What Tattoos Teach Us About Confidence, Beauty & Self-Expression | Gia Rose

What do tattoos reveal about who we are?

In this episode of SHE Asked: Tools for Practical Hope, Anna McBride sits down with renowned tattoo artist Gia Rose for a fascinating conversation about tattoos, identity, beauty, self-expression, agency, healing, and what it means to truly inhabit our own skin.

With more than 20 years of experience as a tattoo artist, educator, and creative entrepreneur, Gia shares how tattooing evolved from an ancient human practice into a powerful form of personal storytelling. Together, Anna and Gia explore why women are drawn to tattoos later in life, how tattoos can become symbols of healing and reclamation, and why true beauty has far more to do with confidence and authenticity than appearance.

This conversation goes far beyond tattoo culture. It's about freedom, self-expression, creativity, and giving ourselves permission to become more fully who we are.

✨ In this episode:
• The deeper meaning behind tattoos
• Why humans have tattooed themselves throughout history
• Tattoos as a form of healing and transformation
• Beauty, confidence, and self-expression
• The connection between tattoos and personal identity
• How women reclaim agency through body art
• The role of intuition in the creative process
• What it means to feel at home in your own skin

Learn more about Gia Rose:
🌹 Website: giarose.studio
🌹 Instagram: @giarosetattoo

Ready for support in your own healing and growth journey?

💛 Schedule a complimentary consultation with Anna:
https://www.annamcbride.com

Subscribe for more conversations about healing, reinvention, self-worth, relationships, creativity, and personal growth.

#GiaRose #TattooArtist #Tattoos #SelfExpression #PersonalGrowth #WomensEmpowerment #HealingJourney #Confidence #Beauty #Creativity #TattooCulture #Identity #SHEAsked #AnnaMcBride

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Transcript

Welcome And Why This Matters

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome back to She Asks: Tools for Practical Hope. The podcast where we explore healing, creativity, spirituality, and the deeper stories that shape who we become. I'm your host, Anna McBride, therapist, coach, storyteller, and someone who believes that healing is not linear. Sometimes it comes through grief, sometimes through relationships, sometimes through spirituality, and sometimes through art. Through my coaching work, retreats, workshops, and this podcast particularly, I support women navigating major life transitions and reconnecting to themselves in deeper, more authentic, embodied ways. If you're looking for deeper support in your own healing journey, you can learn more about all that I offer at AnnaMcBride.com. Today's conversation feels incredibly special because we're going to be exploring the intersection of artistry, spirituality, identity, ritual,

Gia’s Origin Story In Tattooing

SPEAKER_00 1:20

and the human body itself. Today I'm joined by Gia Rose, artist, tattoo artist, and a creator of deeply intentional tattoo experiences that often feel as emotional and transformative as they do aesthetic. Gia, welcome to G. As always on this show, we like to begin with a story. Gia, please take us back to the beginning. What first drew you to art, tattooing, and eventually creating tattoo experiences that feel so intuitive, spiritual, and emotionally intentional.

SPEAKER_02 2:06

Okay. So yeah, 23 years of tattooing is what I've been doing. And back when I started, it really was still very counterculture and taboo, not something people really pursued. I'd never heard of it. I fell into it. It was right place, right time. And the woman that taught me was a woman who was a very spiritual and intentional tattooer. And so I kind of had that integration very early on in my apprenticeship. And tattooing is an apprenticeship-based trade, unlike a lot of other arts. It's very unique. It's a whole thing of its own self. And she had this other aspect to it that I learned under. And then when I left her umbrella after a year, I was thrown into the world of tattooing and industry and realized very quickly how rare that was. And never really come full circle back around to it until more recently within my work, which has evolved and naturally over the course of my career, geared more towards what I like to call intuitive tattooing, where was an offshoot of creating my own style and spending a lot of time honing that. And then the type of clients that would come to me just evolved in this way where the way I work is they give me ideas, stories, memories, um, things that are important to them. A lot of a lot, the majority of people I tattoo are women and a lot of archetypal imagery. And then I go with it for the aesthetic and the illustration and the tattoo aspect of it. So someone can give me a lot of feelings or vibe or an archetype or a moment in their life. And then I come up with the imagery that represents everything that they need, but it's not a literal translation. So it's a lot more metaphorical, intuitive from everything from the palettes to the actual imagery to the designs to the size to the placement. And that's something that we kind of collaborate with on for that tattoo, and it's a pretty powerful way to move throughout the world. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:13

Wow. Yeah. Your story is so amazing because often we will fall into opportunities and not know where it's going to take us.

SPEAKER_02 4:24

And no, I had no idea.

SPEAKER_00 4:26

Yeah. And here you are, 23 years later, intuitively guided, creating the expressions.

SPEAKER_02 4:34

And I've been very lucky in my career. I've been right time, right place, in the right moments as tattooing has evolved. I've been able to create my own pigments for one of the biggest color companies in the world for tattooers. And I've been able to make stamp sets for other artists through Procreate. And I've been able to teach and big stages and small stages and do shows. And it's just all picking up the doors that were open for me and just seeing where everything went.

SPEAKER_00 5:05

Yeah. Wow. That's incredible. To me, that sounds like alignment. You're in alignment with what you're meant to be doing. So incredible.

SPEAKER_01 5:13

I hope so.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

So what was your relationship with art growing up?

