Location
Ciara works at La Caverne, a private studio in Calgary’s Grain Exchange building. Ciara is currently not accepting bookings anywhere else.
Costs
For tattoos, Ciara has a minimum charge of $200 and operates on a full day and half day system for most of their tribal, ornamental, or indian decorative tattoos. Flat rates are available for smaller pieces. Submit a consultation request via the contact form to get a detailed quote.
Process
Ciara is currently freehanding almost all their tattoos, meaning that everything is drawn directly on the skin rather than stencilled. This process may be more time consuming but it replicates the low-tech high precision aesthetic that is a feature of most pre-industrial tattoo traditions. The imperfections and small asymmetries present in Ciara’s work are a feature they have carefully curated.
Ciara does a large amount of research around South-East Asian art history, cultural tattooing and textile history. They bring this research to their tattoo practice by being specific about the origin and inspiration behind their tattoos, and reserving certain motifs to clients with context tying them to the pieces. This understanding of context is crucial to Ciara’s practice. Ciara works with clients of all backgrounds, and either practices styles they are intimately familiar with, or they apply their body of knowledge to the backgrounds of their clients.
Culture
Ciara’s tattoo practice is centred on the idea of highlighting the human body through tattooing. This non-representational approach of using pattern to accentuate the body is contrary to most of Western tattooing which focuses on application of images instead. Ciara works in the realms of indo-decorative tattooing, tribal blackwork, and Japanese blackwork.