about

hi! I’m ocean (they/them) ✧ I’m an artist, craftsperson, organizer, and facilitator.

I create work that focuses on nostalgia, diaspora and queer kinship. I encourage people to explore what it means to find homes in our relationships (to ourselves, our bodies, other people, and to our environments), and outside of nation-states. I believe in and work towards building our collective power to recreate this world, without hierarchies and with love & solidarity.

I began handpoke tattooing in 2016, and switched over to machine tattooing in 2019. as a trauma-informed tattoo artist, I view tattooing as a practice of bodily autonomy, allowing people to feel that they are becoming closer to who they imagine themselves to be. I believe in the power of tattoos to bear witness. tattoos are a declaration – and they are also healing, protection, and remembrance.

the majority of my tattoo work can be found on my Instagram @baby.phag.

you can contact me through email: ogao@wesleyan.edu.