SPEAKER_02 5:18

To be, I actually hated it. I never wanted to be an artist. Okay. I think it's because my parents really pushed me to. I'm the middle of five children, and I was raised by what I like to call intellectual hippies. And they really pushed my artistic and creativity in that way. And we were, as children, we're all we all have our own thing. And they kind of pushed us each in our own directions. And I want I don't say pushed as more as fostered. Every birthday or holiday, my gifts were always art supplies. Never asked for them. Was always encouraged. Be an artist, go to art school, look at art school. Because I and I did. I painted and I drew and I kept journals and things like that when I was younger. But I was also very counterculture as a teenager and part of the punk scene growing up in the 90s. And it was just very, it was very encouraged by my family, but I was always rejected. I was like, I rejected it. I was like, no, I'm not gonna be an artist. That's dumb. Who wants to be an artist? I want to be an artist. That was actually my thought process was no. And I really wanted to pursue a trade, a trade skill. Tattooing never even entered my mind because it just wasn't something people sought after or looked at all. I liked the idea of traits because I wanted something that only I could do. I didn't want to compete. I didn't want to climb a ladder. I didn't want to, and especially in art, it's so narrow, but you wanted something where I could work with my hands and I could take anywhere. What I do, what I make is what I produce. What I produce is what I make. I really wanted that hands-on feeling. That that's like sculpting.

SPEAKER_00 6:58

Yeah. What I'm hearing is a real drive to want to be your own person.

SPEAKER_02 7:05

Yeah, take it anywhere.

SPEAKER_00 7:06

Have your own expression. Let it be authentically yours, right?

SPEAKER_02 7:09

I don't like being like put in a box or pinned down. And a lot of the world felt like that. And so when I fell into tattooing, I didn't know it was both. It's just a trade aspect because it's a skilled trade, a highly skilled trade. And then art comes in secondary to it. You have to first learn how to put in a functional tattoo, which is like building a table, right? It has to be functional, it has to be clean, it has to be clearly readable, it has to heal well, it has to maintain its status as a readable, legible, good tattoo. And you're working in living tissue, so there's mild medical aspects. And then the client, you're one-on-one with clients. So it's very much a skill first. And then if you're lucky enough, then you get to start to be artistic because essentially your client's coming to you for what they want, and that evolution to from what they want as a literal thing, like a purple flower on my wrist this size,

Apprenticeship And The Trade Behind Art

SPEAKER_02 8:10

to the embodiment of the smell of violets that reminds me of my grandmother.

SPEAKER_00 8:16

Okay, exactly. So you said you resisted art, you fell into tattooing. How does one fall into tattooing?

SPEAKER_02 8:27

I was punkid. Um I rode freight trains for a few years. That's a whole other story. I ended up in Asheville, North Carolina, and I was living in punk community and I was saying in a house, punk house, and there was a girl over, and I think she had a crush on my roommate. I just at the time, she just randomly started talking to me. We didn't know each other very well. And I was just drawing, I think I was just sitting there drawing, and she just randomly mentioned tattooing. And it's because I had a tattoo on my hand that was not done well. It was done by a man who went by C note with a homemade machine in a park when I was 15 because I made great choices. Um somehow we got on topic. Somehow she mentioned that she knew a tattooer, this woman in town who was looking for an apprentice, which was really rare. And it just kind of happened. She was like, Go see her, tell her I sent you. And I was like, okay. And then I was just interested in like a get where that would go. I didn't really know what it was about. So I went and met her and I brought a couple of drawings, but I had no idea. Like she would tell me later she had no interest in my drawings. She wanted to meet me as a person. And that's why I met her and she took me on and I learned everything from at that time period and tattooing, everything was really made by hand. So now we have things pre-made, and it's the progression and evolution of our technology has made leaps and bounds in just two decades. But at that time, we still made our own needles, we made our own pigments, you built and handled your own machines, all of it. That that was the trade.

SPEAKER_00 10:01

So yeah, it's so fascinating to me because I have all my arms, again, enjoy them all from this camera angle, but I have at least, and also on my legs, over 25 tattoos now. And I don't think I've ever fully appreciated all the work it takes or the evolution as you described it to be able to achieve what we get to enjoy when we get tattooed.

SPEAKER_02 10:29

There's a lot of history and a lot of experiment. It's not higher education, it's it's really birthed from trial and error and a lot of secrecy, which is why it was very taboo. A lot of secrecy. Even when I came into it, you had to learn how to tune machines and put machines together. And you could, unless you really got into machinery and geometry and you weren't you wanted to be a machine builder, you would have to know someone who built machines to buy from, you know, who was it within the industry who vetted you and verified you? You can't you can just buy something online and then you learn how to make your machines and all that, and then you can buy the components and then putting them all together. It's very specific so that it's not just one machine for everything. We you would sometimes have 10. And then the art needle making itself. Every configuration was handmade, and that those were secrets to those, and how tattooers would utilize certain needle configurations in order to get certain looks of putting pigment into the to skin in an artistic way that upheld well. All of those things, those micro aspects go behind the tattoo art, and that's just the tip of the iceberg of the skill. That has nothing to do with the designs, the art.

SPEAKER_00 11:47

My mind is alone just on how technical it really is.

SPEAKER_02 11:51

And so we have some now who make pigment, but it was experiments. A lot of artists in the 70s and 80s that would just you know make their own pigments and experiment with the you know, their own boiling down pigments and tattooing themselves and hoping they didn't have a bad reaction.

SPEAKER_00 12:11

Oh my gosh, wow.

