INDIANAPOLIS — When Stephanie Big Eagle was first learning the basics of handpoke tattoo from an artist in Los Angeles, she got a request. Thousands of protestors gathered at the Standing Rock Reservation, to protest an oil pipeline that could endanger water sources surrounding the reservation.
Organizers wondered if Big Eagle, herself a descendant of the Oceti Sakowin tribe, or the Great Sioux Nation tribe, could craft a design for a fundraiser.
Big Eagle created one of a sacred being, the thunderbird, whose arrival in the form of lightning strikes every spring marked a new year for the Oceti Sakowin, and who gave life to the waters people at Standing Rock worked to protect.
That tattoo, showing a thunderbird with wings spread wide over waters below, became a defining symbol of The Standing Rock movement. It has gone on the bodies of people from across the world.
That sacred being, the thunderbird, is also an inspiration behind Big Eagle's Fountain Square tattoo studio, Thunderbird Rising Studios.
At the studio on Laurel and Prospect, Big Eagle crafts designs filled with intention for an ever expanding clientele, who travel from across the country to get her creations.
WTHR.com caught up with Big Eagle for a candid conversation about what it's like reawakening the ancestral practice of handpoke tattoo, the global family she's been able to nurture through her tattoo work, and how she hopes the Fountain Square studio can become a hub of native artistry in Indiana.
WTHR 13News: This is obviously a really beautiful space. Do you want to talk about how you got started, and how you got to get to this place in your life?
Stephanie Big Eagle: When I really started reconnecting with my roots - because I didn't grow up knowing about my culture and where I was from.
And when that really became prevalent for me in my 20s, I really started learning about our traditional tattoo customs and wanting to be a part of it.
Not in terms of being a tattoo artist, but in terms of myself wanting to carry our tattoos on myself.
When I really started looking into it, and I found evidence that my tribe, which is Lakota and Dakota, had tattoos, especially the women had facial markings, I decided to connect with some of my friends from over in New Zealand, the Maori people.
I traveled over there and I received my markings. And my markings aren't the traditional designs, but traditional placements. So they're much more elaborate and modern than would have been back in the day.
But making that choice in my life, and having the courage to do what my heart guided me to do, opened up this whole new path for me.
Never did I say, "I want to be a tattoo artist." It found me. And because of my having the courage to follow my heart in the guidance of wanting to honor my tribe's tradition of a custom that nearly died out.
WTHR 13News: You're also giving people these markings and instructions that they might not get otherwise. What is it like for your native clients to come into this space and really reconnect? And what does it feel like to be the person to be able to do that?
Big Eagle: It's an honor, but I also see it as a huge responsibility.
And I've learned over time how to carry that responsibility, how to protect myself, and how to protect my clients because the way that we see it is, that this is a ceremony.
This is a sacred tradition.
So back in the old ways, it would have been a position as a tattoo artist ... was held by somebody in the tribe that that was trained for a long time in those ways, and in working with the energy fields of the body. And in what the designs would do for somebody.
A relative would have come to that person that held that tradition, the tattoo tradition, and say they were having a problem, maybe conceiving a child.
There would be a mark that would be placed on that woman to help her conceive.
Also there's many native tribes that have the belief that our tattoos are like a passport into the afterlife. And so these were a very sacred way of life, and very sacred markings, that offer protection that activated parts of our body that might have been blocked.
That allowed our relatives when we travel into the spirit world to find us.
It's something to me that is so dear to my heart, and to many of my clients who are native that come because this is something that has almost been taken or lost from all of us.
And to be able to connect with a part of our culture that was so sacred, and that so many of our ancestors wore these designs before the recent times that we're in.
So it's about taking back something that was so powerful and so connected. Because the way that we see it is that, our tattoos connect us on a spiritual and physical plane.
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So it's so much more than just wearing something on the skin. It's more than skin deep - and it's ancestral too.
We say that our ancestors recognize us from the spirit world, when we mark our bodies with that intention, prayer and ceremony.
WTHR 13News: Do you tattoo designs that you create, or do clients sometimes create them? Is it a collaboration?
Big Eagle: The majority of the designs I create. And so, I just ask for people if I'm creating it, I just ask them, "What would you like the design to honor?" Or, "Are you looking for protection or are you looking to connect more with your ancestors?"
Or if it's nothing like that, it's like, "OK, well, what are your interests? What can I create for you, based on a little bit of information about you? What do you do? What do you like? What do you enjoy? What you what are you passionate about?" And then I can create something based on that.
I also like to pull from ancestral lines. So if someone can share some of their ancestry with me, then I will pull from that to create a design for them.
I also like to work with, you know, there's there's traditional symbols like the Unalome symbol, which many people are familiar with, which represents the path to enlightenment. And it's kind of a swirly design and it's messy. Our path to having knowledge and wisdom...is it's a lot of mistakes and falling down and learning.
And so I like to work with designs like that. And I also like to work with the flower of life pattern, sacred geometry.
WTHR 13News: Can you talk about the transformation your clients go through after this process?
Big Eagle: You know, there's a renewed sense of confidence that they have. And I think a lot of people come nervous, not knowing what to expect. And then when it's over, they're like, wow, this is great. This was so awesome.
And so I think that that's part of what I do, too, is is returning people back to that connection that getting a tattoo is a very special experience. It's not something that you're supposed to get inebriated for or, you know, you're really supposed to connect with that.
One of the things that I do before every session is to call in both of our ancestors for whomever I'm working with. I call in my ancestors, and I call it theirs, because the whole process is we're connecting with our ancestral minds no matter what tattoo the tattoo is.
It's part of that connection, because our tattoos are seen by our relatives in the spirit world. That's how they recognize us. Or at least that's the way I was taught.
And so when you when when I call in those ancestors and they're there for your session, there is nothing that's more powerful than that. To know that your relatives are around you, and to have your tattoo artist understand that, and know that too.
And so I really enjoy helping people connect with something more. This isn't just a piece of art.
WTHR 13News: Can you talk about what it's like to use this space to connect with other indigenous creators?
Big Eagle: And so that's part of what I'm doing - is working with other indigenous creators to not only support them and empower them as they choose that way of life for themselves and a more healthy way of being an empowered person for our communities.
But, I want this space to just show all the different talents that we have as a people.
And I also eventually want to offer workshops here, so we can have elders come and teach what they know about our culture and to teach it with anybody.
So it's basically that, I want it to be a spot that celebrates who we are.
It's such an honor to be a part of, because I think that each and every one of us in this day and age that we're in, holds a piece of that puzzle.
And when we follow our hearts, and we have the courage to follow our hearts, then things like that will happen for us where it's miraculous, really the effect that we can have when we follow our hearts.
And it doesn't matter what nation you're from. Look at me, and where I came from, which is having knowing nothing about who I am and being so disconnected and and having the courage to follow my heart no matter what.
Anybody can do that and have a profound effect on everybody around them.
If you're interested in getting a tattoo at Thunderbird Rising Studios contact Stephanie Big Eagle at stephbigeagle@gmail.com for bookings. Follow her on Instagram here.