Grand Junction could soon become a national hub for people eager to be tattooed, largely a byproduct of one woman’s presence in the valley.
Ryan Ashley and her husband, Arlo DiCristina, own Elysium Studios, now located in what was once the First Church of Christ Scientist at 535 N. Seventh St.
After having tattooed people from across the globe, from Mexico to Spain to Australia, Ashley knows a thing or two when it comes to tattoos.
Ashley said that the art of tattooing is a passion that has spanned the entirety of her life thus far.
“My earliest memory was in my mom’s little blue car with my sister in a car seat next to me,” Ashley recalled. “I must have been 6 years old. I had this permanent marker and began drawing on my hand. My mom told me not to mark myself, telling me ‘don’t draw on yourself with that, that is called a permanent marker. That means it is not going to come off of you.’ ”
It was a moment that still resonates with her today.
“I remember processing that thought of forever and asking myself if I was ready to make that commitment to permanently mark my body forever and I remember thinking, yeah, I’m ready!” she said.
Initially getting her start in the New York world of fashion, Ashley eventually decided to switch her artistic medium, bringing the same vision, style and aesthetic she developed in the fashion industry to tattooing.
TV STARDOM
What would really put Ashley on the map was the eighth season of the tevision show “Ink Master,” on which she became the first woman to win the Paramount show.
Ashley said that she wasn’t very familiar with the show before she got on it, saying that she hadn’t ever watched the show and therefore had little idea as to what she was in for.
“I had no idea how important it was for me to win,” Ashley said. “I won in season eight. That means there were seven entire seasons before me of dudes winning. So going into it, I never thought I was going to win. So when I won, I was sort of in shock. When I won, I just thought that it was the craziest, coolest thing to ever happen to me. I could have never predicted that.”
After her win, Ashley soon became a familiar face on “Ink Master.” Paramount Network approached her for a spinoff show called “Ink Master Angels” as well as another show, “Ink Master: Grudge Match.
“I’ve been a part of the “Ink Master” family intensely for six years, and it was such an unexpected life that came from that one night, that one decision, when I won,” Ashley said.
Ashley believes that her season eight win was “meant to be.” She was contacted to be a part of season six and then season seven, but had to decline both times because of other obligations. The show’s producers called her a third time and that turned out to be the charm, and she would go on to win.
“I think that one thing “Ink Master” did for our society was that it removed the veil,” Ashley said. “People got an education about the world of tattoos. So many different types of people now have an interest in tattooing. It showed the world that tattoos are an artform, not mere body modification.”
TATTOO TV JUDGE
After her win, Ashley went on to become a judge on the show. But critiquing tattoos, she said, can sometimes be as difficult as creating them.
“You have to judge each tattoo without expectations and without favoritism. You have to judge it based on technical fundamentals. What constitutes a good tattoo and why? And a lot of the time the tattoo you personally prefer over the others isn’t the tattoo that was done the best, and that’s where it gets hard,” Ashley said.
She said that she tries to make sure that her opinion is based on “truth and all the knowledge that I’ve collected during my time in the tattoo industry.”
Arlo DiCristina, her husband, had been running his tattoo studio, Elysium Studios, in Grand Junction before they met. Ashley was living in New York City filming “Ink Master” with Paramount. The two would later meet in Las Vegas during a tattoo convention.
After their relationship started, the two were debating on whether DiCristina would leave Grand Junction and move to New York City with Ashley, or if Ashley would move from the mega metropolis to Grand Junction.
“We ultimately decided on Grand Junction because this place is honestly awesome,” Ashley said. “It’s a really cool place to live. We’re really happy to be here.”
The two have been spending much of their time lately restoring the Elysium Studios’ new location at the old church.
Her husband, she said, took time off from tattooing while he worked on the church’s restoration.
“We’ve put a lot of work into the studio because we want it to be prestigious, but not in a snobby, prestigious way,” Ashley said.
“We really care about what we do and we want our tattoos to raise the bar. We want tattoos to be seen as a fine art, not low-brow, underground body modification. It is fine art. We want to raise the bar and represent our industry.”
With 11 artists working at Elysium Studios as of now, all of whom are in the valley from different points in the nation, Ashley described the caliber of art coming out of the studio as “insane.”
“Our artists are among some of the best in the nation,” Ashley said. “Our tattoo artists and others around the globe are producing some of the best art of the generation, it’s happening now, and it’s happening on skin.”
Ashley hopes that the traditional perspective surrounding tattooing will continue to shift and that tattooing will be seen as an art form.
“The people giving tattoos aren’t outlaws, they’re artists. They go to art school. This was once reserved for bikers and criminals because tattoos were illegal, so naturally people were afraid to get them. People are afraid of the unknown, so when something is planted in their mind as illegal, it scares them,” Ashley said.
“We’re trying to show people we’re all different. I hope people start seeing it as an avenue to be connected and come together, not just a means of marking yourself. It’s time to change the stigma.”
