BEDFORD HEIGHTS, Ohio — Tattoo artist Haditha “Butter” Khan is thriving in a profession that according to the career website Zippia is more than 70 percent male.
“You have to do a lot of digging to find a female tattoo artist,” Khan says. “So it’s a great feeling to not only be a female that dominates the industry along with the males, but to gain the respect of them as well.”
She goes by "Butter," which is a shortened version of the nickname "Buttercup" given to her by her father. While speaking with 3News, she said she knows every picture an artist creates tells a story.
“The stories are intriguing to me, 'cause it's always been (about) more than my artwork. It's been about the connection that I make with people through my artwork.”
Khan, 42, has been a professional tattoo artist for a little less than four years. She's developed a reputation of connecting deeply with her clients through the tattooing process.
“I actually cried afterwards, and not from the pain,” says Aja Lake, who is describing her reaction to an intricate tattoo Khan designed and placed on her arm that pays tribute to her sisters, children and grandchild.
Khan has done two other tattoos for Lake. There's one that marks her mother's multiple battles with breast cancer and another honoring her father, who recently passed away.
“This was a form of therapy for me,” Lake says. “These were dark moments in my life … so I'm literally wearing my therapy on me, telling a story and I get the opportunity to allow those dark moments to shine some light in my life.”
Lake’s sentiment is why Khan named her newly opened studio in Bedford Heights as Ink Therapy. She specializes in creating tattoos that help her clients heal.
“After losing my dad, I wanted to honor him in a certain way and I felt like this was the best way that I can do it,” shares client Robert Snead Jr. “My dad always had my back, so I put him right back there (on his back).”
Khan said she believes her connection to clients is birthed from the pain in her own story. Her path to opening a business during the pandemic included surviving an abusive marriage, raising three sons on her own and working nonstop to save money to open her studio with no loans. She accomplished her dream all while putting her oldest two boys through college.
“People look at it and see it as almost impossible, but she makes the impossible happen,” says Khan’s middle son, Donald Hughes.
“Now my kids can see that the path we took was worth it,” Khan says.
Today, that path includes training her middle son in the art of sharing stories through tattoos, something Khan considers a blessing.
“To have my children right here and (to) make a living doing my passion with my kids right by my side, there's no better gift than that.”
Khan also uses the studio for poetry nights and empowerment events. There’s even a gallery in the front entrance featuring Khan’s artwork and the work of other local artists.
Along with tattoos, Ink Therapy Studios also offers permanent makeup, brow waxing and tenting, semi-permanent tooth gems and piercings.
You can contact Khan through the Ink Therapy Studio Instagram account.
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Editor's note: Video in the player above was originally published in an unrelated article on March 24, 2021.