Last Full Moon Of The Decade And Alex Boyco Arrest

Good Morning Everyone! Welcome back friends of Speakeasy Tattoo Los Angeles. I hope ya’ll have your coffee in your hand this morning and are ready to read!

The shop has felt extra cozy with how chilly it’s been the past few weeks, at least chilly for LA. James even asked Scott if he could decorate the shop for the holidays, he said seasonal decorating is one of his all time favorite hobbies second only to lizards, and playing pool with the boys. The year and the decade are closing in on us, and honestly I’m just really focused to doing what I need to do to feel grounded and confident to start tattooing in the new year. A few days ago, we were graced by the last full moon of the decade- a full moon in Gemini! 😈 The last full moon of December is also called The Cold Moon, or The Long Night’s Moon. In short, this full moon was largely about the closure of a cycle. You may have had some challenging and honest conversations around this moon placement. If there have been unresolved situations or residual energies that are no longer serving you, this full moon offered you a chance to find release and make space for something new and unknown.

Shifting gears, yesterday I saw a familiar name pop up on my Instagram feed. Not familiar in a good way, Alex Boyko’s name is recognizable to many tattoo collectors, especially if you are a young women who collects American Traditional tattoos and lives in the Midwest, LA, or Bay Area. Several years ago, I first saw Boyko’s name in the context of a mass internet call out. There was some snowball effect, where one of his former clients came out saying that he had sexually assaulted her. After that, it was dozens of women sharing their stories of Boyko assaulting them or sending them unsolicited sexual images- most of this behavior he conducted within his tattoo business. My understanding of the situation, is that Boyko is talented and was producing tattoos that were in high demand. He was young and already had gained considerable artistic respect within the tattoo community. From the accounts I’ve read, it sounds as though many of Boyko’s male co-workers and peers were aware of his behavior to some extent, however he was left unchecked and able to continue assaulting hundreds of female clients. Then I didn’t hear anything about him for a long time, not until a bunch of news coverage came out several days ago announcing his conviction! 🎉

This week, Boyko was arrested in Plymouth on charges of fourth-degree sexual misconduct. The victim in the case is now 24, but was 19 at the time she met Boyko. Boyko is now on bail for $50,000. He is unable to travel out of state, he is only legally able to tattoo women with a mandated witness present, and he will be a registered sex offender for the rest of his life. Following media coverage, most tattoo shops will no longer allow Boyko to work for them. I feel extremely happy for all the victims who are able to get some closure through the multi-year process of Boyko being held accountable and charged. Tattooing is sacred and if you use it as an abuse of power to target women or otherwise hurt anyone, you should not be tattooing the public or at all really!

You can read more about the Boyko case here here, or here

Thats all for this week!

Thanks everyone!

-M.M