Ceremonial Tattoos by Shiva Honey
A spell etched in skin. A rite sealed in ink
Now Booking 2026 Ceremonies
Now booking ceremonies for Fall 2026 + beyond Apply here.
Tattooing is an ancient ritual.
Before it was art, it was invocation. Before it was fashion, it was medicine.
This Is Not Just A Tattoo. This A Rite of Passage.
“I felt held, supported, and deeply transformed”
Ceremonial tattooing is the sacred art of transforming skin into spellwork. These markings are living sigils, blood-born spells, and embodied invocations. Every design, every needle, every breath is part of a ritual woven with precision, presence, and care.
As a priestess, I’ve guided thousands through grief rites, empowerment rituals, and spellwork across books, retreats, and education. I’ve created bestselling decks, sacred tools, and music used in altars around the world. Ceremonial tattooing is an extension of this work - a way to weave the work into skin and to etch spells into flesh - rites that heal, anchor power, and call in transformation.
My tattoos carry the primal character of old carvings and ancestral marks. Talismans alive with spirit. Raw, powerful, and rooted in ritual. Each line evolves with the ceremony, becoming a collaboration between body, spirit, and ink.
Clients travel to Metro Detroit from around the world to receive this work. For those coming from out of town, I provide a personal guide to accommodations, restaurants, and places to experience during your stay.
This work is for you if:
You feel called to mark a change in your life through ritual and the body.
You want a tattoo that functions as a sigil, spell, vow, offering, protection, or invocation.
You are ready to consecrate something you are becoming, reclaiming, releasing, or devoting yourself to.
You are drawn to ritual, symbolism, witchcraft, embodiment, and devotional practice.
You want to work with a priestess and ritualist, not only a tattoo artist.
You feel specifically called to receive this work from me.
The Ceremonial Process:
1. Apply
Tell me what you are being called to mark, honor, release, or become. I personally review each application to determine whether the work and timing are aligned.
2. Prepare
Once your ceremony is reserved, the work begins. Depending on the path, preparation may include consultation, symbolic development, ritual planning, and a ritual care package mailed to you before we meet.
3. Receive
I generally reserve the day for one client. We move through tea, grounding, ritual, tattooing, and the practices created specifically for your ceremony without rushing the experience.
4. Integrate
You leave with ritual tools and guidance to continue working with your mark after the tattoo itself has healed.
Paths of Initiation
I currently offer several paths to receive ceremonial tattoos. I accept a very limited number of ceremonial tattoo clients each year so I can give each person substantial time, preparation, and attention. Each ceremony includes pre- and post-ceremony ritual guidance and products, as well as a multi-hour tattoo ceremony.
Devotional Ceremonies
Ceremonial tattoo sessions featuring pre-designed sigils from my Devotional Library.
Devotionals are immersive ceremonial tattoo experiences designed as initiatory rites, not casual appointments.
Each session centers around a pre-designed sigil from my Devotional Library, a living archive of symbols crafted to hold specific energetic currents. New sigils are released seasonally, and each is designed to function as a permanent talisman, anchoring intention, power, and devotion directly into the body.
This is a multi-hour ceremonial container. We move slowly and deliberately.
The rite begins with a cleansing and preparation ritual, including a curated ritual care package mailed to you. You are welcomed on the day of the appointment for a tattoo ceremony where we discuss you intentions, ground the nervous system, and open the energetic field. We clarify the magic, align the sigil, and prepare the body to receive the mark.
As the tattoo is placed, you’ll be guided through breathwork, guidd meditation, sound, scent, and energy clearing, allowing the tattooing process itself to become an act of devotion. We continue to a formal in depth ritual to activate and seal the mark.
We close with integration so the work continues beyond the studio.
You’ll leave with a post-ceremony gift set (a handmande ritual candle, anointing oil, and incense aligned to your goals) to support ongoing integration and relationship with your mark.
Each session includes
A Devotional sigil tattoo
A pre-session cleansing ritual with products mailed to you
Tea ceremony
In depth ritual work
Post-ceremony gift set with handmade candle, incense, and oil
Post-ceremony integration guidance
Details:
Multi-hour ceremony
Placements on arms, legs, back only
Only 2 available per month
Investment: $1111
Custom Tattoo Ceremonies
A deeply personal sigil and ceremony for those marking a life change, transition, or invocation.
