Ink on skin has got to be one of the scariest mediums of art out there. The stories about the pain that people feel are legendary, and the errors of the ink artist remain forever—or at least until another artist comes to patch things up. In other words, it's a painstaking process to create a tattoo, not to mention a good one. And so, ink artists have this weird-but-universal aura of respect from other artists, as they're the ones that have to work under the highest of pressures, an environment that artists of other mediums just wouldn't endure.

There are ink artists, and there are ink masters. Ryan Ashley DiCristina (Malarkey) is quite definitely, and literally, the Ink Master. She was the host of the Ink Master show, so it's hard to argue with that. What's even harder to argue with are her skills. Today I want to show you one of her specialties she excels in, and that's ornaments and jewelry. Just take a look at them, and maybe you'll see that it's probably one of the more sustainable roads to high fashion that's out there. And it looks wonderful!

More info: Instagram | ryanashley.bigcartel.com

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It inspired me to create this poem:

Diamonds are forever

Tattoos are not

But the latter is better

For it makes you look hot.

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Ryan Ashley is a Pennsylvania-born tattoo artist, entrepreneur, and a cultural figure. Aside from her main gig, which is etching badass tats on people's bodies, she also owns two antique and oddity stores in Pennsylvania. She won the eighth season of Ink Master and moved on to host another few TV shows after that.

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Ryan is mostly focused on being a mother these days. She married tattooist Arlo DiCristina, and they had a baby in May 2020, named Atheus. Their pregnancy photoshoots in Ink Magazine and other publications received quite a positive uproar, and Ryan's Instagram feed quickly became populated with more warm and lovely family photos.

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Tattoos have been a taboo for a long time in Western culture. They were primarily boasted by sailors and criminals, and have always lingered in the underground culture. There hasn't been a solitary event that changed this, but over years and years, it coalesced into a sign of rebellion, independence, and freedom from cultural norms. Though some still have very sensitive opinions about tattoos, many have accepted it as a form of expression that has nothing to do with social status, economical standing, or criminal record.

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But no matter what the West thinks of it, tattoos have been around for quite a while. The oldest known tattooed person, named Ötzi, was found frozen in the Alps, and is dated at 3250 BCE. The art of tattoos in the ancient times was most practiced in the Austronesian region, where they developed advanced tattooing techniques at around 1500 BCE. In other words, the art of ink has got to be one of the oldest forms of art. Some things that we would think came earlier than tattoos, like theatre, literature, and many other artforms, are much younger. So, thinking that tattoos are a "recent phenomenon" would be a mischaracterization.

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