Ashley’s signature Soul Tattoo ceremony is a full day (4-6 hours on average) initiatory ceremony for threshold crossing into the new. These transformative rites of passage are the deepest ceremonies Ashley offers, that are specifically curated for each client—a custom private day retreat where Ashley acts as a doula for your evolutionary feminine process, guiding you from the old into the new. These ceremonies include plant medicine meditations, an aura/soul reading, guided shamanic healing, your channeled hand woven tattoo alchemized on skin which acts as a portal for your intentions to anchor and more light to be encoded into soul and skin, energy cleansing/blessing, sound healing, bespoke rituals, and more, depending on what is needed and desired. Every ceremony is unique and intuitively led by the medicines that channel through with the clients intentions steering the ceremonial ship. These are not recommended more then 1-2x a year as they take at least 6 months to integrate. Please note that full ceremony prices will be rising from $1,600 to $3000 in July/August 2023.

A mini Soul Tattoo ceremony is a 2-hour, simplified version of a typical full 1:1 Soul Tattoo ceremony where you come in with a very specific, clear intention. Your word or intention opens the portal for creation. Ashley holds space for a 45 min journey/meditation/reading before moving into the hand weaved tattooing portion. The tattoos facilitated in these mini ceremonies are “Soul Notes”— channeled symbols that carry the frequency of your initial intention/word into form, creating energy flow in the body by imprinting this sacred marking along the meridian/channel that can best serve your intention for your healing. These ceremonies are sealed with a quick energy tune up which often includes breath, sound, hands on healing, and/or elemental healing. These markings/shorter ceremonies are easier initiations to integrate, making them the perfect entry into ceremonial tattooing work, or if you are new to a path of ceremonial healing work in general. These are also beautiful to receive as a quicker soul attunement when seeking a bit more alignment in between larger ceremonies if you frequently work with Ashley. The tattoos woven in these ceremonies are small, about 2X2-3 inches, or may contain multiple tiny markings that weave a web of light on the body which Ashley calls a tattoo circuitry. You may also choose this session if you are desiring tattoos on your fingers or ears. Please note that Ashley only accepts space for 2-3 mini ceremonies just one day per month, and Mini Ceremony prices will be raised from $650 to $1000 in the late summer 2023. Ashley also offers seasonally, cosmically themed “flash days” with 75 minute ceremonies for a more accessible price. Sign up for her newsletter to both receive announcements for flash days, and mini ceremony openings.

A group soul tattoo ceremony is a unique group healing and activation experience using Soul Tattoo alchemy to attune more to your unique soul song (expression). Each group ceremony is a unique and intimate journey and shared experience for 3-7 people. Most often group ceremonies will have a specific theme or shared group intention for healing. In these ceremonies, there will either be a unique Soul Tattoo that is channeled for the group based on the collective energy of the group, or each participant will receive a unique symbol of their own soul’s song, and woven onto skin by Ashley. The placement options may be channeled depending on the group theme/intention of each ceremony. These ceremonies also include specifically curated rituals, meditations, additional healing modalities, and movement to open to and integrate the tattoo alchemy. These group Soul Tattoo ceremonies are perfect for a group of friends, a small, special event, family members, etc, as Ashley does not allow any additional people in her 1:1 sessions or offer more than one session in a day. Public group ceremony events are announced via Ashley’s newsletter and private group ceremonies may be booked through direct email inquiry to scheduling@ashleyriver.co

*please note that the tattoos woven in these ceremonies are very small (similar to a mini ceremony, not a full-size tattoo like in a 1:1 ceremony), but very potent and transformational.

Ashley opens limited space for 1:1 design sessions virtually each season. These 45 min virtual sessions are held over zoom and consist of intention setting and a reading. Once the virtual connection is complete, Ashley will sit in ceremony privately to channel the Soul Tattoo design, placement, and prayer, returning the finished marking to the client via email within 7-21 days. These sessions also include rituals for integration in alignment with the client, as well as a PDF guide for working with tattoo alchemy and creating your own ceremonial expereince. These ceremonies can be booked on Ashley’s Shop page. Please note that receiving a design in this way does not guarantee Ashley will be able to tattoo the piece, but allows you to receive the marking by another artist anywhere in the world. Please book your virtual Soul Tattoo session via Ashley’s shop page.

