Today we’d like to introduce you to Brianna King.
Hi Brianna, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My journey in the beauty industry started long before tattooing was ever part of the plan. I became a licensed cosmetologist in 2017 and started working as a lash artist in 2018. What began as a career in beauty eventually turned into something much bigger. I spent years developing my craft, building relationships with clients, and learning what it meant to create an experience that was personal to each person who sat in my chair.
After working for another lash company for several years, I eventually took the leap into entrepreneurship and opened Salon Renaissance. Becoming a business owner gave me the freedom to create the kind of environment I had always wanted for my clients: private, comfortable, welcoming, and judgment-free. I wanted people to feel like they could actually relax and be themselves, especially clients who experience anxiety or overstimulation and members of the LGBTQIA+ community who may not always feel completely comfortable in traditional beauty spaces.
Lashing taught me so much more than how to run a beauty business. It taught me patience, precision, attention to detail, how to work with people one-on-one, and how important trust is when someone is allowing you to work so closely with them. I didn’t realize it at the time, but all of those things would eventually follow me into tattooing.
After nearly a decade in the lash industry, I started questioning whether lashes were something I could see myself doing forever. I was proud of what I had built, but creatively, I knew I wanted more.
In April 2026, I decided to try something completely different and began my journey into tattooing. I completed training in fine-line and tiny tattooing, along with bloodborne pathogens training, and started practicing and taking models. I went into it thinking I was simply learning another creative skill. I don’t think I realized how quickly I was going to fall in love with it.
Tattooing gave me a feeling I hadn’t experienced in my career in a long time. I was excited to learn again. I wanted to draw, practice, study different techniques, and constantly challenge myself. Every tattoo felt different because every person, placement, and reason behind the tattoo was different.
I naturally gravitated toward fine-line work—delicate florals, botanicals, small meaningful pieces, and designs that feel soft and intentional. The precision I developed during years of doing lashes translated into tattooing more than I ever expected.
But the part of tattooing that has meant the most to me isn’t just the artwork. It’s the human side of it.
I’ve always been a very empathetic person, and tattooing has given me another way to use that. Sometimes I’m creating something fun that someone simply loves, and other times I’m tattooing something connected to a person, a memory, a loss, a new chapter, or a part of someone’s identity. Even when I don’t know someone’s entire story, I understand that what I’m putting on their body can mean something much bigger to them than the design itself.
That has shaped the kind of tattoo artist—and business owner—I want to be.
I want my tattoo studio to feel different from the intimidating image people sometimes associate with tattoo shops. I want it to be calm, private, inclusive, and comfortable. I want the person who has been tattooed 30 times to feel at home, but I especially want the person getting their first tattoo, the person with anxiety, the person who gets overstimulated easily, or the person who has never felt represented in traditional tattoo spaces to know that there is a chair for them too.
As a Black queer artist and business owner, representation and inclusivity are also incredibly important to the space I’m building. Salon Renaissance has always been about more than the service itself. Whether I’m holding lash tweezers or a tattoo machine, I want people to feel seen, respected, and safe.
What surprised me most was how quickly tattooing began growing. Within months, something I originally stepped into as a new creative venture started becoming a real second career. My tattoo bookings continued increasing, I started doing pop-ups, building my portfolio, developing my own style, and realizing that this wasn’t something I wanted to keep on the side.
It was becoming the future of Salon Renaissance.
There have definitely been challenges in making that transition. For a period of time, I’ve essentially been balancing two careers—continuing to take care of the lash clientele and business I spent years building while simultaneously being a beginner again and building an entirely new clientele as a tattoo artist. Walking away from something you’ve done for almost a decade isn’t easy, especially when that business is what gave you the stability and freedom to pursue the next thing.
Instead of looking at my lash career as something I’m leaving behind, though, I look at it as the reason I’m able to take this next step. Lashes taught me how to work for myself. They taught me how to build clientele, market myself, manage a schedule, create a brand, survive slow seasons, connect with people, and trust myself enough to take risks.
Now all of those lessons are coming with me into my next chapter.
