“River facilitates Ceremonial Tattooing in a private Sacred Space in Downtown, Asheville, NC offering healing and heart opening creative interpretation of her clients greatest dreams and aspirations. Together they create artwork that has a message to their higher self full of reminders to stay focused on what they really want out of life as well as what they want to let go of whilst building an altar of herbs, flowers, crystals and water.” — This was so beautifully written by client, Cat Hay.
The art of tattooing is something that has been around since the dawn of humanity and it was always sacred, intentional and usually in honor of coming of age, initiation, fertility, protection, or other important milestones or proclamations in someone’s life.
Tattooing was based in the Divine Feminine for millennia and in the last hundred years or so it has been lost and buried under the Patriarchy. Tattoos became taboo and were worn mostly by men who were in the military, prison or gangs and with little to no sacred intention. It is time now to return back to the origins of the feminine power of tattooing and to evolve that into the sacred art form that it is, using tattoos as a tool for healing , transformation, rites of passage and to bring others closer to their souls true essence and divine purpose.
We begin our sessions over a (fully optional) pot of local herbal tea and we get grounded and comfortable in each others energy. While we sip our tea we create a personal, unique design side by side and we make any adjustments necessary to ensure the client is feeling completely sure that it is right for them. This process of conjuring can take between an hour to three hours. The time spent at this stage of the day is dependent on how clear and concise the clients design request may be. There will be no tattooing performed without complete consent from the client and in the very rare case that we are not able to come to a complete sense of “yes” by the end of a few hours, we can always reschedule because there is just no need to rush and we are willing to allow the piece the time it requires. In a case like this a lowered day rate is applied at $400 instead of the regular $1000 day rate for a full experience including up to 5 hours tattooing (all dependent on time spent drawing).
Once we are confident the design is resonant with the client we then move on to creating an altar in honor of their intention for their tattoo. “I feel that all my tattoos have memories in them,” says River, “and this is our chance to choose what that memory will be.” Often clients use the mantras “I am enough”, “It’s okay to feel good”, “I am capable and worthy of success”, “I am safe and surrounded by love… really it can be whatever they want to think in that moment. It can be said out loud or said inside the mind/heart. While the client holds that message in their heart they choose crystals, herbs, and flowers to create an altar to charge the room and their tattoo with this affirmation.”
Many Tarot/Oracle decks are available for exploration for the client to choose from to see which ones speaks to them and are calling to them. Through this action we allow messages from their guides to come in through the cards.
Next we use sacred smoke on the stencil and the tattooing space and apply the stencil to the skin and perform the tattooing while listening to the sounds of world music, binaural beats, and a vast array of groovy and relaxing tunes.
When we have finished creating the tattoo we celebrate it and whenever possible we make an altar in honor of it and take photographs for memory. Any reels/photos made of the experience are gifted to the client at a later date.
