Healing through tattoos: 'Inktentions' uses ink as therapy

A new YouTube series is taking on topics such as domestic violence and drug addiction, using ink and tattoos as an approach to therapy.

NEW YORK - It's not just ink etched onto skin.

Instead, the distinct pain of a tattoo needle can create an intimate and deep connection. It's a symbol of strength, of vulnerability, celebrating a moment in time or the journey through life.

A tattoo can be a symbol of strength, of vulnerability, of celebrating a moment in time or the journey through life.

"We wanted to build a platform to help people take their trauma, take their experiences, and turn them into power," tattoo artist Koral Ladna said.

Her new project called Inktentions is focused on using a tattoo to transform trauma into empowerment. She started the new YouTube series with her colleague, Emmanuel Fortunato.

Inktentions is focused on using a tattoo to transform trauma into empowerment.

"People can use the tattoo for healing," Fortunato said.

The idea focuses on the emotional connection of the skin deep art.

Fortunato and Ladna are both tattoo artists at the famed Inked NYC gallery on W. 22 St. in Manhattan. Now, they're donating their skills and time and doing something more.

"We wanted to help people and use tattoos as a way to help people," Ladna said.

So, they created a nonprofit and the YouTube series in collaboration with Inked Magazine. The publication established the tattoo shop. Their first episode addresses emotional pain head on by featuring two domestic violence survivors.

The famed Inked NYC gallery in Manhattan.

"We want to go right straight to the source of something that was really painful and something that exists in our society," Ladna said.

When FOX 5 NY visited the shop, they were working with people struggling with addiction.

"I started using IV heroin, and meth and cocaine, and I ended up you know, the wrong crowd, obviously, and, and homeless and in jail," Kim Harari said.

It's been a long road back for the New Jersey native. She's now clean and lives in Philadelphia, where she works as a personal trainer. After telling her story to Fortunato and Ladna, they helped her come up with a design. They call it "The Liberating Woman."

"The Liberating Woman."

"A constant reminder of, of the woman that I am today, you know, and it's not a direct reflection of who I was back then," she said.

Hunter Boone was also selected. His battle with alcoholism was triggered, he said, by the trauma of his own family rejecting him as a gay man.

"When I came up to my family, I was, you know, immediately rejected, and I definitely knew I could have easily gone down a dark path," Boone said.

He’s sober now and said it's his dog, Steve, that helped him through the loneliest days of the pandemic.

Boone's dog, Steve, helped him through the loneliest days of the pandemic.

A perfect choice for ink. The design Koral created is both vibrant with colors and precise with its reflection of the pup.

"Getting tattoos, you know, definitely is painful, but that kind of feeling, like I said, gets me out of this association," Boone said. "It makes me grounded."

Koral and Fortunato have a long list of topics they will plan to address during the series. It will include everything from survivors of gang violence, amputees or even burn survivors. They are always looking for people to tell their stories.