Meet Benét Comeau. She’s an intentional tattoo artist, a wife, and a mother who is well rounded with culture in how she grew up, always following her own intuition towards the direction she believed in. She has a gift of adorning art on people’s bodies and is really knowledgeable about Astrology. Take a read below and enjoy this beautiful human’s story. “I grew up in Florence, Italy, for the first 13 years of my life, after which I relocated to Santa Fe, New Mexico, for my high school years. Both my parents are artists and I grew up in their art studio watching them constantly create, and I have been drawing and making art for as long as I can remember. Both Florence and Santa Fe are the epitome of venusian
artistic cities, and I absolutely believe that had an enormous influence on me in the way I live my life in a constant state of creativity. My parents always gave me a lot of freedom and independence which I also think allowed me the freedom to explore my true self, and eventually the confidence to begin embodying it. They themselves are very unique and eccentric, both Aquarius sun and stelliums if that tells you anything, and I definitely think it helped model a type of self-confidence that paved the path to not needing any outside validation in my unique and authentic self expression”.
As far as she can remember she has always been deeply drawn to tattoos. Benét says that, “Despite being a very traditional and Catholic city, Florence always had an underground scene of Punk rockers in the early 90s, and I was absolutely fascinated by their style, their culture, their ability to remain
themselves against the extremely religious mainstream, and most of them had tattoos, which was such a beautiful and unique form of art in my eyes, even as a small child. I have been drawn to this craft as far back as my memory can touch”.
Although, both Benét’s family and her private, prestigious prep high school later tried to convince her it wasn’t a realistic career and could only be a “hobby”. Nobody took her seriously, but luckily she never particularly been one to allow outside voices to dictate her fate. She tried to do the normal
college thing a couple of times, moved across continents and cities to do so, until she finally ended up dropping out and realizing nothing else was worth pursuing, but the dream closest to her heart.
If you look back to the history of tattooing, humans have been using tattoos as initiations and rituals since the dawn of time, and to her, it only makes sense to hold them in such high regard.
“Every time we receive a tattoo, we are initiated into a new body in a sense, and whether it’s something we find extremely meaningful or a flash we choose off a wall or off of Pinterest, we are consciously or subconsciously choosing a symbol that represents something about our human experience in that moment, and choosing to mark it permanently”.
It is of utmost importance to me to not become burnt out, because both my home life and my work require me to be in a fulfilled and healthy state of spirit to operate to my best capacity. My family needs me at home as the mother to be as least stressed out as possible and set the emotional tone of the household, and to have my full attentiveness so that they know they always have my whole heart.
For my clients, I need to not be burnt out so that I can make art to the best of my capacity and really tap into the creative magic and manifest art that is as intentional and authentic as it can be. It’s harder to run out of energy for myself and others when my life feels more like a dream than a capitalist obligation, and I am so grateful every single day that I get to live like this.
Another enormous aspect has been having strong boundaries; being 100% honest with myself and others when I do not have the energy for something. Having strong boundaries has brought so much joy, energy, and authenticity into my life!
“In a culture and society that has been brainwashed to pursue instant gratification and follow the masses, I do my best to remind my clients of how sacred every moment and decision can be in our life, especially one as big as a tattoo. Any and every moment can be ritual, when we give it our full heart and intention”.
How do you lean into creating and tattooing each individual’s unique journey on their body?
Astrology really is so unbelievably deep and complex, I’ve been studying it for around a decade and still feel like I barely have dipped a toe into its infinite oceans. It is such an important belief of mine, and so strongly related to how I understand the world around me, that it only made sense to come up with a way to incorporate it into my art. Doing tattoos based off of people’s astrology charts was a huge leap of faith for me, as I had never “professionally” done chart readings for anyone before offering this service, and it can be really intimidating to create a custom piece of art based entirely off what I channel through a reading of someone’s chart. This has brought me closer to astrology and my intuition than any aspect of my art before, and the synchronicities within the symbols that come through for the art and the clients’ lives and journeys continues to completely astonish me, and make me feel even more connected to both astrology and my own spiritualjourney.
How do you fully embrace your Feminine Divine power within yourself? What does
that look like for you when you choose to totally embody it?
