Ink Medicine: A Podcast Off The Tattoo Table

Are you a reader? I hope so. This episode is all about every book I read in 2023. There were 22 of them and here are my mini reviews.  I tell you details. Whether I read the book or listened to it, how I found it, whether I loved it or left it.  There was a lot of poignant coming of age novels with queer POC female protagonists, a lot of memoirs, mostly by Black folks, but not only, a few classics...

A little personal update for you, since the start to my year has been a little frazzled with a lack of my usual routine due to too many fun plans.  In this episode I talk about my early year travels and then some hopes for the coming year: Sayler's apprenticeship, my reading plans, my big birthday, my sticker making career, and my wishes to get better with time management and tidying.  Next w...

As the year wraps up I like to look back upon it with grateful eyes. I like to look back through the photos in my phone (piling up in the tens of thousands), and remember the people I have met and the work I did on most of the new people I'd met.  I like to appreciate all of the ways in which this year was sweet to me, all the things that happened that brought me peace and joy and contentment...

This is Ink Medicine's second to last episode of the year! And I interview Amy Zager. I've been hearing her name and seeing her work for years, and finally we meet. Amy does incredibly bright and colorful and dynamic work (think Lisa Frank in the 90's!). I see her work on my clients and I see my clients in her chair. We have complimentary styles that a lot of people who like my work...

If you have ever wished to know more about me, Micah Riot, your wishes have come true. My best friend of fifteen years, Andi Smiles, takes over the podcast, hosts this episode and interviews me for a change. And honestly y'all, it was one of my very favorite nights in recent memory. It's intense and beautiful to hear your best friend tell you how they see you, especially when you believe...

This is the second half of the best ever conversation I had with James-Olivia Chu Hillman, whom I had the absolute honor to meet through the wild ass internet. They share with me how they became a personal trainer having never worked out before, how they feel about beauty and aging, and aging beauty; how they want to transform their body of tattoo work, we talk about mentorship, we tell each other...

Here we are. In Episode 52, on just about the one year anniversary of Ink Medicine Podcast, when I get the chance to interview one of my spiritual mentors about gender as fruit, spicy food and how it relates to being kinky, wearing strap-ons, being cerebral vs. being embodied, identity labels and various perspectives on them, being a beautiful bouquet, perceptions of beauty especially as we age, a...

Happy Anniversary to me and Mama Aya!  In November of 2021 I flew to Tulum, Mexico to have one of the most profound experiences of my life.  I had been learning about Ayahuasca and yearning to drink her medicine for a decade by that point. I wanted to have my first experience and I knew that it had to find me. I had to be patient.  In late September of that year a friend suggested I join the retre...

From early shop flash days to custom work only and currently back to flash, I am staying with my own stuff. I love to do pieces that span the body, take time, and make you love yourself more.  As tattoo artists, and just humans, as everything shifts around us, we have to figure out how to stay afloat. The tattoo industry, social media and economy are all changing and I am here to chat with you abo...

Our talks took us from the tattoo shop of ten plus years ago, where we created powerful imagery to reflect her biggest losses and loves, through a painful battle with terminal illness, and now, a tireless fight to reunite with her son. Earlier this year I finally reconnected with this dear client and friend, whose indomitable spirit and courage in the face of impossible odds are nothing short of i...

In this episode I, Micah Riot, talk to you about the profound connections and sense of community forged through the intimate act of tattooing.  I can tell you from my own experiences, the bond created during those hours of shared vulnerability, artistic creation, and mutual trust is as indelible as the tattoos themselves.  From the excitement of attending a concert with one of my clients, to the r...

Today, I'm presenting you with a conversation with Megan Lowe, a Bay Area dancer, choreographer, performer, aerialist, singer, songwriter, filmmaker, teacher, and administrator of Chinese and Irish descent. A couple of weeks ago, my partner and I attended a Megan Lowe Dances performance. It was at the ODC Theater and it was called Gathering Pieces of Peace. There were four mindblowingly skill...

