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
Hi, I’m Em. Nice to see you here. If we were in-person together, I’d offer you a mug of herbal tea.
I make tattoos at the White Willow studio here in Pittsburgh. 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 my brushwork pieces and designs from my Witch's Garden collection: botanicals steeped in magical lore, interwoven with brushwork, lace, and ornament. You can see my tattoo work on instagram @em_atropa.
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 13 years, and my work is heavily informed by medicinal & poisonous plants. Other influences include mossy ornament. Moth-eaten folk costume. Folk 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. Each of those stops and twists and turns along my path 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:
1. What is your preferred full name (first & last) and are you local to Pittsburgh, PA? If, not, where would you be traveling from?
2. What are your pronouns?
3. Have you had tattoo work done in the past? / Are you heavily tattooed?
4. Are you able to visit prior to a first appointment for a consultation with Em if needed?
5. What is your basic tattoo concept?
6. What is your preferred body placement of the tattoo?
7. What is your preferred size of the tattoo?
8. How often would you like to / be able to get tattooed? (For larger pieces.)
9. What is your phone number? / Is texting and/or a phone call okay?
10. Will you send over photos of the area(s) you would like to have tattooed? Please have a friend take the photo so they are not distorted or taken at weird angles. Before sending the photo, 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. These images will help Em decide approximate time the project will take to complete, size/skin texture/etc. Ultimately Em will not be able to give you a definitive amount of time the project will take, as there are many variables, but they can provide an estimate.
11. Please send 4-6 picture examples of Em's designs from instagram @em_atropa (or from the slides, above). Please 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. 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 my brushwork pieces and designs from my Witch's Garden collection: botanicals steeped in magical lore, interwoven with brushwork, lace, and ornament. You can see my tattoo work on instagram @em_atropa.
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 13 years, and my work is heavily informed by medicinal & poisonous plants. Other influences include mossy ornament. Moth-eaten folk costume. Folk 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. Each of those stops and twists and turns along my path 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:
1. What is your preferred full name (first & last) and are you local to Pittsburgh, PA? If, not, where would you be traveling from?
2. What are your pronouns?
3. Have you had tattoo work done in the past? / Are you heavily tattooed?
4. Are you able to visit prior to a first appointment for a consultation with Em if needed?
5. What is your basic tattoo concept?
6. What is your preferred body placement of the tattoo?
7. What is your preferred size of the tattoo?
8. How often would you like to / be able to get tattooed? (For larger pieces.)
9. What is your phone number? / Is texting and/or a phone call okay?
10. Will you send over photos of the area(s) you would like to have tattooed? Please have a friend take the photo so they are not distorted or taken at weird angles. Before sending the photo, 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. These images will help Em decide approximate time the project will take to complete, size/skin texture/etc. Ultimately Em will not be able to give you a definitive amount of time the project will take, as there are many variables, but they can provide an estimate.
11. Please send 4-6 picture examples of Em's designs from instagram @em_atropa (or from the slides, above). Please 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.