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A former real estate agent becomes an inspiring tattoo artist

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Photo Courtesy Meghan Magdalene

Meghan Magdalene was a real estate agent when she began helping her friend open a tattoo parlor. Once the shop was up and running, Magdalene decided to join forces with her friend and become a tattoo artist. Roughly a year and a half later, Magdalene’s business partner moved onto other endeavors, and the former real estate agent became the sole owner of Ascension Tattoo.

That was six years ago. Soon after, Alexia Phillips, the shop’s body piercer, began working at Ascension as well.

Phillips said she places a great deal of trust in Magdalene, so much so that she allowed her to tattoo her hand.

“She tattooed my hand, which is something that took me a very long time to do,” Phillips said. “My trust in her is explicit. I absolutely trust her.”

Phillips, already “heavily tattooed” at the time, said she was initially worried about the social stigma that accompanies hand tattoos, but that Magdalene’s “calming presence” gave her the courage to go under the needle.

Magdalene chalks her calming presence up to her college major; her original plan as an undergraduate student at Ohio University was to become a counselor after graduation.

“It wasn’t very long before I started to realize that my background in psychology and counseling and working with people lent itself very well to the industry,” Magdalene said. “People oftentimes come in with pretty heavy stuff, or things that are very meaningful to them. I think being the person creating that for someone can be very meaningful.”

Aside from Magdalene’s own calming presence and skillful needlework, Ascension has managed to create a safe and welcoming environment in other ways.

The shop has an all-female staff. Though Magdalene did not do so purposefully, Kelly Kapowski, one of the tattoo artists at Ascension, considers it a happy accident.

“Where I’m from, there’s no female tattoo shops,” Kapowski said. “I think being in an all-female space, we actually care, and we want to make sure that everyone gets an experience that they’re not going to forget.” 

However, a female-led tattoo shop had always been one of Phillips’ goals. 

“Twenty years ago, when I moved out to this area, my hopes were to have a female-owned and operated studio," Phillips said. "At that time, there were not enough women in this area that were artists." 

Little did Phillips know that it would be a real estate agent, rather than an established tattooist, who would ultimately make her dream a reality.

Magdalene said the best part of being a tattoo artist is making people happy.

“That’s a really fun feeling when people get off the table, and they look at their work and they’ve had a really great experience," Magdalene said. "That’s really rewarding.” 

arts@dailytarheel.com

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