After tattooing for fifteen years, I have noticed that often people feel like their reasons for getting tattooed are somehow less valid than others'. (Or sometimes more valid.) People often feel like they are "uncool" or "dorky" for having their reasons.  I am here to say that we are all just trying to feel at home in our bodies. One way we do that is by putting permanent...

Sayler came into my life about a year and a half ago though I'd been hearing her name for much much longer than that.  This fall we are starting the journey of her tattoo apprenticeship and we are both as ready as can be. I've been waiting for her for a while. Well not her exactly... but someone just like her. Curious, layered, brilliant, committed to the human experience and understandi...

I've been talking about color tests with my clients because lately I have had a few folks with deeper skin tones wanting colorful abstract pieces and a few with autoimmune conditions who wanted to dip just a toe into the experience of getting tattooed to see how their skin would react.  Listen in if you want to know why someone might want a color test, how I do them, what I look for when the...

Shannon Home (doesn't she sound so cozy?) creates illustrative blackwork tattoos for the odd and peculiar, with a style that lands at the intersection of fairy tales and ghost stories. Her work is mostly, almost entirely black ink. It is intricate, contrasting, stark, and absolutely stunning. Shannon and I connected on Instagram when I randomly came upon her feed and fell in love with her wor...

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to reconsider something in the industry I always took as a given. A new friend was telling me about her fabulous tattoo artist, someone I'd like to see as well and mentioned that the artist does not take tips. I was surprised, then thoughtful, then in action.   Effective immediately I no longer accept tips for my work.  I think it's important to proces...

Tristan Crane would like to be a heavily tattooed person. They would love to have a collection of tattoos from all of their favorite queer iconic tattooists all around the globe, but besides money and time Tristan is currently limited by a chronic auto immune condition. Psoriasis affects about 125 million people world wide, or about 2 to 3 percent of the population. It can show up in different way...

I haven't done one of these in a little while so I thought I would, since my next interview just isn't ready for your ears yet! On this episode I will:  1. celebrate my first ever giveaway, share the reviews that won (incidentally) and what those folks wish to have as their prizes.  2. give you a little preview of what's to come this fall on the Pod.  3. tell you about my big news b...

Everyone who has visible tattoos has heard "Does it hurt?" from both curious strangers and close friends and family alike.  In fact we hear that question more than any other. As a tattoo artist I also get "where does it hurt the most?" just as often.  In this episode of Ink Medicine I attempt to answer that question, as well as offer tips on how to make it hurt less than it cou...

I met Natasha many years ago when she came to me as a client. The next time I saw her was at Old Crow, under the tutelage of Hannah Wolf (link to Hannah's episode on Ink Medicine below). Very recently Natasha opened her private studio in the heart of the Dogpatch neighborhood, two blocks from the best coffee in town. I met her there on a sunny Sunday morning to talk shop, marvel at how sleek...

I couldn't be more grateful for the surge of reviews that's been pouring in lately, and yes, you have two ish more weeks to get yours in. For every ten reviews I will pull one random winner. The more reviews the more winners! The rewards? One-hour of tattoo time with yours truly or a unique piece of jewelry, co-designed with your input. You could indeed be the lucky winner! My ramble tod...

Meet Kinky Barbie, the queer, kinky, polyam, switch, witchy bundle of snakes in a thong, who embodies her life on her own terms. Barbie lays out her journey with body modification and her perspective on it as a form of self-care. You'll hear some of the sparkliest stories from our ten plus year long friendship. Polyamory, growing up in the South, secret inner chambers, favorite sex toys, a re...

Do you have to be great at drawing to become a successful tattoo artist?  Spoiler alert: No, you don't! Let's unravel this commonly asked question, as I, Micah Riot, share my personal journey art journey from being a kid taking casual painting classes to becoming a professional tattoo artist with no formal art school education.  1. Art skills can be learned.  2. "Good" art is s...

Judy Jaramillo Argumedo first came to me in 2009, when I was just out of my apprenticeship and starting out my career. Fourteen years later I am tattooing this powerhouse of a woman regularly.  During these years she has become the principal of a school, after decades of being a teacher. Out in the world she is known for visiting the homes of her students and making herself accessible to them and...