Cherokee artist’s work displayed on bodies, not walls

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    CHEROKEE, N.C. (WLOS) — When you first walk into Indian Ink Studio, you instantly see there are a lot of options.

Under the roof of what was at one time only a tattoo studio, now houses a retail space, barber’s chair, tanning bed, hair styling and cosmetic tattooing.

All the way in the back is a long black chair — and that’s where owner Robin Lambert does his work.

“I went to school for engineering,” Lambert said.

But that’s not the kind of work he does in that chair.

His career path changed when he was around 20 years old.

“I went out and got a tattoo and saw basically how they were doing it and what they were doing,” Lambert said. “I thought, ‘Well, that doesn’t look as hard,’ which I was very surprised that it was much harder than it looks.”

When Lambert explains that he’s been drawing and carving since he was a young child, it’s easy to see how he would make up his mind to become a tattoo artist.

“I’ve been into drawing, carvings, ever since I was 4 or 5 years old,” he said.

One of the attractions of tattooing is the connection between the artist and client, he said.

“Tattooing, you learn quickly to adjust to your person. Them talking to you while you’re working, breathing; their body’s moving so then you learn to hold and move with them,” Lambert said.

As he honed his craft, Lambert realized he loved working in black and greys.

“I guess because I don’t have any formal art training and I’ve drawn in pencils since as long as I can remember, I usually relate it to carving,” he explained. “I’ve done wood and stone carving since I was 5 years old and it’s almost like sculpting the tattoo.”

Once he found his technique, he also found people willing to travel to Cherokee from all over the world.

“This guy, every 2 years he would come in. He lived in New Zealand, so he would fly over here every 2 years and let me work on him for about 2 or 3 days in a row,” Lambert said. “He was huge man, probably 6’8 — gigantic back!”

Tattooing has led Robin to travel around as well, but there’s only one place he’s ever called home: Cherokee.

“Through the years, raising my family — it’s easy to raise family where there is family,” he said.

And that family became extra important when he was diagnosed with cancer a few years back.

“It’s called head and neck cancer. It was in my throat,” Lambert said.

While that diagnosis was hard, it’s also difficult to overlook what he got from that experience: Natasha.

“I think we had been dating a month when I found out, maybe 2 months. She stuck right there with me, so she’s a wonderful person,” Lambert said.

He has been cancer-free for 3 years and the outlook is looking good.

2020 hit Indian Ink Studio hard just like most other small businesses all over the country, but Robin and Natasha have forged ahead, knowing what they’re capable of surviving together.

Just before the pandemic hit, they moved to a new location on Tsalagi Road in Cherokee. They added the retail space, barber’s chair, salon and other services to help adapt to new challenges.

Lambert has designed art for Native American Brewing Co. as well as taking to designing and even tattooing shoes.

But in the back tattooing is still the soul of the shop and Lambert is right there ready to grab his tools and get to work.

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