When I was a little girl I loved to decorate everything, including myself. I guess you could say that I just never stopped. By the age of 11, I was painting faces at school fairs, and soon after I was behind the scenes of the school plays doing makeup and set design. As a student in art school, I began using makeup and body painting in my photography and film making. In 1986 I earned my B. F. A. in visual art from the Boston Museum School and Tufts University. In 1989 I began the massive project of creating a living Tarot deck. Nearly nine years later, with a hiatus for graduate school where I received my M. A. in Psychology and Religion from Andover Newton Theological School, my deck the Healing Tarot was complete and published on Halloween in 1997.

In addition my academic degrees I have trained extensively as a healer and practioner of positive magic. I have been trained as a Reiki Master by Senior Reiki Master/Teacher: Jessica Miller through the Center for Reiki Training. I am certified as a Transformational breath facilitator through the Transformational Breath Foundation . I am a graduate of Rev Sylvia Brailier’s School for Body Centered Spiritual Healing. By integrating these skills, I consider tattooing one of the deepest forms of healing I can offer. Some people have mused at my progression from art school, to psychic healer, to seminarian at the oldest Protestant Seminary in the country, to tattoo artist. It may seem unusual, but the whole process makes sense to me as these first experiences gave me not only technical abilities as an artist, but also a sensitivity to people and the skills to facilitate the transformational experiences that sometimes happen in the process of tattooing.

My spiritual awareness deeply informs my work as a tattooist. I believe that well chosen images have the power to transform, empower and heal a person who chooses to wear them.

Upon gradutation from Seminary in 1997, I began my formal training with Jon Devries of Dramatic Pawz Tattoos in Cobbleskill NY. I received additional training during a nearly year long apprenticeship with Juli Moon at her studio in Seabrook New Hampshire. I also benefited from the talent and wisdom of artists Chris Dingwell, Cory Kruger and Tim Wallace. Then in August 1999 Chris and I decided to open Sanctuary Tattoo in Portland, Maine where with our friends Wilhelm Scherer, Ryan Fleming and Danielle Madore we are creating a space where creativity can thrive.