Soul Tattoo tickets are intentional channeled tattoo designs created for the collective and released seasonally through Ashley’s Shop. There are only 4 tickets available per tattoo design. This is the most accessible way to receive Ashley’s work and allows you to receive the tattoo design from anywhere in the world by the artist of your choosing. These tattoo tickets also come with a ceremonial Soul Tattooing PDF guide. See the current tattoo tickets available on Ashley’s shop page. 

Ashley is no longer offering a waitlist for Soul Tattoos as it quickly became unmanageable. If you were previously on the mailing list or waitlist prior 2020, you will have to sign up again and apply for a session when books are open for the timeframe you would like to book in.

Everyone’s experience will be unique to them and their intentions as the ceremonial process will mirror your own unique death/birth/creation process as lead by your intentions. Meaning, a big expansive intention that feels far out from where you are now, may result in a deeper, more intense ceremony as you cross the threshold to align with your vision. Most clients feel nourished, trusting, and calm in Ashley’s presence and leave with a sense of empowerment and motivation toward their dreams and purpose. Clients will feel a sense of belonging and soul connection to their new marking, like it has always been there. Some clients will also experience more creativity, waves of energy like things are moving and shifting quickly, physical sensations in the body, new insights, perspective shifts, big emotional releases and energetic purging, past life memories, visions, an open pathway where things once felt blocked, a deeper connection to their guides and life path, or the courage to leap into the new. Most clients will experience some form of deep relaxation and spiritual harmony, but deep releases (mentally, emotionally, physically, psychically, subconsciously) are often very present in this work. This is threshold work. An initiation into a new reality we weave together through this alchemy. A greeting of who you really are, but also a death of who you once were. Soul Tattoos are not a quick fix or a light energy healing and can take months to years to integrate fully, understand, and embody. Everyone’s process is unique, beautiful, and in alignment for their soul journey.

In the 9 years of practicing tattooing, this has only happened a few times. When a client is an aligned soul match, there is a deep purpose and connection in receiving this work. There must be trust in this for the medicine to work. Most clients when seeing their design for the first time have a deep soul remembrance and a feeling of belonging and being seen. Each experience of healing is unique, and hesitation, doubt, fear of letting go of control, and resistance are sometimes a part of the transformation process. This is common in any type of work that calls upon change in any form. Working through resistance to a design or symbol or placement could be a part of medicine the client is needing to open to more trust, freedom, or expression, but alternatively, voicing their needs, desires, and boundaries and claiming a different placement could be the medicine needed as well. Sometimes it is important for a client’s unique healing for them to choose where the tattoo will be placed on their body themselves, and Ashley will intuit if this is so and guide the client in a journey to tune into their body and feel into where the tattoo wants to live. One of the most universally healing aspects of this work is letting go of the ego, embracing the mystery, and letting the soul come in. Most resistance that comes up in sessions is a client working through the fear of what other people will think of their new Soul marking, sifting through projections that often come from their family. But this is a deeper reflection of a fear of how your truth and truer expression may be judged when you step outside the boxes/labels/roles other bestow upon you and claim yourself instead. A Soul Tattoo is about you, your healing, your medicine, your soul. All this being said, it is also about your body. Ashley will never pressure you to receive a design or placement alignment if it doesn’t feel right to you. It is so important that each client feels safe and trusting through the entire process. Ashley is gentle guide through the depths of this work and will hold space for your process, however it expresses itself. But 99.99% of the time, everything aligns perfectly.

