Transformative Marks Podcast

70 Episodes

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How An Indigenous Bodysuit Becomes A Healing Practice with Ecko Aleck

2026-05-2501:10:03

063 A year after the last needle pass, what’s left is not just ink, it’s a new way of living inside your own skin. I’m back with Ecko Aleck, who returns to reflect on what it’s actually been like to live with a full bodysuit long after the swelling fades, including the moment the markings helped make it impossible to keep hiding and led her to come out publicly as Two-Spirit. We talk about the hard, honest mechanics of transformation during ancestral skin marking and cultural tattooing: hitt...

Gatekeeping With A Soft Heart with Jessica Coffey

2026-04-2101:03:01

062 A lot of people want ancestral tattoos but feel stuck on one brutal question: “Am I enough to wear them?” I sit down with Inuit hand poke tattoo artist Jessica Coffey to talk about the real, complicated middle ground between pride and doubt, revival and responsibility, beauty and protocol. What unfolds is a candid look at Indigenous tattooing as living community work, not a perfect script you memorize before you’re allowed to belong. Jessica shares how she found hand poke tattooing when ...

Chin Markings Became A Promise To Stay Sober with Gillian Prince

2026-04-0601:17:24

061 A chin marking can be more than a design. Sometimes it becomes a vow you carry every time you look in the mirror. We sit down with Anishinaabe hand poke tattoo artist Gillian Prince (Waubanungohnse) to talk about Indigenous tattooing, ancestral skin marking, and how a practice becomes a way of living. Gillian shares how tattooing entered their life young in a rough time, learning safety and technique, then turning toward cultural responsibility through traditional tattoo gatherings...

The Red Road: How Traditional Tattoos Guide One Artist's Sobriety Journey with Nick Wawia

2025-04-0101:15:58

#060 The journey from addiction to wholeness often requires powerful medicine. For Nicholas Wawia, that medicine came in the form of ancestral skin marking – specifically, the forward-facing red lines across his face that remind him daily to "keep my sights forward" on the red road of sobriety. In this raw, heartfelt conversation with host Dion Kaszas, Nicholas shares how traditional tattooing practices became central to his recovery and identity reclamation. "I need something a little more ...

From Frontlines to Skin Lines: Finding Balance Through Indigenous Tattooing with Anne Spice

2025-03-1101:25:28

#059 Anne Spice's journey into ancestral tattooing reveals a profound path toward healing that extends far beyond artistic expression. Beginning as casual practice at a land occupation, her work evolved when she returned to her Whitehorse community with a crucial shift in perspective—approaching people with service rather than extraction. "I went in thinking about how I could be of service," Anne explains, "and it was a game changer." This conversation uncovers how Indigenous tattooing funct...

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