Laura Cui
Fortune Teller Tattoo 📍Portland, Maine
Interview by Mercedes Arnold
Laura and I first met by chance when stopping by Rachel and Ryan Adams’ Portland summer pop-up shop, R&R’s Super Shopping Center. She brought a lively energy to the shop while stopping in, adding to the mix that was Rachel, Ryan, and Sharon. I asked about what her business is and she told me about Fortune Teller Tattoo. After leaving the store, and obviously getting some cute R&R Merch, I immediately opened Instagram and followed Fortune Teller and Laura. Fast forward to months later, I had a meeting with someone who had gotten a #cluboyster tattoo and she mentioned Laura, which triggered me (in a good way) to make a mental note to keep an eye out for the next opening. Here we are in November and I got my oyster, my first tattoo. The flash went up on Laura’s story and I sent the DM and got the first time slot of the day.
Walking into Fortune Teller Tattoo you immediately feel like you’re part of the cool kids club, with their eclectic mix of decor, tall ceilings, and greenery in the large windows facing outside, and the tattoo stations towards the back. I was welcomed by Laura, completed the consent form, and we started talking oyster placement and size. The actual tattooing process didn’t take long at all, maybe twenty minutes. Although processing the new sensation of my skin being injected with ink was something to push through, everything else went well and I am still so psyched with the result!
Thank you, Laura for making my first tattoo experience enjoyable, a memory I can reflect back on and feel excited knowing I’m a part of the club.
Maine Vibes Magazine: Thanks for sitting down with me after completing my first tattoo! I’ve listened to a podcast that you were a guest on and got to know you a little bit from there; but can you give me your quick and dirty backstory?
Laura Cui: Yeah! I’m a tattoo artist and co-own Fortune Teller Tattoo in Portland, Maine. I grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts and lived there until I was 13, when my parents and I moved to Brunswick. I went to high school there, and went to the University of Vermont for college. I stuck around Burlington for another 10 years or so after graduating, just living and working different jobs. That's also where I started my apprenticeship at the original Fortune Teller Tattoo.
MVM: Okay, I was going to ask you about Fortune Teller and its origin story.
LC: The original one was in Vermont!
MVM: That was the OG and this Portland location is number two?
LC: Technically this is number three. The Burlington shop was owned by my bud Ivan Belanger, who is one of my business partners here. We co-own Fortune Teller Tattoo with our good friend Alex Passapera. But let’s rewind a bit… years ago, I asked Ivan if he would apprentice me and teach me how to tattoo. He eventually decided to take me on so I did my apprenticeship with him and worked at his shop after I was licensed. That was the original Fortune Teller Tattoo in Burlington, VT. Ivan relocated and expanded that shop at some point, still in Burlington, hence the Portland location technically being the third FTT.
In 2018, I decided that I was going to move to Maine because my parents were here, with plans to retire and move to California. My thought process was that I’d only get to see my parents once a year or so after they moved, and that was without knowing Covid was coming. I decided to move to Maine for their last year on the East Coast so we could spend some quality time together. I went to Ivan and told him my plans and basically that I’d be leaving in a year. He was like, I love Maine. Maybe I'll move to Maine too. After talking to his family, they made the decision to move to Maine as well. At that point, the two of us figured we should open a shop together rather than work at two separate places. That's when we got in touch with Alex. Alex and Ivan had previously discussed opening a shop together, and the rest is history. The three of us decided to all move to Maine and open Fortune Teller.
MVM: That's awesome. When did you open in Portland?
LC: We opened in September of 2019, just before the pandemic. We were open for about six months before we had to shut down.
MVM: Did you have any other artists at that point?
LC: We had one other artist, Yennika, who had started in January of 2020. When we were able to reopen, we had two other artists join us.
MVM: How many artists do you currently have working here?
LC: We’re up to ten!
MVM: Congratulations on that growth!
LC: Thank you!
MVM: So where are your parents from, I heard you mention on the podcast that your dad was a professor and your mom was in the medical field?
LC: Yeah, they are from Guangzhou, in the southeastern part of China.
MVM: They are both from the same city?
LC: Yup!
MVM: That’s cool!
LC: Yeah! They met there and my dad came to the States to get his PhD at UCLA. My parents were already together, but my mom didn’t come to the US until a couple years later. They decided to stay, so I was born in California. We moved to Massachusetts when I was two.
MVM: Is your dad still teaching?
LC: No, he retired in 2020.
MVM: Good timing.
LC: Yeah, they both retired and moved back to California in August of 2020. That had been their plan all along, even before the pandemic.
MVM: Have they been back to Maine?
LC: Only once, but they’re busy living their happy retired lives and doing a lot of international travel. They’re actually in Japan right now.
MVM: That’s the liiiife, that sounds amazing. So have you been to Guangzhou?