In September 2026, I signed the lease for my own tattoo studio, which will officially open April 1, 2027.
For the next several months, I’m still working as a lash artist while building the new studio and continuing to grow as a tattoo artist. It’s a strange feeling knowing that I’m closing one chapter of my life while physically building the next one at the same time.
When I look back at the girl who became a cosmetologist in 2017, I don’t think she could have predicted any of this. She probably thought she was choosing one career. Instead, that decision became the foundation for everything that came afterward.
I’m still very early in my tattoo career, and that’s actually one of the things I’m most excited about. I know how much I grew during my years as a lash artist, so imagining what my tattoo work could look like five or ten years from now is exciting.
Opening my own tattoo studio feels like the beginning of something rather than the end of my beauty career. Salon Renaissance is growing with me.
I started by helping people feel beautiful.
Now I get to create art they can carry with them forever.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
One of the biggest challenges I faced in my career was COVID. Working in the beauty industry meant that when everything shut down, I simply couldn’t work. My job depended on being face-to-face with clients, so that period really showed me how quickly things can change when you’re in a service-based industry.
More recently, one of my biggest challenges has been allowing myself to become a beginner again. I had spent years building my skills and confidence as a lash artist, so transitioning into tattooing meant starting over in a lot of ways. I had to learn a completely new craft while continuing to run my existing business and serve my lash clients.
Balancing both careers while preparing to open my own tattoo studio has definitely been a lot to manage, but I think it has also made the transition more meaningful. I don’t necessarily look at the challenges I’ve faced as setbacks. They’ve taught me how to adapt, trust myself, and be willing to start something new even after becoming comfortable and established in something else.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m a licensed cosmetologist, lash artist, tattoo artist, and the owner of Salon Renaissance. I’ve been in the beauty industry since 2017 and spent eight years building my career as a lash artist before expanding into tattooing in 2026. As a tattoo artist, I specialize primarily in fine-line work, especially delicate florals, botanicals, meaningful pieces, and designs that feel personal to the person wearing them.
What sets me apart is not only my artistic style, but who I am and the type of experience I want to create. I’m a Black gay woman working in an industry where people don’t always see someone who looks like them or shares their experiences. That perspective has made inclusivity extremely important to me. I want my studio to be somewhere people from all backgrounds—especially people who may have felt uncomfortable or underrepresented in traditional tattoo environments—can walk in and immediately feel welcome.
I also bring eight years of experience working one-on-one with clients as a lash artist. That taught me patience, precision, attention to detail, and how to make people feel comfortable while they’re trusting me with something personal. Those skills have translated naturally into the way I tattoo and interact with my clients.
What I’m most proud of is that I built all of this myself. I started as a cosmetologist, built a clientele and business through lashes, and then had the courage to become a beginner again and pursue something I genuinely fell in love with. Less than a year into tattooing, I’m now preparing to open my own tattoo studio in April 2027.
I’m proud that I didn’t feel like I had to stay in one box just because I had already built a successful career there. Salon Renaissance has been able to grow and change as I’ve grown and changed, and I’m really excited to see what I can build in this next chapter.
What matters most to you?
What matters most to me is empathy. I’ve always been someone who tries to understand people beyond what I see on the surface. I think it’s important to put yourself in someone else’s shoes and recognize that everyone walks into a room carrying experiences, emotions, and circumstances that you may know nothing about.
I’m also very big on energy and how people feel in a space. I pay attention to the energy I give to others and the environment I create around them. Whether someone is sitting in my chair for lashes or a tattoo, I want them to feel comfortable, understood, respected, and able to be themselves without feeling judged.
That matters especially in tattooing because you’re working with people in such a personal way. You’re entering their space, permanently creating something on their body, and sometimes that tattoo represents something much deeper than what you can see. I don’t think you have to know someone’s entire story to treat what they’re trusting you with gently.
Empathy influences the way I work, the way I run my business, and honestly just the way I try to move through life. I want people to leave my space not only loving what I created for them, but also feeling like they were genuinely cared for while they were there.
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