Consent: Our culture of “consent” is murky, at best. I operate from a framework of embodied resonance: At the beginning of our session I guide you into herbal plant meditation, breathwork, and altar intention setting so you can feel into your soma – a key component in accessing your “yes/no/inquiry” and defining your boundaries. In tattoo ceremony, I ask for permission before touching your vessel (body), and let you know where I am touching and for what purpose. We can move the stencil and change the design as many times as needed.

Release, Integration, and Shapings: I have experience in healing and crisis work within and beyond the nonprofit industrial complex as a grassroots translifeline hotline operator, peer support at local mental health crisis houses, care coordinator for the lgbtqia center, and a continually evolving transformative justice-based conflict mediator. I understand that both trauma and resilience live in our bones and are shaped by the systems of oppression and our nourishing relationships with human and more-than-human kin around us. Tattoo and plant medicine in a ritual container can bring these different stories to the surface for release and integration. There is full permission for your stories to be seen and held in ceremony. 

Science & Research, Pain & Body Narrative: I have a background in biomedical engineering and specifically tissue dynamics, and have read books and research articles such as The Science of Tattooing, which helps me cultivate an understanding of wound healing, skin trauma, and the relationship between melanin and tattoo practice. That being said, western science and theory never outweigh your body’s narrative and I am always adaptable and responsive to your unique composition and needs. While pain is inevitable in a tattoo, you know your body and your body’s limits best – we can always take breaks or split up the session if you hit your limit.

Tattoo Style and Mentors:  I recently completed the “Beyond Skin Deep” Melanated Skin Tattoo workshop by Jaylind (@skindeep.tattooworkshop). Here we discussed Anti-Blackness in the tattoo industry, learned about considerations for tattooing melanated skin, and I received feedback about my particular style (November 2024). For example, my style tends to avoid Black-ink borders that increase contrast and therefore visibility of color ink on deeply melanated skin. If you desire say, a pop of red, I can add a border of Black ink around it to increase the visible contrast longevity of the tattoo. Alternatively, if you like a more “birthmark-like” effect (as some poke-recievers call it), we can do without. I can explore this with you and your tattoo intentions in a connection call.

My tattoo journey began on melanated tattoo practice skins and by way of loving exchange on the vessels of Black trans friends who offered me their trust (February 2022). In my early tattoo days, two Black, queer artists, Yem (@faceityem) and Kyzo (@keepitkyz) were integral in providing feedback and mentorship to my practice. I encourage you to build relationship with their tattoo offerings. @sleepydayzepokes, a brown-bodied filipinx artist, is my mentor for handpoke (10+ years!) and offers a plethora of knowledge and feedback. I also co-created an accountability and co-dreaming group of tattoo artists across Turtle Island who engage at the intersections of tattooing as liberation work.

Herbalism and embodied social justice mentors @unearthwithgrace and @hamsalafae offer queer and transcestral wisdom and earth-based somatic practices to support me in my rootedness and accountability for holding energetic space. I was a part of a 9 month Embodied Social Justice cohort, including a white-bodied accountability and healing intensive, which continues to inform my practice. I am always in reverence and gratitude to Black femmes, Indigenous wisdom keepers, crip/Mad/disabled queers, swers, white-bodied accountability partners, and trans community who continue to inform and entangle with me.

Energy Exchange: I offer sliding scale in alignment with economic justice. I do my best to work with budgets with Black and/or Indigenous kin, particularly for my Mythopoetic Intuitive Tattoo which has the highest energetic exchange and most potential for (tr)ancestral healing medicine. I also offer free touch–ups!

Community offerings: I host raffles and fundraisers, and facilitate free and low-cost community offerings specifically for the healing and wellness of QTBIPOC kin. Some examples: Grief Cafe facilitator for 2SQTBIPOC to raise funds for Congo, Sudan, and Palestine, Engaging Transformative Poetics: Palestinian Poetry and the Poet’s Role in Social Change (co-facilitated by @creationsbyflorea, a mixed Black and Chinese trans herbalist + poet, check their offerings!), tattoo fundraisers for groups such as @nativelikewater, a group facilitating Indigenous re-connection to water through surf, and @cityheightspeoplesgarden, a Black femme focused community garden that I am grateful to have grown with for over 2 years.