This tattoo artist used nature to shock himself out of his schedule
Lance Vilbro spends 6 days off-grid in the wilderness
If you're among the growing contingent of young Australians getting inked, there's a good chance you've either checked out Lance Vilbro's work, or seen him pop up on your socials. Tattoos are in high demand and killer artists like Lance - a self-professed workaholic - are often booked out months in advance. 'If I don't hustle,' he tells us, 'I don't get paid.' Teetering close to burnout, Lance took charge and sent himself out to The Reserve for six nights in a bid to use nature as a means of helping him relax and reset. Here's what he learned.
Hey Lance, thanks for chatting with us today. Can you start by telling us, what does your typical day look like? I work for myself at a studio, I’m self employed as a freelance tattoo artist so I spend a fair amount of time doing that!
As a freelancer, I imagine your schedule isn’t super straightforward. Do you have to seek out work regularly? Absolutely, if I don’t hustle, I don’t get paid.
How do you prioritise taking time out as opposed to succumbing to the stress of hustling for work? I’m actually really bad at that and can easily fall into the trap of over-working. Earlier in the year, I was getting really booked up [at the tattoo studio] when a friend at work said to me that if I don’t start booking out time now and actually prioritising myself, I will never get a break. He’s a great friend and helped me realise what really matters.
In perfect timing, a client of mine actually told me about Unyoked and it seemed like an awesome fit. It worked out really well.
Amazing. Before you were told to take time out, did you do stuff like that before? Had you spent much time out in nature? I grew up down the South Coast [of NSW] so spent a fair bit of time at the beach, on camping trips and lighting fires growing up. I’ve been in the city for 10 years now, so it’s been a long time since I’ve spent time out in nature properly. You always forget how much you miss it really. The city has a way of making you forget how refreshing it is to be out there.
Totally. Like exercise, you forget how good it feels until you start doing it again, right?So I take it you didn’t need our instruction guide on how to light a fire then? Haha, not this time.
'You need to take a few days to adjust yourself. One or two nights wouldn’t have been enough for me.'
How were you feeling mentally and emotionally before you headed out to nature? Pretty burnt out, mate. I’ll level with you. It had been a while of constant work so it was nice to have an opportunity to get away from it all and not have to be tied to our phones, iPads and social media. Work had burnt us out big time.
How did you feel on return? Way worse? Haha, no! Really good! The amount of time we took, 6 days or so, was perfect. I think we could have gone for one more night but by the time the end came around we were ready to get back to it. I was feeling really refreshed, I guess, and ready to start being creative again which is something I haven’t felt for a while.
What do you think the benefits were of having that extended time as opposed to 2 nights? Doing anything like that, which is a shock to your schedule, you need to take a few days to adjust yourself. One or two nights wouldn’t have been enough for me. Sure, I would have had a good night sleep and kicked back a bit but in order to properly unwind and get away from it all, it needed to be a fair few days.
We probably spent 3 days just doing nothing, making camp fires and cooking up a feast. This turned out to be more needed than we ever realised and by the last couple of days we were ready to start creating again which felt amazing!
We know that people in this day and age - particularly in Sydney and particularly freelancers – can be over committed and struggle to pause work. What would you say to them? Take time to prioritise yourself a little bit. You get to that point where you realise as a creative, you can’t keep performing at your peak unless you take time out for yourself. You feel guilty taking time out, because you’re not working and this is its own demon in itself. Taking time and getting perspective on things, helps you reevaluate your priorities and then you can go from there. You need to tap out so you can tap back in.
What would you have done differently? Now knowing to expect, we wouldn’t have brought as much stuff from the ‘just in case’ pile. We set out hoping to do so many things, and we did, but they weren’t the things we thought we would. It’s okay to just plan to recharge and not ‘achieve’ things.
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