Esther Garcia

By Jeff Lintz via Butterfat

Esther Garcia: Bountiful Organic Beauty

Esther Garcia is a tattoo artist who currently works out of Black Oak, a tattoo studio owned by Tine DeFiore and located in the Logan Square neighborhood of the city. Formerly, Garcia co-owned Butterfat Studios, an all-female studio that she ran with fellow Chicago tattoo artist Stephanie Brown.

Butterfat was an inventive, plant-filled space where Garcia and Brown experimented with not just tattooing, but with creating community and hosting artistic events. The pair hosted dining events and garden parties and regularly invited guest artists to set up shop in the space. The studio closed in 2016 due to rising rents.

According to her website, Garcia is a mostly self-taught tattoo artist. Before entering into tattooing as a career, she studied at School of the Art Institute Chicago and thought she would become a photographer. Now, Garcia has been involved in the tattoo industry for over 20 years and is known for her botanical, illustrative work that showcases the natural beauty of flora and fauna.

When she is not tattooing, Garcia is focused on a new business called Flower Thieves, a textile and commercial design collaboration with Kyle Letendre, a Chicago-based graphic designer.

Esther Garcia Tattoo Styles

Illustrative Realism
Black and Grey
Blackwork
Specializes in Botanical and Floral Tattoos

“When I went looking (for opportunities) shop-to-shop, I got nothing but discouragement. But that’s not really how you get me to go away. It was the first time that anybody hadn’t been supportive of an artistic endeavor in my life and I found it incredibly motivating.”
Esther Garcia, NothingMajor.com

Esther Garcia Tattoo Prices

At this time, FemaleTattooers.com does not have specific information on tattoo prices for Esther Garcia. According to her website, when large-scale projects are released, she is very particular about who she decides to work with, and she provides detailed information about the costs and how she works before booking clients for appointments.

Esther Garcia does offer other tattoo services. These include cover-up consultations, where she will discuss how someone can work with another artist to cover up an existing tattoo. Garcia also offers full-tattoo curation, where she works to design a “full-body tattoo plan” and coordinates with tattoo artists to execute the design. If a different tattoo artist decides against the project, Garcia says it may be something that she will take on. Pricing for cover-up consultations are $150 for 45 minutes, and the full-body plan costs $500 for the initial consult and $170 per hour for additional planning work.

How to Book a Tattoo With Esther Garcia

Booking a tattoo appointment with Esther Garcia does not involve submitting ideas or asking for a specific design. Instead, Garcia posts large-scale projects that she wants to tattoo on her website and prospective clients can reach out to her if they are interested in the design. Newsletter subscribers will be notified of these projects in advance of the general public.

Once in a while, Garcia will announce smaller tattoos that are available for booking. She does that primarily through her Instagram account. Turn on post notifications from Garcia if you are interested in hearing about these smaller openings.

Tattoos by Esther Garcia – via Instagram

Editor’s note: All images are the property of Esther Garcia and are from her Instagram account. FemaleTattooers.com does not claim any ownership to the above images.