EM ATROPA
Thank you for your interest in getting tattooed!
Please take the time to read through this entire page before contacting.
Please take the time to read through this entire page before contacting.
Booking Info
Welcome! I'm Emily Ann Ní Dhriscoll DeMarco. Please call me Em. If we were in-person together, I’d offer you a mug of herbal tea. My pronouns are they/them.
I make tattoos at the White Willow studio here in Pittsburgh, PA. Sometimes I work in tandem with Nathan Mould (which means we tattoo one client at the same time), and sometimes I work solo.
Currently, my tattoo booking priorities are from my Grá Mór Collection: place-based botanicals steeped in magical and medicinal lore, interwoven with brushwork, folk ornament, lace, embroidery. Select mockups of the Grá Mór designs are on Em's instagram @em_atropa, and currently available designs can be viewed via a private Google Drive link.
Tattoo can be a radical act of self-care, a deeply important personal undertaking, and a reclamation of sovereignty over our own bodies. I've been on my plant path studying herbalism for 14 years, and my work is heavily informed by medicinal & poisonous plants. Other influences include moth-eaten folk costume and handiworks. The Thorny Path. Folk ornament, customs and craft. Lore from the garden and woods.
Before tattoo, I worked as a carpenter, seamstress, bread baker. I was an Indymedia radio reporter, then an investigative journalist. I’ve built 30-foot snow globes, investigated Pennsylvania’s amusement parks, and stitched mascot costumes. I freelanced for years as a comics journalist. (Which means I reported stories in the form of comics, not reporting on the comics industry.) Although I no longer work as a journalist/bread baker/and so on, you can see some of my archived comics journalism stories here and my print/radio stories here. And I always wear earplugs at shows. Each of those twists and turns along my path continue to deeply inform my process/the work that I do as a tattooer.
If you're interested in booking tattoo work with me, please answer the following questions in your initial email to ematropatattoo@gmail.com. Please keep all answers/photos on the same email thread:
1. What is your preferred full name (first & last).
2. Are you local to Pittsburgh, PA? If, not, where would you be traveling from?
3. What are your pronouns?
4. What is your phone number? / Is texting and/or a phone call okay?
5. Have you had tattoo work done in the past? / Are you heavily tattooed?
6. Are you able to visit prior to a first appointment for a consultation with Em, if needed? Em typically does consultations before their tattoo appointments at 10am EST, either in-person or over-the-phone.
7. What is your preferred body placement and size of the tattoo?
8. Please describe in a few words your basic tattoo concept (please note Em's booking priorities, above); if you have a specific plant(s) in mind; or if there is an available design from Em's Grá Mór Collection that sings to you.
9. How often would you like to / be able to get tattooed? (For larger pieces)
10. Please send photos of the area(s) you would like to have tattooed. Please have a friend take the photo so they are not distorted and not taken from a 'selfie' angle. Include a photo from a front, side, and back angles of the area; use your camera app to circle the area you'd like tattooed. Please note if there are tattoos that you do not want covered up, business lines, etc. Feel free to censor the photos as you see fit.
11. Please send 4-6 picture examples of Em's designs from instagram @em_atropa or screenshot from above slideshow. Feel free to let Em know (no more than a few words) specifically what you like about those pieces. Do not send images labelled "tandem project" or "tandem Nathan Mould piece" etc, as these tattoos are designed by Nathan and tattooed in tandem by both of us simultaneously. If Nathan's work/the tandem projects interest you, please visit and review the TANDEM PROJECTS page.
Thank you for your interest in getting tattooed by me!
PLEASE NOTE: Deposits are non-refundable and are only applied to the original agreed upon project. All deposits are for the agreed upon project; changes may result in forfeiture of your deposit. Additionally, deposits will only be returned in extremely special situations. Please think before you commit.
If you need to reschedule your appointment, your deposit will continue to be applied to your rescheduled date, provided that you give 48 hours advance notice. If you are a no-show or cancel without 48 hours notice, you will need to put down another deposit to reschedule.
I make tattoos at the White Willow studio here in Pittsburgh, PA. Sometimes I work in tandem with Nathan Mould (which means we tattoo one client at the same time), and sometimes I work solo.
Currently, my tattoo booking priorities are from my Grá Mór Collection: place-based botanicals steeped in magical and medicinal lore, interwoven with brushwork, folk ornament, lace, embroidery. Select mockups of the Grá Mór designs are on Em's instagram @em_atropa, and currently available designs can be viewed via a private Google Drive link.
Tattoo can be a radical act of self-care, a deeply important personal undertaking, and a reclamation of sovereignty over our own bodies. I've been on my plant path studying herbalism for 14 years, and my work is heavily informed by medicinal & poisonous plants. Other influences include moth-eaten folk costume and handiworks. The Thorny Path. Folk ornament, customs and craft. Lore from the garden and woods.
Before tattoo, I worked as a carpenter, seamstress, bread baker. I was an Indymedia radio reporter, then an investigative journalist. I’ve built 30-foot snow globes, investigated Pennsylvania’s amusement parks, and stitched mascot costumes. I freelanced for years as a comics journalist. (Which means I reported stories in the form of comics, not reporting on the comics industry.) Although I no longer work as a journalist/bread baker/and so on, you can see some of my archived comics journalism stories here and my print/radio stories here. And I always wear earplugs at shows. Each of those twists and turns along my path continue to deeply inform my process/the work that I do as a tattooer.
If you're interested in booking tattoo work with me, please answer the following questions in your initial email to ematropatattoo@gmail.com. Please keep all answers/photos on the same email thread:
1. What is your preferred full name (first & last).
2. Are you local to Pittsburgh, PA? If, not, where would you be traveling from?
3. What are your pronouns?
4. What is your phone number? / Is texting and/or a phone call okay?
5. Have you had tattoo work done in the past? / Are you heavily tattooed?
6. Are you able to visit prior to a first appointment for a consultation with Em, if needed? Em typically does consultations before their tattoo appointments at 10am EST, either in-person or over-the-phone.
7. What is your preferred body placement and size of the tattoo?
8. Please describe in a few words your basic tattoo concept (please note Em's booking priorities, above); if you have a specific plant(s) in mind; or if there is an available design from Em's Grá Mór Collection that sings to you.
9. How often would you like to / be able to get tattooed? (For larger pieces)
10. Please send photos of the area(s) you would like to have tattooed. Please have a friend take the photo so they are not distorted and not taken from a 'selfie' angle. Include a photo from a front, side, and back angles of the area; use your camera app to circle the area you'd like tattooed. Please note if there are tattoos that you do not want covered up, business lines, etc. Feel free to censor the photos as you see fit.
11. Please send 4-6 picture examples of Em's designs from instagram @em_atropa or screenshot from above slideshow. Feel free to let Em know (no more than a few words) specifically what you like about those pieces. Do not send images labelled "tandem project" or "tandem Nathan Mould piece" etc, as these tattoos are designed by Nathan and tattooed in tandem by both of us simultaneously. If Nathan's work/the tandem projects interest you, please visit and review the TANDEM PROJECTS page.
Thank you for your interest in getting tattooed by me!
PLEASE NOTE: Deposits are non-refundable and are only applied to the original agreed upon project. All deposits are for the agreed upon project; changes may result in forfeiture of your deposit. Additionally, deposits will only be returned in extremely special situations. Please think before you commit.
If you need to reschedule your appointment, your deposit will continue to be applied to your rescheduled date, provided that you give 48 hours advance notice. If you are a no-show or cancel without 48 hours notice, you will need to put down another deposit to reschedule.