WOMEN WE ADMIRE - MEET NIKKI COOK GOMEZ

WOMEN WE ADMIRE - MEET NIKKI COOK GOMEZ

Posted by Sienna Swim Team on

Welcome to our new series – WOMEN WE ADMIRE. Here, we're shining a light on the incredible women within our community and our Sienna Swim Collective. Whether they're friends, leaders, creators, mothers, daughters (or all of the above!), these women are truly inspiring, and we want to create a space to showcase their magnificence. We are beyond grateful for the special community we're building through our brand – a diverse group of women achieving remarkable feats and inspiring others by simply being themselves and following their dreams. This monthly series aims to spotlight women we love and invite you to connect with them. We're all about uplifting others, celebrating successes and showing how truly special, layered and powerful we are as women. * *Read other profiles in our series: Taylor Hayden & Ivana Cook Burbage & Amy Timmerman.  

 

If you love our unique and hand-drawn prints as much as we do, meet the artist behind them: Nikki Cook Gomez (@nikkiagomez). Not only is she an in-demand tattoo artist in both Southern California and Hawaii (@nikki_ink_), she is also Sienna Swim’s in-house print designer, fabric consultant and all around go-to for anything artsy. While many other swim brands choose pre-printed designs from Shutterstock and fabric stores, our bikini prints (and t-shirts & sweatshirts) are hand-drawn by Nikki and then printed on recycled fabric – from our popular FRUIT print to our HAWAIIAN series, from our dainty DARLING to a new color-way of our sold-out STRIPES dropping this Fall (think blue!) – Nikki is a talented artist, bad-ass business woman (check out her newest venture of temporary tattoos) and also the best sister-in-law / daughter-in-law that we could ever ask for. Sienna Swim is truly a family business.

We sat down with Nikki to ask her a few of the questions so many of you have DM’d us about her, as well as a few more. 

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Q: HOW DID YOU KNOW YOU WANTED TO BE AN ARTIST?

A. I grew up in Southern California near the beach, so I’ve always had a love for the ocean and knew I wanted to do something that encompassed that. All through school I always took some form of art class, like pottery, drawing, photography, really anything art-related I could take because it kept me sane. After high school, I wanted to become a textile designer with a goal of including the ocean into my designs. I ended up taking an apprenticeship at a tattoo studio and fell in love with the art aspect of it; I drew a lot on paper before I was able to start drawing on people! I opened a small studio in San Diego in 2020, just before COVID, and worked really hard to build a clientele around the pandemic. I moved part-time to Hawaii in 2022 and opened a studio there as well. I absolutely love what I do, and that I get to be creative, run my own business, and live and work by the ocean in two places that make me happy.

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Q: WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PIECE OF ART THAT YOU’VE CREATED?
A. Oh my gosh, there are so many! For tattoos, I love realistic, shaded pieces like waves – back to that love of the ocean – and the shaded shark that, funny enough, helped bring me closer to my now husband, Jacob. Before I even met him, he had saved a picture he found on my Instagram of a blacktip reef shark, which was the first shark I had ever tattooed on someone. After I met him – totally by chance – he asked me to create the same style of shaded hammerhead shark on his arm. His was only the second shark I had done, and now I do them a lot! When it comes to Sienna Swim, my favorite prints so far are the new PAISLEY print we dropped for summer and the FRUIT print from last year. It was so much fun to create and I love that we’re bringing it back in August! I know there are lots of requests for it! I love changing up the modes of art I do between tattoos and textiles because it keeps everything fresh!
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Q: WHAT DOES YOUR IDEAL DAY LOOK LIKE?

A. I would start the day with fresh coffee, a nutritious breakfast and surfing the perfect wave with my husband. Then we’d spend time on the beach or at home with our friends and family, especially our niece Rava, then go back out to surf again for sunset. After that we’d have a family dinner, and maybe watch a movie. I love to keep things really simple! 

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Q: IF YOU COULD GO BACK IN TIME, WHAT WOULD YOU TELL LITTLE YOU?
A. I would tell little me that it’s okay to think outside the box and to not feel like you have to follow the path everyone else does. I was always a really great student and just assumed I would go to a four-year university right after high school. I ended up taking some community college classes and only then realized that there were other jobs and opportunities outside of a four-year degree. I had never dreamed I could run my own business and be an artist! If I was to give advice to others, I would say make a list of what you want your future to look like and then pursue the things that can make that a reality. For me, it was a job with creativity, working close to the beach, and having lots of time left for family. I found a career where all of those things are now a priority, but I’m not sure I would have found it so easily if I had followed the more traditional path I always thought I would. 

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Q. HOW DO YOU DEFINE SUCCESS, AND HAS YOUR DEFINITION CHANGED OVER TIME?

A. Success, to me, is being content in your life and being able to do the things that you find joy in and that inspires other people. I definitely feel like when I was young, I only thought success was what I could make money from. But now I know that if you’re doing something that makes you happy, you’ll earn a different and more fulfilling kind of currency.

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Q: HOW DO YOU PRACTICE GRATITUDE IN YOUR DAILY LIFE AND HOW DOES IT IMPACT YOUR OVERALL WELL-BEING?
A. I’ve found that if you start your day with prayer, it sets the entire day on the right path. For me, anyway, I feel like prayer helps me be more positive and bounce back from things maybe not going the way I had hoped or planned that they would. It also gives me space to list out all of the things I’m grateful for, like my husband, family, career, community, health, and getting to live in both California and Hawaii. I’m a big believer that openly being grateful only attracts more gratitude. And that’s definitely the way I want to live my life!

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Q: YOUR FAVORITE SIENNA SWIM STYLE/S?
A. The TULUM top and bottom are always my go-to bikinis. I love that I can wear them to tan AND wear them to surf. The Tulum is truly the best classic bikini style I’ve owned, and growing up in Southern California, I’ve owned a lot!
 
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Follow Nikki on Instagram (@nikki_ink_) and get on her waitlist for a tattoo by signing up on her web site. Check out her beautiful prints at siennaswim.com and follow our Sienna Swim Instagram to stay in the know on new prints dropping soon! Please let us know what you think of our new series! Email us at collective@siennaswim.com.
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