If destiny is the path you choose to walk then I’m definitely taking the scenic route.

While it sometimes seems inevitable that I was going to become a tattoo artist, it was not even on my radar in 2015 when I, a shy and very nerdy bookworm, received a fellowship to study technology in education from my university Loyola Chicago, sending me off to Rome and Beijing for a year long east-west comparative study. There is nothing like travel to rip apart your preconceived notions, challenge your view of the world, and make you cry (like, a lot), and after that one year, I was hooked.

Bit by the travel bug, I graduated and went back abroad for the next seven years to teach English. I taught every age group and on every continent (minus Antarctica which I feel I must always clarify), creating art regularly as I traveled. (You’re literally always inspired when you travel). I got my first tattoo in Korea where I became enamored with the delicate, fine line style and saw a new side of tattooing I had never known about before. These Korean tattoo artists became my constant inspiration as I taught myself to draw - fine line micron pens were my favorite art medium before I picked up a machine. 

When the pandemic began in 2020, I was teaching second grade in Costa Rica. My boss called me one evening saying borders and airports were closing and suggested I get one of the last flights back, and I took his advice. Back in the states, my international teaching career was over. My boyfriend passed away shortly after that and I fell into a deep black hole. Making art was the first thing that helped me start to climb out. 

Craving solitude, I moved to southeast Alaska to work on an oyster farm in the middle of the most beautiful nowhere. I drew every day, alone in the forest, like I was in a fever dream. I was no stranger to restarting by then, but the trajectory I had pictured for my life had been completely ripped apart and I was left trying to fill what felt like an abyss. I began to think that if I had to start fresh, to find something I loved as much as teaching, maybe it could be to make a career out of art. If all I had in front of me was an abyss, I thought, then fck it I’m going to learn to tattoo.

I moved to Tucson after this, trading the pines and whales of Alaska for the mesquite and javelina of the Sonoran desert. I started an apprenticeship and learned to tattoo while working nights at a Korean BBQ for 2 years. Nature became one of my greatest sources of inspiration, and it still is today.

In 2023, a local art collective opened downtown, renting spaces to artists and small businesses. It was the perfect place for a tattoo studio - the seeds of Lonely Angel were planted - I moved into my little corner downtown, hung my biggest pothos plants, and started learning business. Tucson has an incredible community, and both me and my pothos thrived in that little back corner of the shop. To my original clients and supporters: thank you for helping that dream grow into something real (and I hope you like the angels I left behind).

For the past year, I’ve been tattooing in Laguna Beach, California while continuing to expand Lonely Angel into a larger creative project that blends tattooing, illustration, storytelling, fashion, and community. I’ve branched into leather tattooing, explored new art forms, and created Lonely Angel: Dea Ex Machina, my indie tattoo comic inspired by travel, transformation, nature, and human connection.

Now I’m back on the road again for the Lonely Angel World Tour - a year of guest spots, pop-ups, art events, and community building. My goal is simple: to create meaningful work, connect people, and inspire the artist in everyone along the way. If you too feel called, come join me, we are a powerful community waiting to happen and I can't wait to meet you. Let's start a Revolution of Creation.