ABOUT US

One of Canada's FIRST female Tattoo Artists!

Kintsugi is the ancient Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold, making it even stronger and more Beautiful than it was before it was broken. Thus, highlighting the sacred purpose of ‘Imperfection’. At Kintsugi Tattoo, we apply this philosophy to Healing, Transformation, and Restorative Arts for the body and soul. Creating for even more space with other souls on their journey through their divine ‘becoming’.

Kintsugi Tattoo is not just a studio — it is a sanctuary. A place where broken becomes beautiful, and every scar becomes a story worth telling.

Welcome to Kintsugi Tattoo

Falling in love with the ancient art of tattoo after receiving a ‘scratcher’ basement tattoo at age 14 in 1989, Stacie-Rae has had an incredible journey as a breast cancer previvor and a leader in the restorative tattoo field.

Plus, she’s also received her very own healing mastectomy tattoo (Thanks Samantha Rae!)

Art school in 1994, then a professional apprenticeship, she is one of Canada’s first professionally trained and art school educated female tattooers, tattooing since 1996.

Driven to evolve the field of paramedical artistry, her innovations have led to patents filed in 65 countries, writing multiple books on the topic and publishing two magazines, leading numerous convention seminars, speaking publicly at breast cancer events, on TV, radio, newspapers, magazine features, podcasts, even featured as one of InStyle Magazines top 50 BadAss women!!!

Recognized Across Canada & Beyond

That Was just a Small Portion of 28 years of Articles and Interviews

Almost 3 decades of speaking for the ancient and sacred art of tattooing, so much now lost to the print-internet changeovers and archives! Missing interviews from InStyle, Global, Pulse 1 in the UK and more!
As one of Canada’s First Female Tattoo Artists, Stacie-Rae is used to paving the way.Her very first interview was the cover story of her hometown newspaper in 1997, talking about raising standards in the tattoo arts, and she hasn’t stopped! (even before the internet was commonly used)
Here are some more of her accomplishments:

credit: @samrtattoo – Samantha Rae

OUR HEALING SESSIONS

Every session at Kintsugi Tattoo begins with intention. We create a calm, sacred space — incorporating grounding techniques to help you feel safe, seen, and ready to transform.

Tattooing can be a deeply emotional and healing experience. Our sessions are designed to honor that — giving your body and spirit the time and space to release, breathe, and begin again.

Sessions typically run 1–5 hours, depending on your piece. Larger works may be completed across multiple visits, allowing your body to slowly integrate each layer of your new story — your visionary art, for your new life.

Accomplishments:

2012

NIPPLEBACKS™
Temporary Areola Tattoos – 3D nipples that survivors can wear for a week. For artists, we created ‘flash’ design sheets with stencils that match all of our clients favorite styles!

2013

the A.R.T.™ Book
After 5 years of tattooing areolas & almost 20yrs of tattooing scar tissue, we decided the best way to inspire tattoo artists worldwide was to create a book that starts a riveting conversation about areola tattoo shortcomings and solutions – with realistic artwork.
*Since then, we’ve sold out 9 editions of the first book, published 2 magazines and wrote ‘healing tattoos’ to help artists understand trauma triggers, body dysmorphia and emotional healing.

2014

Areola Training Revolution
Tattooists were so ready to finally bring the artistic element to the forefront and our training program has since shaped the entire field. We put A.R.T. first, added a focus on tattooing compromised tissue, all with the underlying message for mental health.

2018

medARTpro Skins
So many of our clients did not know how to tattoo scar tissue, which is very difficult to teach and imperative for areola tattooing. So we designed the worlds FIRST and ONLY scarred tattoo practice skins, a complete gamechanger for artists and survivors alike!

2019

ARTSCHOOL.ink
After winning the “Areola Artist of the Year” title at PMU WOC in Atlanta, we were approached with the opportunity to create an online course for areola tattooing, blowing the doors wide open to help even MORE artists do amazing work, around the world!

2020

TatSoul Areola Cartridge Sets
When TatSoul caught wind of our scarred practice sheets, they invited us to create a signature series of needle cartridge sets just for Medical Tattooing. We created 2 boxes to help tattooists create natural-looking and painterly results for deserving survivors!

2022

EverAfter Areola Pigments
Our final heart-centered creation has been to create a hyper-advanced areola pigment set with Ever After – pigments that match NIPPLEBACKS with color blends that can be tried on survivors, pre-diluted color sets for light, medium and dark skinned clients.

Since 2014

Global Community
The bravest thing we did was try to bring together heart-centered tattoo artists around the world on our database, making it easy for survivors to find artists they can trust. This inspired SO MUCH competition within our circle of peers that it led to even more evolution across the board! *No more standard pink circles!

Products

The A.R.T. Shop

A scarred body can change your clients view themselves. We’re here to help artists provide a high quality of client care. When we can change the way someone sees themselves, we can change the way they see their whole world!

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Training

CALGARY TATTOO EXPO ATTENDEES!

Bring the sacred into your studio and serve your community with areola restoration, scar revision and scar coverups – firmly rooted in trauma-informed care, taught by someone who has had a mastectomy and healing tattoos.