SPEAKER_02 12:13

There's a lot, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

There is a lot. There is a lot. Now, you talk about how you're in this one scene, you describe it as punk, I know of it, and then you fall to or go were invited to go work with this uh art tattoo artist as an apprentice. Was there something within you that was changing going from where you were to what you were becoming?

SPEAKER_02 12:41

Yeah, I was I've always been a very curious individual. And as a young woman, because I was 21 at the time, that was really like the beginning of being a student and a student with intention. Even if I didn't quite realize at the time, I think it had something to do with the age, your age. And the intention is because it's a lot of work. You don't get paid, and you're doing a lot of labor to learn a skill because it's hands-on. You can't read it in a book, you can't find it online, you can only learn from your teacher, so that there is that mentor, apprentice education that is very much hands-on and looking towards somebody else to teach you the way of something, which requires your attendance, your attention. And that comes naturally with intention because it's a lot.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

It sounds like a lot. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:37

And on the flip side, now that I've you know 23 years into my career and I've had a handful of apprentices for in my career, I've learned also the other side of it of being a mentor, which is taking on an apprentice is almost like taking on a child for a little while. And there's a lot of responsibility to it. It is not for the faint. And it's why a lot of artists don't take them on. And even in cultures where you see tattooing as deep in their cultural heritage, which there are a lot, and we can get into that, you see them almost dying out now because taking those on either doesn't translate or the traditions start to die out a little bit. There's something very deeply human about tattooing. Like I always say, it's not owned by any culture, it's owned by all of humanity. We know historically tattooing is prehistoric. Cultures can own their techniques and their imagery and their stories, absolutely. Uh, tattooing itself has sprung up independently amongst hundreds of cultures around the world, and a lot that don't even exist anymore. And it's still continued throughout human history. We've seen evidence of it spontaneously without any other interactions. So it's a very human thing.

SPEAKER_00 14:51

Okay. Yeah, and you mentioned that your teacher was spiritual. You describe her as spiritual and and you've evolved to be more authentically intuitive, which I see both. Meaning like they they mean similar same, they're just different expressions of the same thing, I believe. I know that you were an intentional student, and there's a lot of time you were giving a lot of investment to your future self.

SPEAKER_01 15:18

Unknown.

SPEAKER_00 15:20

Unknown, unknown, whatever that was going to become. Did you find yourself uh was this a healing process? Was this a just a creative outlet? Tell me more about what you were experiencing on the inside as you were going through your apprenticeship.

SPEAKER_02 15:38

Okay, so this is definitely looking back. At the time, it's very hard when you're in those positions to recognize the wisdom of scrubbing the floor. Uh you know what I mean? And it really is almost later in life when we really look back at these things and recognize the lessons that were folded within everything that you did and these one-on-one things, because they really are there. And really, what it was is it it was teaching me something to have throughout my life forever. That as long as I could tattoo, I was always going to have something that was only mine as far as my own security. It was a sense of security that I don't think I'd ever thought I could ever have. You know what I mean? That that no matter what, you know, if

Tattooing As Ritual And Human Heritage

SPEAKER_02 16:30

I'm not well or if I'm in this place or that place, or this happens in my life, or that like life, at the end of the day, I still have my ability to create and to tattoo. And it's a livelihood as well as a very satisfying passion. You know what I mean? That's a very rare thing to have together.

SPEAKER_00 16:52

I agree with you. I think a lot of people, I think you found your purpose through expression that's both where art meets the skill that is a lifelong thing. And you're right, when you're going through the process of learning, it's hard to understand intuitively the lessons and the wisdom that comes from that.

SPEAKER_02 17:14

And there's a maturing in that too, because when you're younger, you don't see those things. You don't understand it yet. And she used to say this thing to me where she was like, Watch, don't ask, because if I tell you, you won't understand it yet. Once you put it into practice, you'll understand what why you're watching, like what you're seeing me do, and then you put it, it's like the what is it, see one, do one, teach one. So, which is the method of watching, then putting into practice, then teaching it to to really hammer it home. And that kind of thing is really about that skill. Um, but there's a lot of lessons that come from something like that within tattooing. And she specifically did ceremonial and sacred tattooing, which was her own thing that she had created from her own, like her own experiences. And she was still tough as nails and like very that tattooing has always walked the boundaries of taboo and a little bit like crosses every boundary. And that's something that that I think is very deeply spiritual within all of tattooing, which is that tattooers work and on all walks of life. So it's not like being an artist within a suspended environment that's created in with you and your work, right? And it's not like being a student in school where it's you and a bunch of students learning like a task or work within like art school throughout your entire career after you leave your apprenticeships, you are working with your clients and you're the working in living tissue. So it consistently changes. It's never the same. Every tattoo requires micro adjustments in order to suit that individual person, their skin, their age, their health overall, their well-being as a living thing, and then them as a person for their art and their constitution and their jobs and their, you know, everything. And so every client is different and unique. And over the course of a career, you work with every walk of life, every type of person. And so it's the ultimate service industry for a lengthy period of time. You know, you're sitting and talking with someone sometimes for hours. I have clients I've worked on for 10 plus years, huge projects. We really you really get to know them, and some sessions are quiet and some are very talkative, and you see them go through the cycles of their life. They see you go through the cycle of your life.

SPEAKER_00 19:47

Yeah. Well it's on. Yeah, it's on, it's on. And one thing that fascinates me about the process of tattooing and really your process is it sounds like it's ritualistic as as well as something beyond just getting a tattoo, right? It's very intentional. And you mentioned there are uh clients that you have that you've worked on for years on the projects and you've really gotten to know them very ceremonially, and so therefore it's sacred. And so do you see now that tattooing is a bit like spiritual work?

