A humorous tattoo of an unusual snail by Lee Chapman of Blue Lotus Tattoo.

Before the first stone of the first great pyramid was set in place, the oldest preserved tattoos were already nearing 1,000 years old.

For Lee Chapman of Baker City, her tattoos are monuments in their own right — to nature, creativity and loved ones. And she offers the same for clients at her new tattoo shop, Blue Lotus Tattoo, at 2304 Broadway St., near the intersection with Fourth Street.

“I’ve wanted to be a tattoo artist since I was in high school,” Chapman said. “I got my first tattoo in Nicaragua when I was 16. I was on a volunteer project and I was in the middle of the rural countryside, but then I had two days in the city, unsupervised, so I walked into the seedy side of the town.”

Chapman didn’t have any problems with that first tattoo, despite the circumstances.

“From there I just realized that I love the art of tattoos, the styles of tattoos, and I’m really inspired by what people bring in,” Chapman said.

She showed off the front part of her shop, which she intends to be a staging area for clients, with tables, books and tools she’ll provide to help others draft or inspire what will be imbued to them permanently.

Chapman, who is from Portland, said she studied art and Spanish in college, but that it took her some years to settle into her current field.

She worked in Bend until 2019 when she completed tattoo school at Redemption Tattoo. She also worked as an outdoor guide and played rugby while living in Bend.

Students start working on fruit, then move onto faux skin, Chapman said. Students’ first tattoo on human skin is on their own body, and they often move on to work on classmates before being ready to help clients realize their decorating dreams.

“The majority of my tattoos on my legs are from other students,” Chapman said.

She said she particularly enjoys working with clients who arrive in groups.

“My favorite is when people get tattoos together, with friends and family, to commemorate their relationships,” Chapman said. “More and more people get memorial tattoos. It makes me really happy to see people taking this art form and keeping people with them through their bodies.”

For her own style, Chapman pulls from a wide pool of influences, but she has a particular love for natural features and floral covers.

“I mostly focus on nature and natural elements — skulls, bones, water, wind, clouds, anything natural,” she said. “I use a neo-traditional style with different sized lining, finer details with thinner lines, and I love using full color but also tattooing in grayscale.”

She said she will tell prospective clients when she thinks a requested tattoo might lead to regrets later.

“I’m definitely one to counsel young tattoo goers to plan what they’ll put on their bodies,” Chapman said. “I don’t do portraits — one eyebrow out of place and it looks like they’re scowling, forever! I love pet portraits, I love animals. I love when people bring their own art and designs, people create their own images that are really inspired, and I’ll make modifications so that it has longevity.”

A lot of her work of late has been in covering up amateur at-home tattoos made during the early days of the pandemic. While tattoo equipment isn’t especially expensive online, the skill going into it makes all the difference.

“A lot of people in 2020 got ‘stick-n-poke’ tattoos, a lot of high school kids went crazy with them at home, and then turned 18 only to come in to show me the blurry images they tried to tattoo on,” Chapman said.

Though summer typically is the busiest season for tattooing, Chapman said the best results happen during the cooler months, when tattoos won’t be exposed to sun or swimming until they’re healed.

That coincides with her grand opening, set for Friday, Oct. 6, with a ribbon cutting planned at 5:15 p.m. She’ll be open, typically, from 1:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays. Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays open from 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Chapman hopes to find another tattooist to work with her. She also wants to add decor to her shop before the grand opening. She invites anyone interested in tattoos to visit, or give her a text or call at 541-519-2781.

“Come see the new tattoo shop, show your ink, check out available tattoos, meet the artist and bring all your ink-loving friends,” she said.

“My favorite is when people get tattoos together, with friends and family, to commemorate their relationships.”

— Lee Chapman, owner, Blue Lotus Tattoo in Baker City