Introducing Belena Roy!!!!

Happy New Year Everybody! To kick off 2018, we wanted to get up on our website a BLOG about one of our newest and brightest tattoo artists who had the honor of apprenticing under the owner of Trip Ink Tattoo Company, Mr. Rick Trip himself! Her name is Belena and she’s not just one of our newest tattoo artists… she’s also an accomplished painter and artist in her own right! Read more about her in this brief interview and check out some of her tattoos posted above! Enjoy! 😊

Trip Ink: “Hey Belena! Happy New Year! Here are a few questions for ya, so that we can get a better idea of what you’re all about. So… let’s get started. How would you describe the way you tattoo?”

Belena: “Hey Stef! First of all, I’d like to say that I’m so excited to be introduced as an artist this new year and I can’t wait for the tattoos that come my way! So with that said, I like to tattoo by learning as much as I can about my client and their ideas so I can send them home feeling proud to have supported the industry, and to keep up the normalcy of tattoos in everyday society. While I’m working, my main focus is on what the needle is doing in each moment to create that end goal. I keep both the quality of the artwork and the happiness of the client in mind because I think it’s important to decorate our bodies with the things we like, or things that remind us to love our friends, our favorite stories, or anything we choose. I tattoo with the imagination of a surrealist, the background of circus performer, and the techniques of American or European traditional tattooing.”

Trip Ink: “WOW! Great answer! Here’s another one for ya: What inspired you the most to become a tattoo artist?”

Belena: “I think the thing that inspired me the most to become a tattooer was simply just seeing tattoos. Before I even understood what went into it I would save photos of the ones that caught my eyes so that I could recreate them, even though I wasn’t old enough to collect them myself. I would draw every day instead of putting my efforts towards my classwork. I started collecting simple illustrations when I was about 12 or 13, and as I redrew them I found myself able to collect more complex images and then photographs and portraits.”

Trip Ink: “Sweet! What other talents do you have as an artist?”

Belena: “I’ve always appreciated art, although I was very easily drawn to the weirder, less appreciated worlds of it. I used to study the circuses of the early 1900s, their histories and hardships fascinated me. I joined the nearest small circus in my town and became an aerial contortionist for the next six years. I learned to use my entire body along and a creative mind to twist into shapes that would capture my audiences, or disgust them. I really enjoyed the reactions I could provoke from my artwork in the air, I thought it must’ve been the same feeling for those who came before me.
Despite being the outcasts of society, circus freaks and tattoo artists alike, embraced their lifestyles and grew themselves a family that becomes more celebrated everyday. Sometimes I can’t believe I’ve gotten to be so close to that family, let alone be a part of it.
Later on, I began painting in my free time and let any concept I could dream up come into fruition in front of me. I’ve created a surreal world in my head of endless ideas to pull from and it only gets more expansive as I travel and learn new things about the world I’m already in. As soon as I realized that, I decided I could do it for the rest of my life.”

Trip Ink: “You sure have many talents! And now you’re also a tattoo artist! How rad is that? Now… where do you see yourself in the next ten years?”

Belena: “The tattoo industry is massive, and in ten years I’d like to be so immersed in that family that I’ll always be surrounded by genuine people, and stand amongst the ones who express themselves the most. I’d like to see joy on the faces of the people who get my tattoos and spread so much art that maybe I’ll run into my own imagery on the street one day. I may have more ambitions than I know what to do with but I’m grateful to have landed at Trip Ink Tattoo Company because I’m going to need to reach as many tattoo lovers as I can if I want to paint the world.”

Trip Ink: “Beautiful answers! You’re always welcome at our tattoo shop as well as in our lives and we can’t wait to see how awesome you are and will become as a tattoo artist in this amazing industry!!!!”