Mother, Painter, Tattoo Artist Environmental Portraits
My friend and neighbor Julianna is an amazing woman, mother, artist and now a tattoo apprentice at Ceremony Tattoo Society in Philadelphia, PA. She already has a name for herself in the art world for her amazing paintings and drawings. She was also a featured artist with Grumbacher, a famous maker of art supplies such as paint brushes, oil and acrylic paints and more. And now she is about to take on the tattooing world as well.
Follow her on Instagram to see her sketches and finished tattoo work. Her flash sketches are simply amazing, and she’s taking on clients to practice her work on.
As Julianna was preparing her needles, ink and machine, we caught up on what’s been going on. Our children go to the same school, I’m friends with one of her daughters and her husband Joe, also a well known artist.
These two were taken with the iPhone SE as she works on a client 😉 
Photo by Julianna Menna
The above image is the freshly completed black and white tattoo with a hint of white ink in places. I believe that this was her fourth tattoo that she’s ever done(?). This is why I know that she is going to become very well known very soon, and she is in the right place for it.
After Julianna completed the gorgeous tattoo, she proceeded to clean up the work area. Everyone in the shop left for the day, so it was just us, chatting while I was taking pictures.
And then she let her beautiful red hair down….However this wasn’t working for me.
I wanted to see more of her neck tattoo that she had done by Raph Cemo, so I had her put her hair back up again.
She moves like a dancer….
We moved to the work station, and I preferred this better.
I shot these using my Canon 6D , the Canon 24-70 f2.8mm L lens, Canon Speedlight 600 EX RT Flash, and the Canon Wireless Speedlight Transmitter ST-ES-RT . Normally I would have my Photek Softlighter with me, but I didn’t. So I bounced the flash that had a Stofen Diffuser on it. I have more ideas for her and her co-workers if they’ll let me, in the this amazing space.
A HUGE thank you to my good friend! You are going to go so far in this natural transition of your art and medium as you continue to grow in your creativity. I can’t wait to get together soon.
These are beautiful pictures of her shop and portraits
Thank you so much David! The shop is owned by Gia Rose, you can follow her on Instagram @giarose and @ceremonytattoosociety on Instagram.