Local Artist Wants to Use Her Photorealist Abilities to Help Breast Cancer Survivors

Attached to this article, I was tempted to make a treasure hunt sort of map with dots indicating where you can find works by Tarrytown photorealist artist Cathi Locati. , a river mural near the mailboxes in the main building of Hudson Harbor, the pastiche cover of the Chamber of Commerce magazine, large format pieces at . Every Thursday, Locati hangs out at , and though she was enjoying a glass of red wine when I caught up with her, she's there for much more.

Locati has taken a unique approach to her art-vending entrepreneurship. She makes customized “bundles” of six scenic prints for various businesses and organizations who can in turn sell them for fundraising at $25 a pop. Like in the coming months, it was the loss of her job as director of career services at a Westchester college two years ago that lead her down an entirely different, and perhaps more fulfilling, path.

“Big deal, so I lost my job,” Locati said. “There's always a silver lining. Look at the flip side and make it work for you. Who are we now? We have to rely on that.”

Like most artistic people, Locati's path has always been full of interesting turns (her win in 1981 of the Miss Montana USA title, for one). But it's her next venture that had me forgo the idea of mapping her existing art in the interest of promoting what has yet to be. Locati, at the age of 50, wants to become a tattoo artist, and it's not to follow in the footsteps of , a man she's befriended in his journey to open a now-booming ink studio here; she's out to join a very unique trade, with, as far as we can tell, very few practitioners.

Locati wants to tattoo nipples on women who have undergone masectomies and may or may not opt for reconstruction. (A quick online search in the New York area generated links to one company with an office in the City, The Whitney Center for Permanent Cosmetics.) Her interest in medical tattooing started when a close friend of hers had this deforming operation done some years ago. Locati is very familiar with painting nipples on canvas, now it's about just navigating a different medium – skin – and getting the necessary licensing to do so (she expects to get her NY state licensing this week). She practices on fake skin available wholesale from tattoo supply company Unimax and hopes to connect with area hospitals and doctors to offer this service.

Locati cites the raw and real images of women in The Scar Project as an inspiration. “Breast cancer is not a pink ribbon" is the motto.

“I want to help women rebuild and regain their feminine aesthetic qualities,” Locati said.

She will continue to sell her prints, hoping the bundle business can generate residual income for her; she wants to cover some ugly exterior walls in town (7-Eleven among others) with murals; but Locati's biggest dream now is making an impact on women's lives.

It seems to be industry-standard that you can't be a tattooist until you have one. Locati has just gotten her first, from Hognell's studio. It's a design she worked many months on, an “asymmetrical ambigram” that reads in two directions, upside down and right side up are her two children's names. Sarah, 27, is an architect in Salt Lake City; Tyler, 28, a Seattle-based pilot. Among the greatest measures of a woman's success: her kids.

Curious? Want to find out more about medical tattooing or interested in seeing these prints? Meet Locati tonight and every Thursday from 7 to 9 at the Moon River Grill at 222 Beekman Avenue or email her at cathi@cathilocati.com. Villages Pastiche Poster is available in 9” x 12” for $40, 18” x 24” on paper $125 or canvas $250. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Souvenir Bundle sells six reproductions of frameable fine art for $25 (which includes a free $40 value black/white Pastiche poster. All of these local images can be found/purchased at: www.facebook.com/cathilocati or directly through the artist, at Moon River or Bella’s Boutique.