Tattoo Artist Misty Kilgore has recently returned to work in Valdosta.

VALDOSTA — A familiar face in the area tattoo scene has made her triumphant return to share her talents with locals.

Misty Kilgore, who worked as an artist in town from 2004 to 2009, returned to the area just a few short weeks ago. During her first stint here, she lived in Quitman after Hurricane Charley destroyed her tattoo shop in Wauchula, Fla.

With her two kids, Jade and Corbin, Kilgore began a life in Quitman and worked at different shops around Valdosta including Ink Addiction, RnR and Hollywood’s Twisted Needle.

Another tragedy struck in the form of a house fire that caused her to leave the area for five years, but now she is back working at Firehouse Ink and ready to bring her art to Valdosta.

“I’ve been living outside of D.C. for a little over three years,” said Kilgore. “I wanted to slow back down.”

So, how does one become a tattoo artist? For Kilgore, it was a way to take her artistic abilities and utilize them to keep food on the table for her family. Kilgore has been an artist her entire life, learning the craft from her grandmother.

Her passion lies in painting and her initial life goal was to be a painter. However, she soon discovered people weren’t willing to pay for paintings like they were for tattoos.

“Tattooing made it possible for me to keep doing art.”

While tattooing may have started as a means of mixing art and career, it also helped launch her painting into the public eye. As she became more recognized as a tattoo artist, her painting sales began to rise.

She now sells roughly 30 paintings a year.

Kingpin Tattoo Supply sells two of her flash sheets of tattoos and a sketchbook. She also has a piece in “Cranial Visions: Exploring the Skull through Artistic Interpretation,” which is a skull reference book used by tattoo artists across the nation.

Through her life in the field, she’s traveled and tattooed all over the world while hitting the tattoo convention circuit. She used these trips as a way to discover different supplies, work with different people and learn new techniques.

Along with the tattooing aspect of travel, she also picked up a few gnarly outdoor hobbies including bouldering and mountaineering.

Now, she’s returned to Valdosta to catch her breath.

She can be found at Firehouse Ink, 1758 Poplar St. She can be reached at the shop number (229) 242-2290 and is on Facebook and Instagram. Her Instagram name is mkilgore76.

She takes walk-ins but will soon go back to appointment only. However, don’t expect Kilgore to slap a design on you and call it a day. Prior to her tattoo artist days, she spent five years as a correctional officer, and isn’t afraid to tell a client no if a tattoo simply won’t work.

“You have to be willing to talk to your artist,” said Kilgore. “Sometimes you have to be willing to wait a while to get the perfect tattoo.”

Kilgore prides herself on going into detailed discussions with her clients reviewing such elements as placement and color theory. She prefers to work with each client to give them a good tattoo that is going to last. She wants her clients to be aware of how the tattoo will age and discusses every detail of the design prior to doing the tattoo.

This one-on-one approach to tattooing shines in her work, ensuring that each piece is a true work of art.