LC: I’ve been there three times, but the last time was in 2005 so it’s been awhile.
MVM: Nice! Ok so you majored in Anthropology and Art, what drew you to those majors?
LC: To be honest, I entered college as an Environmental Studies major and took a big pivot. I always liked Art and I was planning on minoring in it, and Anthropology kind of just happened. The first Anthro class I took was just to fulfill a humanities requirement. I really liked it, and I just ended up taking a lot of Anthro and Art classes. I was still declared as an Environmental Studies major at the time, but then I started racking up those [Anthropology and Art] credits. At one point I considered double minoring in those two subjects or self-designing an Environmental Anthropology major.
I had so many credits from Anthro and Art though… I ended up double majoring in those. I dropped Environmental Studies and minored in Spanish instead.
MVM: I feel like that shows up in your work a little bit, you have a lot of botanical designs.
LC: Yeah, I like nature and find organic imagery visually interesting. There are a lot of options when working with the flow of the body and around existing tattoos.
MVM: Can you tell me about the animal group you’re a part of?
LC: It’s not my group, I’m just a participant! It’s a dog training company called Intentional Animalship. I train with them pretty much weekly in their Group Training class. Intentional Animalship offers a bunch of different things, but Group Training’s focus is to provide a space for owners to safely implement their training skills, while exposing their dogs to different settings. The owners may have different goals for their dogs, but it’s nice to be part of a like-minded community.
MVM: What's your goal with your dog?
LC: My main goal with my dog is neutrality. I want him to be able to exist in a variety of different environments and situations. We work a lot on impulse control and obedience. He can also be reactive in certain situations, so neutrality is our top priority. I also just like doing stuff with him and it strengthens our relationship.
MVM: What kind of dog is he?
LC: He’s an American Pitbull Terrier and his name is Mambo.
MVM: So cute. Ok, I know we have to wrap it up, so tell me about ‘Club Oyster’.
LC: Back when we first opened the shop, I had put out a few flash sheets, one of which was of linework oysters. It sat on my Instagram for a few months before someone got one. They were pre-drawn back then and now I do them all freehand. After I posted that first linework oyster tattoo on my Instagram, it just kind of took off. I honestly had no idea that was going to happen. I’m not even sure when I started using the hashtag [#cluboyster], but it’s been fun interacting with lots of people and hearing about #cluboyster tattoos being spotted in the wild.
MVM: Do you know how many you’ve done?
LC: I get asked this a lot! I wish I knew, but I didn’t start counting from the beginning since I didn’t know it was going to become popular. I’m guessing it’s in the 200 to 250 range? I want to start a tally in the new year so I can at least say in 2025, I did this many.
MVM: Awesome, now I am hooked after this first one and I can’t wait for my next one. Thank you for taking the time to talk, Laura!
Additional Questions sent to Laura post-interview:
Tattoo trends you’ve seen this year?
LC: I mostly offer pre-drawn designs or provide a list of subjects I’m interested in working on, so I don’t think tattoo trends are necessarily prevalent in my work, but florals and botanicals are always in. I’ve been seeing a lot of cute postage stamp tattoos around recently too!
If you could design a tattoo that symbolizes your journey as an artist, what would it look like and where would you place it?
LC: I have to admit, I’m not that deep. Some of my tattoos have meaning, but most of them don’t - I get them because of aesthetic choices or I simply think they “look cool.” I don’t really think about my journey as an artist, so I don’t have a good answer to this question!
What’s the most unexpected source of inspiration that’s influenced your work?
LC: My most common source of inspiration is other tattoo artists and their work, but I get inspired unexpectedly all the time. I could be on a walk and see a leaf turn a certain way, or have a weird dream about an earthworm wearing a denim jacket. I might feel drawn to a certain shape from a hundred-year-old random painting or see a video clip of an osprey catching a fish and like the imagery. It’s all over the place really.
How do you approach creating a welcoming and safe space for clients who may feel vulnerable about their stories or identities?
LC: Creating a safe and welcoming space is one of our top priorities at Fortune Teller. I personally try to focus a lot on the “experience” part of getting a tattoo. Who cares if you got a great-looking tattoo if you had a terrible experience with the artist? I communicate to my client that I’m happy to make changes to the design, placement, etc, until they feel 100% satisfied and confident with the tattoo that’s about to happen. I also don’t push getting the tattoo that day. If someone is feeling unsure and wants to think about it more, I’m always open to rescheduling for a later date. While I firmly believe a client should speak up for themselves if something feels off, I fully recognize that isn’t always easy, so I try to give people the opportunity to do so.
Learn more about Laura and Fortune Teller
🔮 Website: http://www.fortunetellertattoo.com
🌭 Laura’s Instagram: @hotpinkhotdog
⚡️Fortune Teller Instagram: @fortunetellerportland
😍 Want to see a couple of behind-the-scenes photos of the new tattoo?
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