interested in seeing said tattoos can check them out on his Facebook page. Bazinet also broke the news that he is not only thrilled with Cottrell’s work, but that he’s feeling “fortunate to have so many talented people in the Town of Goderich.” What a scoop!
Even if you’re not a tattoo aficionado, you may already be a fan of this up-and-coming local artist - she’s responsible for some of the most colourful murals in Huron County. Somehow, between her recent graduation and even more recent apprenticeship, Bos started painting murals in Clinton. “When I graduated, I was quitting my job at Willy’s Burger Bar to come here, and the owner’s daughter had a blank wall. And she asked if I wanted to paint it, and I was like ‘yup’ - and I did it for free, and it just kind of took off from there.”
That first spur-of-the-moment mural inspired numerous additional requests for original wall art in municipalities all over Ontario’s West Coast. While she never planned for her post-secondary experience to include a meteoric ascension as a post-modern mural maker, she finds that pursuing a passion for painting alongside her apprenticeship has been exactly what she needs as she develops her own personal take on neo-traditional tattooing. “I bring a lot of painting style into my tattooing, which isn’t really traditional.” She also likes to bring a little bit of tattooing into her paintings, by putting expired tattoo ink to canvas. “Once I can’t use my ink anymore, I take it home, and I paint with it. It’s my favourite medium. Solid Ink is where it’s at.”
It’s still early on in her journey as a tattoo artist, but Bos is well on her way to finding her own personal style. “I like things that are a little surreal, a little whimsical. Taking something that is real and putting a really odd twist to it... I’m a firm believer that your tattoos don’t have to mean anything. Or I think every tattoo means something, even if it’s something random, out of a gumball machine.” She also really enjoys brightening people’s days through tattoo restoration. “I really love bringing old tattoos back to life. Relining them, recolouring them.”
When it comes to creating her own custom tattoo designs, Bos approaches each client assignment differently. For example, when she recently received an open-ended request for a pair of tattoos, any size and style, for a reporter and his wife to use in a newspaper article about a homegrown artist apprenticing at a local shop, Bos was able to suss out what she wanted to do pretty quickly. “I immediately kind of thought about how newspapers haven’t died yet. One of my first thoughts was ‘wow, we’re still really keeping up with the times with paper news.’ And that brought me to romance, which also hasn’t died with our technology. We still really try to keep the romance alive. So I wanted to do something news, and something romance. And I love colour. So the little part of me that I put in is the coloured roses.”
Once she’s finished her apprenticeship and becomes a full-fledged tattoo artist, Bos has been thinking about furthering her education by hitting the road and seeing what all the other tattoo shops and artists out there are doing. “I hope to travel a lot - guest spotting, seeing the world, seeing what’s out there. I’m hoping this takes me... wherever.”