ruby jae custom tattooing:

my name is ruby j.a. ellis. i live and work in the san francisco bay area. i have received little to no formal training in art or tattooing, thus i have no list of fancy schools i've attended or artists i've apprenticed under. i am grateful for the gift of art in my life and for all of my clients who continue to make my life as an artist possible. i am also grateful to work at Diving Swallow Tattoo.

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i am drawn to many forms of creative expression with my interest lying mainly in tattoo, watercolor, printmaking, photography, and pen, ink and pencil drawing. within each medium, i’ve developed a style that’s unique to that medium. my watercolors are brightly colored and abstract, while my drawing tends to be more subdued and representational. my tattoo work is almost exclusively black and gray, focusing on flora and fauna type imagery. i am also very drawn to and inspired by the natural world of geometric designs, repetitive themes/patterning, tessellations, and negative space.

  tattooing is one of my callings- i love tattooing as a medium and believe that it is one of my duties: a labor of love. tattooing is a meditation that brings me to the present moment with a calm focus. i employ a combination of electric/machine tattooing and handpoke- that is, tattooing by hand, without a machine. i am committed to holding a space where my clients feel comfortable with being active participants in the tattoo process and receive what they envision from their tattoo experience.

below are some ideas that cycle through my mind:

circles of light, the Arctic, old growth, water,
witches, mammals, portals,
the slavery of addiction and viral late stage capitalism,
woman power, plant medicine,
food security, healthcare, gardens,
families treasuring their queer, trans, intersex, and differently abled children,
feral intuition, love, multiple intelligences,
forests, oxygen, carbon,
indigenous autonomy,
patriarchal religions and heirarchies that would rather catalyze apocalypse
than admit that centuries of male domination
have almost destroyed us,
hope, optimism, magic.

  i am grateful every day for the opportunity to do this work. 

thank you for reading...