Inside A Custom Tattoo Ceremony
These markings are designed from the ground up, incorporating your story, your symbols, and your spiritual language. We begin with a pre-ritual consultation to explore what you’re calling in (or letting go of), the solidify design, and craft the accompanying ritual and product.
Every element is chosen to deepen your experience and anchor the intention into your skin. I accept a limited number of tattoo ceremonies each year to ensure each client receives my full attention. Priority is given to returning clients and those called to full ritual immersion.
Each session includes
A pre-session consultation to create the sigil, ceremony, and ritual product(s) based around your needs
A customized sigil tattoo
Ritual designed for your needs and goals
Sigil tattoo print for you to take home
Custom ritual products for you to take home
Starting at $1,555
Grief & Remembrance Ceremonial Tattoos
These sessions are held for those navigating grief, honoring the dead, or marking a profound life passage.
As a death doula, grief worker, and tattoo artist, I hold this work with both ritual precision and emotional discernment—creating a space where grief can be witnessed without being rushed, fixed, or reframed.
A Grief & Remembrance tattoo is about about honoring what remains and creating a permanent marker for love, memory, continuity, and connection. Sessions are intentionally slower and more spacious, allowing grief to be present as it is. The ceremony is designed to support containment, grounding, and integration rather than activation or amplification. You may choose a sigil from the Devotional Library, or we may create a custom design together that reflects your loss, lineage, or remembrance.These ceremonies are quiet, intentional, and deeply held.
Each Session Includes:
Pre-session consultation
Pre-session cleansing ritual with materials mailed to you in advance
Tea ceremony to ground the body and nervous system
In-depth ritual work held during the tattooing process
Ritual tattoo
Post-ceremony integration guidance
A handmade ritual gift set for continued remembrance and integration (candle, incense, and anointing oil)
Investment: $1,111 (custom designs start at $1,555)
The Unbaptism Ceremony
For those done carrying what was never theirs. This ceremony cuts those cords, releasing religious wounds and inherited shame and returns you completely to yourself.
In 2019, I created the most prolific Unbaptism ritual in the world. In 2020 it was published in my book The Devil’s Tome, and has since supported thousands in freeing themselves from religious bondage. Now, I offer 1:1 ceremonial sessions to guide this rite on a deeper level, marking the moment with a symbol of sovereignty and liberation.
This is a multi-phase rite. beginning before you arrive, and continuing long after you leave.
Each Unbaptism Ceremony Includes:
Pre-session consultation
A mailed preparation + cleansing ritual to begin the work before you arrive
Tea ceremony to ground the body and nervous system
1:1 Unbaptism ritual during the session
Your ceremonial tattoo
Post-ceremony integration guidance
A handmade ritual gift set for continued remembrance and integration (candle, incense, and anointing oil)
Investment: $1,333 (custom designed sigils start at $1,777)
A shared ritual experience for chosen family, creative collaborators, lovers, or kin
This path is for those who want to anchor something together — a bond, a vow, a vision, a threshold crossed in sacred community. Sessions are held in private, with time and space to prepare, receive, and reconnect after. The ritual can be customized to honor your group’s lineage, values, or shared initiation.
Each session includes:
One unified sigil or a set of coordinated designs
A shared altar created with the group’s intention
Group invocation or guided ritual
Custom ritual product for each person
A collective sealing and integration practice
This offering is rare, intimate, and highly customized. Inquire if you’re called to cross the threshold together.
Investment begins at $1,111 per person.
Coven Tattoo Ceremonies
Remote Offerings:
Tattoo Blessings
Can’t make it to my studio? Obtain permission to have one of my sigils tattooed on you by another artist
Each of my sigils is called forward through ceremony. Each carries its own current of meaning, transformation, and devotion. To wear one is to enter into relationship with what it holds.
This Blessing grants permission to have one of my original sigils tattooed by the artist of your choosing. Available to both collectors and tattoo artists, each Blessing serves as a formal transmission of the work and the right to carry it forward.
