Over 300 sessions on Shopify. Zero sales.
Not because the work isn't there — it is. Not because I haven't been showing up — I have. But because I haven't been pushing it forward, because honestly? It isn't finished yet. And I refuse to sell something I'm not proud of.
I had no idea it would be this hard. I went into this thinking I could figure it out as I went — and I have, just not at the pace I imagined. Everything has been trial and error. Every page, every product, every setting, every decision. But I'll tell you this: by the time this is done, I will be a full-on master at Shopify. That's not optimism — that's just how I'm built.
Before the Studio, There Was the Stage
Most people don't know this about me: I spent the majority of my life as a professional ballet dancer.
Ballet isn't just a discipline — it's a total sacrifice. Childhood looks different when your priority is the studio, the barre, the rehearsal hall. You give up the things other kids take for granted because the art demands it. You learn early that excellence is the baseline, and anything less is something to correct.
That kind of training leaves marks. The discipline it builds is real and lasting. But so is the inner critic — the voice that was trained to find every flaw, every misalignment, every moment that wasn't quite right. That voice doesn't disappear when you leave the stage. It follows you into every new creative pursuit, sometimes pushing you forward, sometimes making you second-guess the very instincts that got you there.
I still wrestle with that. The discipline and the critic work against each other more than I'd like to admit.
From the Stage to the Needle
When I stepped away from ballet and into visual art, I brought everything with me — the work ethic, the eye for detail, the obsession with craft. And now I'm channeling all of it into something new: teaching myself how to tattoo.
And I've been doing it with the help of AI.
I know how that sounds. But I want to own it — because I genuinely believe I'm becoming a masterful tattoo artist through this process. Not despite using AI, but partly because of it. I've used AI as a mentor, a curriculum designer, a creative collaborator, and a business coach all at once.
Through that process, I developed a set of tools to guide my own learning — and those tools eventually became something bigger: a 12-week curriculum on how to become a tattoo artist. Playbooks. Scripts. Content frameworks. A structured path through something that usually has no structure at all.
AI helped me find balance. It helped me see which direction to go when everything felt equally urgent. And more than anything, it kept reinforcing something I needed to hear: that building a brand under the name Lost Soul Art Studio is not just possible — it's worth doing.
What I've Been Balancing
Being an artist and being a business owner are two completely different skill sets. I've been learning both at the same time. That means figuring out how to build a website, understand SEO, manage a product catalog, create content, run live broadcasts, practice tattooing, and still find time to actually make art — all while trying to maintain structure in my daily life.
Exercise. Content creation. Store development. Art production. Tattoo practice. Balancing all of it without a team, without a budget, and without a roadmap has been one of the hardest things I've ever done.
But I haven't stopped. A ballet dancer doesn't stop because a combination is hard. You run it again.
Why I'm Telling You This
Because I think the story matters. When you buy a piece from Lost Soul Art Studio, you're not buying from a brand with a marketing team behind it. You're buying from someone who gave their childhood to a stage, walked away, and chose to start over — building something new with the same obsessive dedication that ballet demanded.
That's what Lost Soul Art Studio is. It's a living document of what it looks like to commit to your craft and your vision — even when the numbers aren't there yet. Even when the inner critic is loud.
What's Coming
I'm at a turning point. The foundation is built. The work is real. The curriculum exists. Now it's time to push it forward.
If you've been watching from the sidelines, this is your invitation to be part of it early. Browse the collections, follow the live broadcasts, or reach out about a custom commission. Every order, every share, every message means something at this stage.
Thank you for being here.
— Roberto Cisneros, Lost Soul Art Studio