SPEAKER_02 20:27

I think so. I think whether so there's this saying that not every tattoo has to have a meaning, and that's very true. It doesn't. A lot of tattooing can be purely decorative, a lot of tattooing can be fun or funny or have no meaning at all. I think there was a quote by someone I can't remember who, so I can't credit them, but they said, I have a tattoo of a stem of broccoli wearing a party hat, and it's because I like broccoli and I like to party. It still has meaning, but it doesn't have to have a deep meaning. But it's both and so at the same time, what I see specifically for the type of people who kind of come to me, uh, I would say mostly come to me, is that they do come with a story, with something that has meaning or they want to represent, whether it's a personal story through their life or a transition they're going through their life, or again, we get into that archetypal kind of thing, the stories uh help us carry that through our lives. And so I think it's built into it regardless. And many tattooers can digress from it or agree, disagree, it doesn't really matter. Even just the act of what we do, like how we set up is the same every single time. There's a ritual to the way that we approach a tattoo just on its very base level, in the sense of repetitive, so that it's always setting the stage, creating the space, letting the client in, and then getting to work, maintaining that bedside manner with your client throughout the entire process, their comfortability because it's a painful process. The healing process. And then you could end that. And then you can take it the step further, which is within your art, which is what I do. And more intentionally with my clients, which is what I do. Not with every client. Some clients are very stoic and very, you know, I just want this. All right, cool. See you later. But it's still, but it's still, they're still coming to me for my work. And that, but that comes from the length of my career. But a lot of my clients do give me the I really want this representation of whatever it is, a XYZ throughout my life. And I do get things that are very much, you know, I want something to represent my grandmother. And she reminded me of Violet's, like I said before. She loved birds. She loved to bake. Um and she was the mother figure in my life. So then my job as an illustrator and artist and tattooer is to figure out how do I put that into an image without taking it literally? Because I don't want to put a pie. I could, but that's not how it works. So, you know, I'll I might pick something that's representative. So I do a lot of metaphorical imagery so that someone still has a really beautiful looking tattoo. That's not that there's anything wrong at all with realism. It's just not my thing. I like more interpretation. So we I think one time I've tattooed a few elements as personification, like from the periodic table of elements. Like, how do you personify the element rhodium? Rhodium. And we did. So it's like those kinds of things is more yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:40

Yeah, that's incredible. I I this really rings to me the idea of uh the body can tell a story, right? And that tattoos and the artistry of tattoos, the imagery, the metaphors are expressions of one's life story or can be. Whether it's whimsical or that they like to party and they like broccoli, anything like that is true. I know that's what my tattoos represent. I have one arm dedicated to all the adventures I've had in my life, and I have another arm dedicated to all the spiritual things I've pursued in family and where everything intersects for me. So that it has me thinking, I know bodies carry stories, and I'm a storyteller myself, so I really appreciate that sometimes, as I mentioned earlier on, that it can be about grief, it can be about shame, identity, trauma, transformation, right? And tattoos can come a part of that narrative.

SPEAKER_02 24:41

Um they definitely can be or are really so.

SPEAKER_00 24:47

What have you learned about people through the way they choose to mark their bodies?

SPEAKER_02 24:52

I think ultimately every story's unique. Every artist or every artist and every client, and even the same client with multiple tattoos can have different incarnations throughout

Reclamation, Identity, And A Cancer Wake-Up

SPEAKER_02 25:05

the journey of their life. I've noticed that age changes a lot as we get older. That what we get tattooed changes as with our evolution. What we do, we tend to get more serious about the things that are serious for us, even if that seriousness is having fun. You know what I mean? Whatever it is, we put more into it. And I guess ultimately the common thread is always it's a sense of reclamation, whether it's conscious or not, because at the end of the day, we're here for a finite amount of time. And when we do pass on, the only thing that goes with us past that moment of leaving this world is our skin. It's the only thing that goes with us. And I've been there in my own moment as a cancer survivor where, you know, I've I've faced my own death in an emergency situation, post-treatment where I was bleeding internally. And you're you don't expect to be admitted into a hospital, and then you are and you're alone because it's last minute and it's 3 a.m. and I'm standing there and I'm I'm wearing nothing but this hospital gown and these horrible hospital socks. And I'm thinking to myself, as my blood pressure is dropping and dropping, and I'm about to go into emergency surgery, all I have is my skin. And I have, and I remember looking, and I could see every story that I had marked throughout my whole life up until that point, and it made me feel like me. Wow, it's not everything else stripped away from you at the in those moments. That's who I am.

SPEAKER_00 26:41

Oh, gee, I love that story. And it's just even though it's hard.

SPEAKER_02 26:45

And it but it and it's just for me, it's not for anybody else. And I think in this world, we get bits of ourselves taken over time.

SPEAKER_00 26:55

I agree with you. I think, in fact, for me, my journey with tattoos was about reclaiming, reclaiming my own identity.