The way that Ashley tattoos by hand is a more gentle, less-invasive form of receiving a tattoo that typically results in less pain, very minimal to no bleeding, and little inflammation. But, every client has a unique experience to pain, and how they hold pain. Tattooing (and healing) in general can be very stimulating to the thought forms we have subconsciously created to feel safe, triggering fear and resistance which then tells our brain we are in pain/in harm’s way. The more unsafe we feel in the body, the more trauma we are holding on to, or the more prone we are to anxiety, the more pain one can experience while receiving a tattoo, whether it be by a machine or by hand. Ashley creates an environment of calm and peace to ensure the most comfortable experience of tattooing as possible. Many clients fall asleep or drift into a meditative state while they are being tattooed. Others may experience more intense periods of pain if their nervous system becomes too unregulated, they are holding on to fear, a lot of tension/stagnation in the area of the tattoo or are in their head too much during the tattooing process. There is no right or wrong way to feel, and every client is different and every step of the process of receiving their Soul Tattoo is medicine. Ashley is very a skilled, trauma informed bodyworker, and equipped to be a steady anchor to guide each client through the unique journey of receiving the tattoo no matter what comes up and how it feels. Healing is not always love and light, it is often painful, deep and powerful. But Ashley is there to support you in moving through whatever arises and guiding you to presence, ease, and trust in your unique process.

Ashley uses an organic, non-toxic vegan black ink. Ashley only tattoos in black ink at this time to ensure the simplest, purest ingredients as most colored inks are filled with heavy metals, toxins, or ingredients that can irritate those who are sensitive. Ashley also uses and teaches eco/conscious tattooing, choosing to tattoo using biodegradable, compostable, natural, and earth-friendly products and tools. What is safe for the earth is safe for us.

The mystics, healers, wild women, witches, passionate dreamers, threshold crossers, and soul creatives on a path of anchoring more of their magic, purpose, creativity, and light onto the planet. For those ready to do the work to leap into their dreams, their gifts, their full feminine essence, and expand into a fuller expression of their soul light and creative power.

Those who are looking to be saved/fixed, who are ready to give their power away to Ashley to do the healing work for them. Those who have not yet stepped into their own healing, shadow work, or worked through some of their trauma. Those who believe a Soul Tattoo will heal their trauma. Those looking for a cool spiritual tattoo, or those who already have a specific design which they want to be tattooed by Ashley.

All Soul Tattoo designs are channeled in ceremony by Ashley by connecting to the soul light and medicine of each client. She does not tattoo other people’s work. If there are certain elements you feel strongly called to you can share that via the intake/application form and Ashley would love to incorporate some of your visions into the design if it aligns, but to tattoo a design by someone else would not be a Soul Tattoo session, it would simply be a tattoo session that could be done by any tattoo artist anywhere.

Ashley’s work is centered around feminine liberation. This is to free and uplift the creative life force, voice of the soul, inner mystic, oppressed matriarchal stories and wisdom, and feminine (creative/emotional/intuitive) energy within. Her work attracts primarily women for this reason, but it is for anyone wanting to devote their healing to the feminine. The common thread between the client’s Ashley works with is that they are devoted to the path of the heart and spirit and feel motivated to create something with their light in the world. Ashley’s work activates purpose and devotion to the sacred, evolutionary path, and it is deep commitment to healing, your soul, and your truth that is required, not a certain gender.

Ashley can do larger tattoos (over 6X8) upon request and may require an additional fee and potentially be broken up into multiple sessions back to back due to the slow intentional process of tattooing by hand. These are beautiful opportunities to dive even deeper into this soul work and make a short multi-day retreat experience out of your time with Ashley or drop in once a month to season to activate your work together. If you are seeking to work with Ashley on a larger piece (a sleeve, body suit, etc), it is recommended that you have already sat in ceremony, but not required. Please reach out prior to booking if you have a larger activation of tattoo alchemy in mind.

Ashley’s 1:1 sessions are intimate transformational experiences for one person and no additional guests are allowed in the space other than the receiver at the time of the ceremony. If you would like to book a ceremony with someone else, you can sign up for group Soul Tattoo ceremonies as they are released, which are intimate group experiences for 3-7 participants. Please read more about this offering on the Group Ceremony page. Please also note that Ashley typically only works with one person a day, so if you want to plan a journey to receive Soul Tattoo alchemy with a friend/partner/etc, you may not be able to book your appointments on the same day, but please reach out and we can work with booking you on consecutive days.