Coven Body Mods: Transforming Bodies and Empowering Souls

Vanessa (she/they) and Haley (she/they) are the creatives behind Coven Body Mods, a tattoo and piercing shop in Denver that aims to uplift queer, BIPOC, and otherwise nonconforming people through the power of body modification. No matter your body type, skin tone, or gender, you can rest assured that you are in a safe space that puts you first! They shared their thoughts, mission, and stories with us so we could learn more about Coven and the work they do.

What inspired you to create Coven Body Mods? 

V: We have been collectively in the industry for almost 20 years; I’ve been 15 and she’s been a little over five, and we just wanted to create more of a safe space for our queer community, given that the body piercing industry not only has indigenous roots, but it does have a lot of queer roots, kink roots, stuff like that, so we wanted to make sure that our community was not only accepted in the space, but celebrated. Often, as queer individuals, we feel like, “Oh, OK, we’re allowed to be here,” but at Coven, we want to celebrate our queerness; we want to make sure that our community has a place where they can come and feel like whatever they want to do, especially when it comes to gender-affirming care and feeling beautiful in their own skin, is actually celebrated here.  

How would you describe your focus on “gender- and body-positive body modification services”? 

V: Particularly with the bodies of BIPOC people and queer people, certain people in our industry don’t know how to tattoo melanated skin, so we wanted to make sure that we can take that stigma away. The only thing that might not allow you to get a certain tattoo or piercing is if your doctor actually tells you that you can’t do it. It doesn’t have anything to do with this shit—the size of your body, the shade of your skin, it’s just if you really have any kind of actual medical impediment, but anything else doesn’t apply here. We want to make sure that our community can get help with scar coverup or having recently stepped into transitioning. We want them to feel like they can go to a safe place and feel like their pronouns are respected, that they’re not going to feel judged or ridiculed… We want to help everybody feel beautiful and comfortable and safe and happy in their own skin. 

What is your favorite thing about body modification? 

V: The liberty it gives you to be yourself. At least for me, with piercings, that stuff made me love my body a little bit more, and it’s definitely helped me see beauty in all shapes and forms. What might seem unconventional or weird, we celebrate that here. That’s what I love about body mods! We’re breaking those molds and letting people express themselves how they want to. 

H: For me, the best part in my little sector of the industry and tattooing is helping people feel good in their own bodies. Watching their demeanor, their whole aura, shift when they look in the mirror with their new piece—even sometimes with the stencil—it changes the room. It makes a difference. The energy shifts, and it becomes lighter, more positive, sometimes sad but with happy tears. Seeing that acceptance, not only because we see them that way, but they finally see themselves in that light, that is the most rewarding thing. 

What made Denver your destination of choice?

H: … They don’t hate gay people! (Laughs) In Texas, we got engaged, and then we were just trying to find somewhere to get married, and we got turned down. It’s not pretty in the part of Texas I’m from, so when we asked these places, like, “Hey, we’re a same-sex couple, can we check it out?” they were like, “Nope, sorry, against our views, good luck.” So, COVID hit, and we were like, “You know what? Colorado won’t tell us no; our dogs can be witnesses for our wedding,” that was the deciding factor. Denver just stuck out like a sore thumb. 

V: We really just liked the community here and the atmosphere, and not only the Rocky Mountain background, but a lot more diversity. Coming from New York City, it was a little reminiscent for me. (Denver) is a nice little mixture of calm, suburban life where you can eventually raise a family and settle down, and we have a nice bustling city life—good arts, good entertainment, and honestly, this is the place we fell in love with drag and stuff like that because Haley is actually a drag king as well. If anyone wants to be tattooed by a drag king, they can do that at Coven Body Mods! (Denver) has allowed us a lot more freedom, and it’s the same freedom we want to give people here at our studio.  

What do you hope your clients experience when they visit Coven Body Mods? 

V: Joy, kindness, and love. And empowerment! 

H: That’s my main thing. Every time someone leaves my chair, they feel a little more confident and a little more empowered in themselves. That’s what this is all about. It’s not just that I love doing art, but it doesn’t matter the type of tattoo; it could be some line work; it could be a semicolon; it could be this big, beautiful colorful, realistic floral piece. Whatever it is, the most important thing is the empowerment and the joy and the energy that that person feels. 

V: I think a lot of people are scared to go to tattoo and piercing studios because they feel a little abrasiveness or a more aggressive atmosphere, but over here, we just want people to like they can come and hang out with us and feel good about their choices and decisions.  

What are some of the challenges that you faced in opening your own business, if any? 

V: Just making sure we’ve got the right zonings, the right licensing, the right buildings … just a lot of waiting, working with the right people. Aside from that, you don’t realize how much goes into starting a business from scratch when you don’t have sponsors or anything like that. If you’re starting on your own, a small business, it takes a village if you have that village, or it takes a lot of blood, sweat, and tears if you don’t. Over here at Coven, it’s been a little bit of everything. We’ve had the community show out tremendously and beautifully for us, even before we started, and then we’ve also had to—like, Haley did a lot of the construction, like the painting and stuff like that, all that grunt work. I just decorated (laughs). 

What is it about Coven that gets you out of bed in the morning? 

V: It’s just been such a dream of mine since I’ve been part of this community, and for us, we are so motivated together. Our future relies on this. We want to have a family; we eventually want to have children, all of that, and I told her, “My first baby’s gonna be my studio,” where I know I’m responsible for myself, my success relies on me, I don’t have to rely on a boss or a manager or anybody else. It’s just me and her working together to make sure that we can succeed. The next step is our family, and that motivates me. 

H: She wanted the shop, made the shop happen, now it’s time for a baby! 

V: (Coven) is a sacrifice and a responsibility. At least with this one, we’re not messing up a whole child if we mess up this studio! Just our credit, not a whole human being! (laughs) 

Do you have any final statements about Coven Body Mods or anything you’d like to shout from the rooftops for the readers of OFM? 

H: Support your local queer BIPOC artists, support drag kings, nobody is illegal on stolen land—Me being Hispanic and indigenous, Vanessa being Colombian, we’re very front-facing and forward with that. We’ll never hesitate to say no to hateful people or hateful tattoos. We’ll never just take it for money. I think that also separates us from a lot of places.  

V: We don’t cut corners just to get a deal out of someone; we want to make sure everyone gets the right stuff. We try to educate ourselves and our art to make sure we can provide our clientele and our community with the best services that we can!

You can learn more about Vanessa and Haley here!

You can find Coven Body Mods on Instagram, too.