I was first introduced to Dee Maria through her artwork at Gigi’s Cafe, drawn to the glitter, use of mixed media, and sheer size of the work. Dee is also a tattoo artist at Indigenous-owned Iktomi Tattoo in South Uptown. She went to school at Cass Lake-Bena Public Schools about 200 miles north of the Twin Cities and moved to Minneapolis at age 19 to continue her tattooing career.

Dee Maria and I chatted at Gigi’s Cafe.

Southwest Voices: Tell me about how you developed your art and tattoo skills. I’m sure art and tattooing go hand in hand.

Dee Maria: So here's the thing about that. I started tattooing super young, not good tattoos, of course. But I started tattooing when I was 12. Not legally, obviously. But as soon as I turned 18, I was working in a shop.

Going through high school, that's all I ever did was sit in the art room. I would eat my lunch in the art room, just hang out there. I used to always tell my teachers I'm going to be a tattoo artist. And they thought I was crazy, but now I've tattooed three of my teachers.

SWV: When did you start working at Iktomi Tattoo?

DM: Iktomi is now the third tattoo shop I've worked at since I've lived down here. And what really drew me to this place was that it's Indigenous-owned. I was super worried about whether my kids were going to be raised in our culture the way I want them to be. And so when I saw Iktomi Tattoo, I was drawn to it instantly.

SWV: I heard you are a foster parent?

DM: When I first moved down here, I had my son, not even a year old. Back home, my family is all on drugs, really bad. And I was just trying to make sure that I focus on myself and my son. I had done foster care for my two younger cousins, but they had turned 18, so I was like, I'm just going to go worry about tattooing.

When I moved down here, I kept my foster care license, just because I've always had it. Three months after I moved down here, I got a call and took in my now 5-year-old son an hour after he was born. It wasn't through the system. It was family.

So then I had two kids, and then a month later, I found out that I was three months pregnant. So all of a sudden, I had three boys. And my ex-husband and I had another baby. So we had four boys. And it just became a lot because they're all boys. I was full-time tattooing and my husband was a stay-at-home dad.

It was pretty hard on us as a newly-married couple. I was the only one working and he wanted to work. But we also had so many kids, and the newborn baby needed to be tended to, and it kind of just got overwhelming, and we eventually got a divorce. He ended up moving back home up north.

That was really hard on me, because I have four kids by myself. What am I gonna do?

My son’s adoption worker gave me a call one day last year. She said, I met this girl. She's 12 years old. She's a really good kid. She's been in the system for the past year. I just heard her story, I know your story and I think it would be a really good fit. She came down and started living with me, and we instantly connected. She had gone through so many different things in her life with her family that was very similar to me.

I took her in and showed her what it's like to be sober, what it's like to do art instead of other things. A lot of her family is in tent encampments. She needed a family to go to. She was in children’s homeless shelters. She just kept running from foster homes. When we met, she didn't want to go with anyone else. She was like, this is mom.

SWV:  Didn't it stress you out to add more children? What did it bring you instead of stress? Because I think when people hear that, they might think, what?

DM: I already have another one, another 14 year old, so now I have six. And she was just placed with me last week. She asked a social worker if she could come live with me.

I don't talk about it much, but when I was 12 til I was 14, I was homeless. My mom was on meth, and she was gone for months. Her house got foreclosed, and I had nowhere to go. I was doing drugs and drinking every day until I was 14. I saw my younger cousins and they weren't living in the best way with our family members, but we were too scared to have them go to foster care. So I just told them, once I turn 18, I'm gonna turn my life around. Those two years that I was drinking and doing drugs every day, I hoped someone would step up. But no one came.

So I was like, I have to break the cycle. If I don't do it, no one's going to. So I worked three jobs. I cut back on school, and I saved up as much money as I could and made sure I had my own place, my own car, and, I got custody [of my cousins].

And then I was just like, I'll probably do this forever, because I know what it's like to be that kid.

SWV: Are your foster kids coming from Cass Lake?

DM: My Leah [the 12-year-old] is from Leech Lake. My new one, she’s through Hennepin County. She's friends with my daughter. They met in the children's homeless shelter.

SWV: So tell me a bit more about how you got into painting.

During my divorce, I had a really hard time coping with the fact that I am now a single mom with five kids. I was really hard on myself as a tattooer. Can I make it? Am I gonna be okay as an artist? Can I do this and provide for five kids by myself?

That’s when I started painting. I had never really painted, until last year, when I was going through my divorce. And I wanted to make something that was colorful, bright, and to bring out your inner beauty. I wanted people to be able to look at my work and be like, that's how I feel. Shine bright, because we all struggle in some shape or form.

Dee and I then start referencing her art on display at Gigi’s Cafe.

SWV: That's yours, that's so you with the mixed media.

DM: This one was my first painting ever. I was going through it at the time. The shards on her face, I wanted it to represent glass shattering, but still, no matter what, your beauty comes through.

SWV: I love the glitter in your work. I'm sad that more people don't do glitter.

DM: So many people told me, don't use glitter, it looks tacky.  And I'm like, great, I'm gonna use it even more.

SWV: Do your girls come into the tattoo shop?

DM: Yeah, they'll come help out. It's almost like they like helping out. It's sometimes a little overwhelming, because they really do look up to me.

I just turned 26 yesterday. Sometimes I feel young, but I feel old. I was taking care of my younger sibling and cousins from 12 years old until however long. Even when they were with my aunt, I worked three jobs just so that I could go buy them school clothes.

I try to do the most for the people that I love and the people that I care about, but especially for kids, because we didn't choose to be here.

Dee Maria tattoos at Iktomi Tattoo, 1415 W. 35th St., and her art remains on display at Gigi’s Cafe, 824 W. 36th St.