Gia Rose is an American tattoo artist, reality television personality and social media star who is known for her ornamental, neo-traditional, and illustrative tattooing. She owns and operates White Oak Tattoo Company, a studio in West Chester. She rose to fame on the eighth season of the tattoo reality competition Ink Master and later served as a co-host in several episodes of the spin-off tattoo reality competition, Ink Master: Angels. She is also active on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.
Early Life
Gia Rose left home at 16 and has lived years as a “freight train hopper”. She lived on a river boat for years before she landed a tattooing apprenticeship in North Carolina. She later went to Pacific Northwest College of Art in 2008 to study illustration.
Career
Gia Rose, who is now best known as a tattoo artist, began tattooing at the age of 18. In 2016, she gained popularity for appearing as a contestant on season 8 of the tattoo reality competition Ink Master on Spike TV between August and December. She was one of 18 contestants on the show and appeared in all 16 episodes, finishing the competition in the 11th place. By the time she appeared on the show, she already had 13 years of tattooing experience. The show made her very famous among the viewers and allowed her a second chance on a spin-off show the next year.
In 2017, the spin-off tattoo reality competition, Ink Master: Angels, was premiered on the Paramount Network which featured several female competitors from the eighth season of the main show, including season winner Ryan Ashley Malarkey, and competitors Kelly Doty, Gia Rose, and Nikki Simpson, as hosts. They traveled around the nation, going head-to-head with some of the country's top local artists who were competing to earn a spot on a future season of Ink Master. Unfortunately, Gia had to leave the show after a few episodes as she suffered from complications from her cancer treatment. She made an announcement on social media stating that she would no longer be appearing on the show that season or any time in the future, but assured her fans that she was “doing very well” and “getting stronger every day”.
She later utilized her fame from the show by sharing her work on various social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. She also decided to open her own studio, White Oak Tattoo, in the Philadelphia suburb of West Chester in 2017. It was one of the first female-owned tattoo studios in America and is still mostly a female tattoo studio. In January 2023, she joined as a resident tattoo artist at Inked Magazine in New York City.
Family Life
Gia Rose is a cancer survivor who was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer in January 2014, at the age of 31. Although she underwent treatment for the same and “beat” it, she still needs to “deal with a lot of physical repercussions that are now lifelong”.