SPEAKER_02 27:05

It usually is, even if people aren't really aware of it, it's reclaiming something, whether it's a history, whether, even if it's like go back to the grandmother story, because it's one of the a bigger piece that I did that was a lot of her. This woman wanted to have a voice for her grandmother, because her grandmother had never had a voice in her life, and she saw and knew how much she put into her mother and her her children and so on and so forth. And so her hers was a sense of honoring and reclaiming that for her from her own journey. And so you do it these ways that you know it's like I see a lot of women embodying warrior spirits, the archetype of that through mythology, uh, or even those of contrition or all different cultures, whether it's a small piece or a huge back piece, uh things that are decorative. We see, I see a lot of animals represent the representation of what a raven or versus a coyote versus a wolf or those kinds of energies. And it's not, and it's a lot of people I feel who have not necessarily they don't, but see, it's both and you can have strong cultural ties or you can have no cultural ties and still be seeking the same thing.

SPEAKER_00 28:26

That's why tattoos are universal, right? It's a universal.

SPEAKER_02 28:32

I think they say it's uh it's very rare that there's anything academic written about tattooing. And there's one book that came out recently, only one. I think it's the only academic research-driven book ever. It's called Ancient Inc. And they talk about how it's one of the oldest human forms of expression next to jewelry.

SPEAKER_00 28:50

Wow. Wow, I love that. I absolutely because it does feel like that's what I'm doing. I am anointing, I am expressing, and I'm decorating, which is what jewelry is decorating about.

SPEAKER_02 29:04

It is expression, ultimately, which is something that we hold as human beings in high regard for in the most part, I believe, is the right to express yourself. And it's a bond. I've seen people cross party lines, all races, class, gender, age, yeah, ability, disability, all of it, to shake hands with others that share tattoos because it's a joiner, you know.

SPEAKER_00 29:34

Yeah, it's a true connector. I find that's something I'm always drawn to, is why when I see someone that I pass by that I wouldn't normally generally have a conversation with. If they have a tattoo or they see my tattoos, it brings us together.

SPEAKER_02 29:51

Yeah. And it it is a very powerful outward message. And there are people who have them invisible in the sense that they're always coverable, and that's their the private way of being. And then and a lot of them hold high positions and are high powered in the world, uh, quote unquote, when I know because I I tattoo them. You wouldn't know unless they showed you. And then there's others that are very, they don't, they have on the your hands, their fingers, their face, like everywhere on their body, and it's very powerful outwardly freeing. They have no qualms of hiding who they are, and that's very powerful, driven by a lot of things too.

SPEAKER_01 30:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:30

Each story is valuable. There's not one better than another, but it is a very powerful personal experience.

SPEAKER_00 30:37

Incredible. A thing comes to mind when I think about someone who does this work that you're doing. I think a lot of people romanticize what an artist's life is like without understanding the emotional reality of being a creative person.

SPEAKER_01 30:55

Is it fascinating?

SPEAKER_00 30:57

I'm sure it is. So actually living like an artist. What do you what do you do ever navigate? I want to explore some of this about some of the things that you might navigate that people wouldn't know, right? As an artist, as a tattoo artist, as somebody who is getting to know their clients, understanding, and then interpreting and putting together their work and then putting it on them. Do you ever have moments of self-doubt or oh yes, and no?

SPEAKER_02 31:32

It's a strange, it's a strange thing. Oh man, I think there are the three words. It's like confidence, dexterity, and intuition. So the confidence comes from not ego but a place of confidence. Having a sense of confidence is something that is instilled in the tattoo community and culture, really as it used to be very early on. And I think a lot of it was because the industry was very in insular and there is a hard line crossing that line into a tattoo studio. A lot of it is so shrouded in secrecy in in itself and mystery in itself that tattooers in their studios would always kind of hold the line of if you want a tattoo, you abide by the rules. That's it, bye. There, and that is a sense of confidence because we're professionals and we're going to hold that with within what we're doing. And it's meant to create a space for the best. That's this is where the skill comes in, the best result of what we can do. And there's a mixed or misunderstanding in art in general, crossing into tattooing where people, and I see this a lot more today, uh, think that they can dictate or create these things that they think are real, but they're not actually tattooable. We see this a lot with AI art, a lot of Pinterest art, things like that. And like we understand we understand like how pigment moves in the skin. There's these things about tattooing where we do things a certain way. And that requires a lot of confidence because you you have to, it's not just it's not, I don't know how to describe it, it's not an a la carte kind of thing.

SPEAKER_00 33:04

So I think you you need to know that what will work on somebody's skin, whether it's achievable. And that's from your experience.

SPEAKER_02 33:12

And we and every tattooer has different styles and different skills and different techniques, and there's this kind of mystery, or this, or I guess it's not mystery, but this misconception that all tattooers can do everything, and that's not true. Uh, people will spend the true tattoo masters actually it and I do blame reality TV for this misconception because that's just a game. But the reality is that true tattooers who are very good at their craft spend decades honing that skill to be very good at a very specific thing. It takes a lot of practice. And uh, so we encourage people to go to people to artists that they like their work because they're going to be masters at that type of what they do. And then the dexterity comes into the flexibility that you are working with in collaboration, your client. There without our clients, we don't tattoo. So it's

