We recently had the chance to connect with Laura Saadati Kepper and have shared our conversation below.
Laura , it’s always a pleasure to learn from you and your journey. Let’s start with a bit of a warmup: What’s the most surprising thing you’ve learned about your customers?
My customers surprise me every day, I get to sit with people of all different perspectives and view points and speak to them candidly for sometimes quite a long period of time. One day I am tattooing a school teacher, the next a tech wizard, a nurse, a service member home from deployment, a rock star, a construction worker, cop you get the idea, I can generally find something in common with all of them. I find that surprising sometimes and comforting. What I do is intimate and it breaks down a lot of the walls people put up, I like to talk to people like I’ve known them for 100 year and I find when you do they open up to you too.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m a long time artist I don’t remember a time when I haven’t been making something. I began tattooing in San Francisco in 1994 after graduating art school. I move to Nashville in 2004 with my husband Mike to live closer to family and open Music City Tattoo I love doing custom large scale tattoos and getting to know my clients and collaborate to make their ideas come to life. The last few years I have also been diving deeper into other aspects of design I co owned a boutique called Viva Nashville with a girlfriend from 2022-2025 and really enjoyed design the merchandise and branding since closing Viva have been refocusing those designs and created an Etsy store called Red Handed by Design.
Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. Who taught you the most about work?
My Father, he was and is my inspiration. He immigrated from Iran in 1959 studied Geology after graduating he had an opportunity to buy a small bar/ pool hall in my hometown and turned into his vision a country musician venue and and low ball casino. His nickname was the Persian cowboy. His work ethic was fierce, he was an amazing host and loved to entertain people and make them happy. He never let anyone tell him that he didn’t belong or what he could or couldn’t do. I am definitely his daughter 100%
If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?
Be patient, don’t settle, don’t be afraid to try something new and just enjoy the ride.
Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. How do you differentiate between fads and real foundational shifts?
There are some terrible fads in tattooing, it has been that way for years and it seems to be universals I can talk to friends on the west coast or in Europe and it’s the same fads, and usually they aren’t good. I really try to avoid them honestly I am lucky to generally work more one in one with my clients and can help guide them to more timeless, compositionally solid work that stands the test of time.
Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: If you retired tomorrow, what would your customers miss most?
I think our conversations
Contact Info:
- Website: https://musiccitytattoonashville.com
- Instagram: @Laurak_musiccitytattoo and @redhandedbydesign and @musiccitytattoo
- Facebook: Music City Tattoo
- Other: Etsy store Red Handed by Design