After your purchase, a signed Blessing Card will be mailed to you bearing your name and my signature as a physical transmission of that permission.
Each Blessing permits a single tattoo application. Additional placements require an additional Blessing. This offering grants personal tattoo rights only — reproduction, resale, or commercial use is not permitted.
Client Experience
My ceremonial tattoo experience went above and beyond my expectations. Each element of the process was carefully curated down to the details, and I felt taken care of and considered the entire time. The intentions of the ceremony were interwoven with each step, and I felt totally immersed in what we were creating together.
Shiva goes the extra mile to make everything comfortable and sacred. This experience was somewhere between a luxury spa, a sacred ritual, and an artistic expression. I couldn't be more pleased, and I have never felt more confident in any spell work I've ever done or purchased.
This is now one of my cherished memories for life, and I couldn't be more grateful. Plus, my tattoo looks great! Everything was done to the highest standard, including best practices for health, safety, and consent in the tattooing process.
This is a unique service informed by spiritual practices from far corners, and we are so lucky to have such an informed witchcraft practitioner in Michigan creating a best-in-class experience. I would not be surprised if this experience soon garners international recognition and have a feeling that this service will be booked out for years to come. If you are considering this purchase, I couldn't recommend it more.
- Lauren
About Shiva Honey
Shiva Honey is a priestess, ceremonial tattoo artist, author, and death doula whose work centers ritual, embodiment, and transformation. She is the creator of multiple bestselling books and ritual decks used in ceremonial practice worldwide, and has guided thousands through rites of grief, devotion, empowerment, and threshold across her teaching, retreats, and written work.
Her approach bridges ancient ritual practice with contemporary understanding of the body and nervous system, emphasizing consent, containment, and reverence. Ceremonial tattooing is an extension of this lineage—bringing spellwork from page, altar, and voice into skin.
Shiva’s work is known for its depth, integrity, and precision, holding ritual as a living practice rather than performance. Each tattoo is approached as a devotional act and permanent rite, created with care for both the body and the threshold being marked.
FAQs
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The tattoo itself is only one part of the experience. Ceremonial tattoos are created as rites of passage, with preparation beginning before we meet and integration continuing afterward. Depending on the path you choose, your ceremony may include consultation, symbolic development, ritual products, meditation, breathwork, cleansing, invocation, and other practices created to support the intention of the work. I generally reserve the day for one client so the experience can unfold without being rushed and rent an entire studio for our time together to maintain privacy and a sacred environment.
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I am currently tattooing at a licensed private tattoo studio in Metro Detroit. Residencies outside this area will be announced via website and newsletter.
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I take a very limited number of tattoo clients each month and generally reserve an entire day for one person. Every ceremony requires weeks of preparation, while custom work may involve months of development before your tattoo, including consultation, symbolic development, ritual planning, and design.
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I recommend applying several months before you hope to receive your tattoo, particularly for custom work. Every ceremony requires advance preparation, and bespoke designs may develop over the course of several months. I accept a very limited number of clients and do not tattoo year-round, so advance planning is encouraged.
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I offer very few sessions per month. All appointments are secured via application — this ensures that each session is an aligned energetic match. You can apply here.
Bespoke sigil ceremonies are reserved for deeper initiatory work. These are co-created in devotion to your ritual intent. They are accepted on a rolling basis. Apply if you are interested.
Coven ceremonies (group tattoo ceremonies) are offered seasonally and accepted on a rolling basis. Apply if you are interested.
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Yes! A non-refundable deposit is required to book, but the remainder of payments can be broken into a payment plan. All final payments are due a minimum of 2 weeks before the session.
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Yes! Tattoo recidencies will be announced via website and newsletter. Please contact me if you’re interested in me tattooing in your area.
At the moment I have no travel plans, but many of my clients come from out of state. If you choose this, I can recommend accommodations and activities.
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Yes! Around half of my clients come from out of state. If you choose this, I can recommend accommodations and activities.
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To preserve the ritual space, sessions are one-on-one. If you have accessibility or support needs, feel free to reach out.