I think that tapping into and embodying the divine feminine is something that is made quite difficult by this society that worships and is dominated by the masculine, but it’s something that every single one of us can and should do. There always needs to be a balance between the feminine and masculine, but it’s hard to slow down and tap into the feminine in a culture that is always concerned with more masculine energy compulsions like action, logic/rational thinking, responsibility and assertiveness.
Learning how to slow down, tap into my inner voice and wisdom, fully feel my deepest feelings without attaching logical thoughts to them and really trying to be vulnerable with myself and those closest to me have been the most important practices for me, and have definitely had enormous payoffs in my journey. I think the most important thing I ever did in my life in relation to embodying the divine feminine, was having a natural birth at home with my daughter, Aya; it required me to fully trust myself, my intuition, my body and my soul and ignore the outside voice of mainstream society that wanted me to give into the blind worship of science and birth in the hospital like what is the norm. Birthing at home and on my own terms fully showed me the entire full spectrum of my human experience as a woman, both physically, emotionally and spiritually, and forced me to really take accountability for every part of it. My life has changed completely since doing that and I have accomplished things that I never thought I would have in my whole life, and I really owe my confidence in going after these enormous dreams to that home birth.
You recently just opened up your own private studio space, KaliMama’s Intentional Tattoos and manifested a dream! Did it totally blow your mind when it arrived?
Because I see tattooing as such a sacred and intentional craft, I’ve known for a few years that I needed my own space to really practice it how I want to and fully tap into my highest creativity. Tattooing has been capitalized off of like everything else, and deep down I knew that I couldn’t fully come into my truest most authentic artistry without my own space. I had to work through a lot of self doubt and fear to finally take the enormous leap of faith and open my own private studio, but it has been entirely transformational and also one of the best decisions I ever made. It felt a lot like birthing in a sense actually, as I had to trust myself and the universe fully and remember that big risk comes with big reward, every time that we are authentically following and embodying our hearts’ desire. We have to
meet big fear with bigger love, and sometimes it can be hard to do, especially when it matters most, but I fully believe with every fiber of my being that in this energetic universe, it always pays off.
What does intentional and ritual tattooing mean to you?
I think the most important aspect of an intentional tattoo is that it is truly honored as a permanent and transformational marking. The ritual aspect generally involves using spiritual or magickal correspondences to enhance a tattoo’s intention; for example, the tattoo can be done during a specific moon phase, astrological transit, or planetary hour. I also burn certain incense or herbs that align with the tattoo’s theme and meaning, and decorate my altar accordingly as well. If clients have certain requests for the session, I am always happy to incorporate that too. I just bought a course from an Italian school of magick that goes over all the various meanings of body placements in ancient tattooing as well, and look forward to studying and incorporating that to further my knowledge and practice.
Benet, in your own words, how do you awaken deeper into trusting this crazy life?
I think that for me the most important and most challenging lesson in life is to trust that there is always a bigger plan and that everything is happening for a reason, even when it is very difficult to feel like it is for the best. It is in our nature to seek control and essentially hallucinate an illusion of it, but the reality is that we don’t have it all the time, if ever. To really keep an open and trusting heart and fully surrender to the mystery of life is what it’s all about, at least to me. “The abyss is a feather bed”- that quote is perpetually playing in my mind and spirit. There will always be light and there will always be darkness, never all one or the other, and the constant state of flux is simply the nature of reality;
all I can do is trust in the magnificent, infinite grand design of which I can only glimpse at a fraction at a time. This is the biggest lesson that both life experience and psychedelics have taught me. When I remember that everything is in divine order somehow is when I am the happiest and best version of myself.
How have you created a life you love, on your own terms by following your own dreams?
I can truly say that every aspect of my life is created on my own terms and in tune with my dreams. Living authentically and following my inner voice, desires and intuition as often as I possibly can has brought me everything I ever wanted in life and more. I am not saying every moment is perfect by any means, but I am so blessed and blissed out with my existence that some days I can’t even believe it. Never giving up on the things that light my soul on fire and never shrinking myself down to fit into anyone’s ideological boxes of me, has paid off in every way imaginable and I am deeply grateful for this
bizarre existence.