Confidence, Dexterity, And Reading Clients

SPEAKER_02 34:05

like we need our people to put tattoos on. So within that confidence comes the dexterity or the ability to be flexible and to collaborate with your client to the extent that you as an artist can or do. Because every artist has their method, every black and gray artist are going to work different than hype than color artists, which are, and then there's traditional that are different than hyper-realism versus miniature micro. It's all very different. So you have to be have that dexterity. And then also then we come to intuition, and that intuitive nature comes from experience and wisdom of reading clients when they come in. What are they not saying? What are they saying? What are they withholding? A lot of it is reading in body language and allowing space. So a lot of tattooing does, in my opinion, and my experience, is holding space for people and then making sure to read their body language and read them in a way. Because sometimes you get people who they're nervous and they might be agreeing to a placement that I can tell their body language as saying they're not exactly happy with it. So I'll just give the encouraging prompts. Your stencils can be moved a million times. It's no problem. So why don't you sit with it alone and I'll step away? And however, you if you want to see it in a different place, it is no problem. Because once we start tattooing, then we can't move it. And and then reminding people that way is and then you'll hear giving someone that prompt gives them sometimes that permission to be like, actually, yes, I would like to. And you're like, okay, yeah, I thought I felt that. That's good. So we don't rush it. So that, but that also comes from a lot of experience, and that experience comes from mistakes. So you're going to go through processes of what the hell am I doing? What the hell did I just do? What the fuck? And that was something my mentor in my first in my apprenticeship in the first year told me is she said, When you fuck up a tattoo, excuse me, like you better hope that comes walking back in the door. Because that is your greatest teacher.

SPEAKER_00 36:13

Okay. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 36:14

That's a great and it's nerve-wracking.

SPEAKER_00 36:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:18

Because then she was like, she told me that's and always stuck with me. She was like, great tattooers. Oh, every tattooer makes a mistake. What you're doing is handmade, and you're working in living tissue, and on people who are gonna jump and fidget or not sit well, or you're not gonna get the right angle, or maybe you're not feeling that great that day. She's like, great tattooers hide all their mistakes, and you'd never be able to tell.

SPEAKER_00 36:38

Wow. Wow. I'm thinking about is it's too it's too easy from this understanding to think they're incredible beings, these tattoo artists, right? So what we don't see is a sacrifice. There's a sacrifice that's going on here, I think, in the life of the tattoo artist, right? So speak a little bit about that, about what sacrifices come with choosing this kind of unconventional life.

SPEAKER_02 37:06

So when we charge what we charge, for instance, um we calculate not just the costs, what we pay for studios, because we're all independent, essentially. We're all independent contractors, we're independent. But a lot of it is all everything that goes in behind the scenes. It's like all of your art, all of the sketches, all of the research. When you have a very fast progressed tattooing tattooer, that's usually honed over time. And that's because they have their method and their skill down really well, and that takes years to master. But there is a lot that goes in behind it. Everyone has their own methods, but it is a 24-7 job. So it's like when I'm done working for the day, I go home and I start to pull together all the research that I may have done at a certain point in time for my next client. And I either finish or start to create the hours of that evening for the appointment in the morning, pick wake up in the morning, have my coffee, do my morning routine, and then I start to prepare or finish or adjust their drawing for them for the day, just for them to look at it and tell me whether they even like it. And then we have time set aside for them to change that in person. And so it is a very long process, and it takes a lot of energy and skill to put in behind that. And that's all rolled into what we like how we price, what we charge, those kinds of things. Um, but it takes a lot of time away. There's a lot of drawing, a lot of research, a lot of sketching, a lot of all of that, but that's being self-employed. And then today you throw on top of it content, visibility, getting the message out there, getting the message out there, and I'm glad part of that scene. I'm glad it came up in the era that I did.

SPEAKER_00 38:55

Again, this is just really I'm thinking about people can romanticize everything, right? Particularly given today's opportunities for real life TV, right? Where we even have shows dedicated to following tattoo artistry. Um what I have I haven't followed those shows, but I wonder if they really do capture the reality.

SPEAKER_02 39:18

I think they I I don't think they do, and I think they're missing out on an opportunity there because there's a lot of the a lot of things that go, there's a lot of work and mistakes and just like messes that happen behind the scenes that we all pull together the last minute to like it. It'll it's always like that. 23 years in, there still isn't a tattoo that I'm like, okay, do I do this or do I do that? Should I do this? Okay, I did do that right. You know what I mean? Like, and that's just the nature of working in something living, you know what I mean. Like that it doesn't matter like how many times I've done a tattoo, if my skin that I'm working on is changing every single time I'm doing it, there's gonna be these micro changes, and it's you're gonna hit it like nail on the head so many times, and then sometimes you're not, you know what I mean? You might be tattooing someone with health issues or age issues or collagen issue, whatever it may be, where you're like, oh, gotta problem solve this, gotta problem solve that. That's all stuff that's happening in our heads as we're working. We're not telling you these things.

SPEAKER_00 40:27

So then here's a question as someone who I just finished leading a retreat where I was holding space for a number of women that were attending. And I go, I've done this many times. However, every single time I'm still learning how to appreciate the effect it has on me. Because for you to be intuitive, I know there is vulnerability involved. And I too, you know, engage a lot intuitively with anyone I'm working with. So that's what I'm thinking about is like there's a cost that is yours as someone who chooses this life. And so I find it interesting, like that's the side that we don't see, right? The human effect that it takes to be this masterful at your skill and with your artwork.

