FLORENCESouth Carolina — Jeremicheal Wright is a tattoo artist who owns the GBMS tattoo shop and also designs clothing. His work was featured in an Australian Fashion Week collection that he won.
Years ago, in New York, Wright designed a jacket for an up-and-coming Australian designer, Samantha Saint James. She asked Wright to make her a jacket and she ended up wearing her piece in her catalog at an Australian Fashion Week competition.
“After I won, he found me and told me he used my design on his show,” Wright said. “Just seeing the work of all those years come back and having it in the spotlight is really cool.”
James was given a photo shoot in an Australian magazine showcasing his collection and Wright’s clothing was featured. Wright said James is getting calls from Gucci for collaborations and is surprised something like this has happened to his clothes. The sky is the limit, he said.
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Wright said that his artwork is based on positivity and self-expression. His artwork is often based on the three monkey mantras: see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil. He gives his touch to each garment based on the mantras.
Designing clothes was Wright’s first love. Before thinking of becoming a tattoo artist, she designed clothes. When he was a kid, his mother created a barn for him to design clothes because he was doing so much art around the house that it made the house look like a creative explosion.
“She built the barn in the backyard for me to express myself and be creative freely,” Wright said. “Even before she thought about tattooing, she was making art on clothes, shoes, jeans and jackets.”
Wright said that his neighbors, friends and people he knew often wore the clothes he made. That passion of a child never stopped and he just grew. Wright said he had a brief moment of stagnation because he was focused on tattooing, but the recent spotlight on his talent pushed him back to designing clothes.
Wright’s mother is one of his biggest cheerleaders and always told him his talent would make him a star, but Wright didn’t believe it until now. “She always told me to keep doing what I’m doing,” he said. “She always saw the vision.”
Wright’s artwork is different and doesn’t work within the lines. He is an out of the box creator. He frees his hands and allows his creativity to take over without much thought. He believes this is what makes him successful.
“From making clothes to tattooing, I don’t follow a reference,” Wright said. “At a previous tattoo shop I was called a dangerous tattoo artist because I was inspired and the tattoo turned out to be what it was meant to be.”
Wright creates and lives freely and without restrictions. He describes himself as a free spirit and encourages others to not be limited by other people’s opinions and to be oneself.
Art is what Wright lives for and he always gives himself to it, whether it’s tattooing, painting his house or wrapping his cars. His tattoo studio, GBMS (God Bless My Success), takes up a lot of Wright’s time, and his brother encouraged him not to forget about designing clothes. He said his brother’s advice and highlights from Australian Fashion Week are a sign not to neglect his talents and use all he has.
Wright said he declared himself rich and created a brand called Rich off Art because he has a rich soul.
“I am rich because I am happy,” Wright said. “It’s not about how much money I make. It’s about freedom and being able to live my life and do what I love.”
Being rich is about being healthy and happy, he said. Wright said he has millionaire friends and people he has met with great wealth, but he has yet to meet someone who is as happy or satisfied with life as he is.
“They’re not as happy as I am,” Wright said. “But they have the money. It’s about waking up in the morning wanting to face the day and, if you don’t feel like that, you have to keep looking.
For the past 13 years, Wright said, he has been able to live life freely because his art allows him to travel and tattoo various people, some of whom are celebrities, design for people and do what he loves.
“I make my own hours and support my family,” Wright said. “I spend as much time as I want with my daughter and those things make me rich.”
Wright and his younger brother are artists and have a close relationship. They encourage each other to create art and be their best selves. It was Wright’s brother who encouraged him to start tattooing and continue his talent for designing clothes.
“My brother always said you can’t stop doing what you started doing,” Wright said. “And with Samantha believing in the piece that I did, it was a sign for her to do it again.”
“My brother is one of my biggest influences when it comes to art,” he said.
“He always cheered me on,” Wright said. “When the TV show ‘Black Ink’ aired, he put into the universe that I was capable of doing something like that.”
Shortly after, his brother said Wright took up tattooing and opened a shop. The two hope to create art together that will last a lifetime. They are called “twins” even though they are two years apart.
Wright hopes that her art can inspire the community and young people to be themselves. He is also the AAU basketball coach, and kids are always intrigued by his anime-wrapped cars and the creative clothes he wears. He prides himself on empowering the younger generation to challenge the status quo and beat their own drum.
“I want kids to know there’s money in art,” Wright said. “You can make a life out of it, and I want my store and the way I live my life to be an example.”
God Bless My Success is the name of his tattoo shop and also the name of his other brand. She incorporates God into what he has accomplished and said he never imagined she could make a living from his art. She worked 13 years in a factory and now lives her dream of living off his talent.
“I didn’t think I’d be making art and making a living from it,” Wright said. “That still blows my mind.”
Wright wants to be a brand that everyone uses. He wants to walk down the street and see people wearing his brand, GBMS.
“I know that will happen one day,” he said. Wright said everything takes time and he wants to meticulously create the vision for the clothing line before launching into it.
“I want to take my time and do it the right way,” he said. “I don’t want it to be just a regular brand. I want it to be very creative and unique. One who stands out from the crowd.” Wright plans to go to Australia to collaborate with James on more clothing designs, but he doesn’t plan to stay there. Wright wants the younger generation to know that you don’t have to leave Florence to be successful.
“You don’t have to go anywhere and uproot your whole life to be successful,” Wright said. “Everything I’ve done so far, I’ve done from here. My daughter is here, my family is here, and the kids I coach are here. I’m not leaving.
Wright has no formal artistic training and all of his designs come from his heart and soul. She dreamed of going to college, Savannah Art and Design in particular, but she didn’t have the qualifications to go, and she pushes her students to do well in school and uses that lesson to teach that talent is good, but if you don’t If you don’t have the package, you won’t be able to go anywhere.
“I thought I’d get in because I had talent,” Wright said. “I needed more than talent and that’s what I teach the kids I coach.”