SPEAKER_02 41:22

Yet it's you can't you don't really clock in or out, and then there's and then there's the aftercare aspect, and then there's also someone like me and a lot of tattoos do this like tattoos uh of of a certain nature where we're more nomadic. So we do a lot of traveling. I fly to these areas to spend seven days in a row with people in a specific city or country, and that in itself is a whole other thing that like nomad tattooing with the way we do it. And it's like you're dealing with flight cancellations, hotel problems, like all of that, the exhaustion of time bounds. But the reward, the why is not just a beautiful piece of work to put on a portfolio because I get those regardless, but I did I get a good picture? Not always, so I'm never gonna post it. And that's just because I'm not great, I'm not a photographer, and I don't have one following me around. And I'm not as concerned about that. I'm more concerned about my client, a client I had recently, and we did her old lower arm as a sleeve, and she had kept her upper arm open because she had a scar that she wasn't sure if at one day a surgeon needed to go in and replace a rod. And she didn't want it to ruin her tattoo. So it was like, okay. And then I said, just so you know, if you ever want to do a piece up there, we can cover the scar. And surgeons are pretty

The Hidden Labor And Nomad Tattoo Life

SPEAKER_02 42:45

good at either lining up your tattoo right away really well or moving things around as much as they can, and then we can always go back in and cover that up. It's there, and in my experience, I've tattooed surgeons and I've had surgery. Surgeons tend to like it, they think it's challenging and fun to see how they can line things up. So she took a journey and then came to me to and she was like, you know what? Let's do it. Let's just put something there. And we did. And as soon as we tattooed over that scar, uh, she teared up, and you could tell she got really emotional. And she was like, I didn't even know how much I hated looking at that for that part of my life. Wow. She was like, I was not expecting to feel the way I feel right now, which is full, like complete.

SPEAKER_00 43:31

Like I and back together, wholesome more wholeness was afforded to write.

SPEAKER_02 43:48

I love that, their feeling, feeling okay, a release, even a processing of grief. Sometimes it's happiness, sometimes it's sadness, but it's something moving.

SPEAKER_00 44:00

Something and you get to witness like you're helping that you're helping them move energy along.

SPEAKER_02 44:06

I think yeah, not comparing it to anything like doctors or surgeons. That is the we are not that.

SPEAKER_00 44:13

Yeah, but I think that when we talk about women and their bodies, this is a really hot topic for me because our culture we're constantly telling women what their bodies should look like, right? And tattooing feels almost like it's the opposite of that, right? The act of sovereignty. And so what are your thoughts about you mentioned this client and how she was feeling more put together, more whole, more complete, or returned to herself. How would you describe this self expression or reclamation?

SPEAKER_02 44:48

I guess it's ultimate agency, really. The choice to be able to do anything to change our appearance, whether it's decorative or not, whether it's temporary from jewelry or hairstyles to the ultimate, which is more permanent, like tattooing or even cosmetic procedures, it's all a form of self-expression and agency. So to me, and that has very deep meanings to people in a way, because it's how you are to the world. And we as women know that ultimately it's how we are to ourselves, right? We don't do things for other people in those senses, right? We can, but that's also a choice for ourselves, you know what I mean? Ultimately, it's agency.

SPEAKER_00 45:34

Yeah, I I really do agree with you. I think like when we take uh our uh the body, the skin, and we uh express it through art, through tattoo art, especially, I think it's definitely a way where we say, This is my body. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 45:51

And it's interesting, it is interesting because there is a new movement now with younger generations on social media, I've noticed, where there's a lot of this like you should and shouldn't for women. Uh, it's newer, and one of it is it's the whole misconception, like really awful language that that says like a high value individual or a high value woman wouldn't have tattoos, and it's all a lie, you know. Any of us over a certain age of experience just gonna all right, go fuck off with that shit. We all know you're lying because we all age, we we all are going to get older, and at the end of the day, it's none of it matters if we're lucky. If that's a lucky thing, it's a gift. That's right, that's it's a gift, and it's a person.

SPEAKER_00 46:37

You said our skin is what goes with us, and I think like when you talk about agency sovereignty, or when I think about it, I think like I want to be able to express as much as I can here. Oh, it's authentically my way, and then I'll take it with me.

SPEAKER_02 46:53

Yeah, we can't think anything else. That's a famous quote by someone, and I it's older in the I don't know the exact time period, but it's mid-20th century sometime. And it was a news article and it talks about tattooing, and it was like the art of tattooing is unique in the sense that it is the one form of art that cannot be possessed nor handed down by any other, and it can't be, it also goes with you. It's not just that you take it with you, it goes with you, it's gone, it's gone, it's only here. What you have is here for your existence, and then it's gone, and that's a beautiful thing, too.

SPEAKER_00 47:31

And that's I love that it brings it brings I love that too, because it also makes me think about impermanence, yeah. Because even though the the a lot of people, at least some of my listeners who have gotten to know me are saying, How can you choose something that's so permanent? And I laugh because I understand it's really not, right? It is very finite in time, and uh, and yet I think that if we don't make the most expression of who we are now, what are we waiting for?

SPEAKER_02 48:02

Exactly. And it's very yin-yang because it's the permanent impermanence, it's permanently for you through your time here, and then it's completely gone. It's not leaving a mark behind you in any harmful way or any positive way, it might impact the way people, you know, have discussions or conversations or ideas, but other than that, as an opt object or a thing, as a function of time that's tied with you because it's within your skin. And it's interesting to me too, as I get older, my clientele also ages with me more. And I see more and more women getting huge pieces. That's another thing, too, as they've gotten older. I see more and more women in their 40s, 50s, and even 60s getting huge pieces, back pieces, sleeves, leg sleeves, because they're just like, you know what? It's something I've always wanted and I have. And you know, the X, Y, and Z has happened throughout my life, and it's time for me to just do this for me.

SPEAKER_00 49:02

I'm telling you, when I got my first hit to at the age of 40, 62 now, and from 40 to 62, I've gotten over 25. Yeah, I mean also very uh contagious in terms of the expression.

SPEAKER_02 49:15

Once you get started, it's a I was gonna ask you like, how does it make you feel?

SPEAKER_00 49:20

More alive, more alive and expressive. And it's the moment I gave myself permission to do it, instead of living to people please, which is what had held me back, right? And putting being put in a box that was socially acceptable. Yeah, I was free. I was the beginning of freedom. And and I keep wanting to keep going.

SPEAKER_02 49:41

Yeah, and it opens an interesting door. It's like when you cross that threshold and you're giving yourself that permission of that permanence, which you realize is a fallacy once you do it. You're like, okay, you're letting go of a lot of those

Agency, Freedom, And Redefining Beauty

SPEAKER_02 49:55

beliefs that we will carry throughout our lives, what it is to be a woman and throughout the stages of her life. You know what I mean? You're defined by these moments of young girl to adolescence and then young woman. And then if you choose it or not choose it, motherhood, and then to pass that, and then it's like these moments of identity that shift and change and throughout our space. And and I notice, at least for me, it's not until I hit my 40s where even though I'm living in this counterculture and working within this counterculture, I still had to have the same revelation myself of that permission to get even more free, even though I've been lucky enough to live in a very freeing.

SPEAKER_00 50:41

That's interesting to hear that coming from you. And yet I think we're a show that has a tagline that says tools for practical hope. And I think for a listener that's out there who is at that stage in her life where she realizes that she hasn't given herself these freedoms, right? These ways of expressing. What's something that you might recommend that might start them on the road to more self-expression?

SPEAKER_02 51:09

The first thing that comes to mind is to find uh female designers, like fashion designers, interior designers, artists, sculptors, because these are women who, especially older in life, like they've they really do embody that life from Frida Kahlo to Michelle Lamy, which not a lot of people would know about, probably who's like uh one of the wildest muses I've ever seen. Talk about freedom.

SPEAKER_00 51:40

So finding a muse is what I hear you say.

SPEAKER_02 51:42

Either that, yeah, or like uh inspiration or a guide, or you can even start with Pinterest mood boards, you know what I mean? Like getting the things that you find beautiful or creative, or what does that mean? Even asking yourself the question what it what is it to be free?

SPEAKER_00 52:00

Okay, what can you do? Yeah, and then also beauty. You you mentioned that I this is one of the final questions I want to ask you. We've had such a provocative conversation here. I've enjoyed it. Is what what has tattooing taught you about beauty? What does it mean to be that someone's beautiful?

SPEAKER_02 52:23

It truly is the eye of the holder. It's so unique, and I find so many things aesthetically pleasing that many people might not, and vice versa. It's beauty is definitely about confidence. It has nothing to do with appearance, it's all energy, right? We can decorate until the cows come home, but it's about how we feel. So, and that's what that really is. And that and that comes from that's why we do what we do, and that's why you don't knock what other people do. I don't knock, I don't knock what other people do to make themselves feel beautiful because they embody that you can see it in the way they walk, the way they talk, the way they carry themselves. Yeah. Even if they're not there, they're it and everyone's a journey and it changes and it evolves. It's never entirely the same. And but I think reclaiming that beauty, creating that beauty, uh holding that however that is to you as an individual woman is unique to you. And that's the point, right? Because I think and men too, men will have it too. A lot of men, because my industry is very much full of men as well, and they decorate themselves up and down, and you know, it might be a different energy for them sometimes, but not always. Um it's still the same, and it really comes down to to to self-confidence. It's like turning that that thing that we project out, right? That that meeting where we project out and turning it around, looking at it and being like, what is it that I need to see to feel to be authentically me?

SPEAKER_00 53:58

Yeah, I love that. I love that only we can answer them. Yeah, you're right, you're right. Now, as we wind down this conversation, how can our listeners that are gonna be very excited once

How To Follow Gia And Closing

SPEAKER_00 54:10

they watch this, listen, this, listen to you start following you or learning more about your work as a tattoo artist?

SPEAKER_02 54:17

Okay. I'm all my socials are all the same. It's at GRose Tattoo. And my website is on my socials. I'm mostly on Instagram. I do have across socials a lot, but that's mostly where I'm at because I do tend to, and then I do. You can sign up, you can sign up for a mailing list if you're interested in knowing where I'm going to be. If you would like a tattoo by me or even have a conversation with me, consulting is always free. And that's I do tend to post a mix of my life as well as my work. I've always been that because I want people to see, I want people to like me as a person or think or like what I do as well as what I do.

SPEAKER_01 55:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 55:01

Because I tend to only do very large works, tattoo work or bigger work. And so it's like we're gonna spend some time together. You should probably know a little bit about me.

SPEAKER_00 55:11

I have loved learning to get to know about you through this conversation. This has really been very exploratory, expanding, and so expressive. And I'm so glad that we could finally make it happen.

SPEAKER_02 55:25

I know a lot of life. Again, I'm in that nomad tattooing journey right now. So, you know.

SPEAKER_00 55:33

It's okay. It's okay. It all worked out. It all worked out. So thank you so much for joining us today. If this conversation resonated with you, please share it with someone who may need it. And if you're navigating your own season of healing, reinvention, creativity, self-discovery, and are looking for deeper support, you can learn more about my coaching programs, retreats, and workshops at anamcbride.com. You've been listening to She As, Tools for Practical Hope. Till next time, trust what's coming to you, what is asking you to be expressed in your life. And until soon, be well.