Specializing in American Traditional Tattoos

Melissa Grasso is an emerging Long Beach tattoo artist and painter. She holds a deep respect for the culture and history of tattooing and appreciates its Long Beach roots. Her inspiration draws from her Mexican heritage and blends Chicano and West Coast motifs with traditional American elements. She aims to make San Diego natives and her newfound Long Beach community proud. Her designs have been expressed through watercolor, acrylic and oil painting mediums, along with BIC pens and colored pencils. Finding refuge in artistic expression, she continues to explore and implement other forms of art in her works.

Ceramics and sewing fill her spare time, two disciplines Melissa has carried on from childhood. She enjoys revisiting these practices by experimenting and finding ways to push the envelope by combining them with her current passions.

In addition to her tattoo career, she dedicates herself to photographing her colleagues, experiences and friends. Her nostalgic and colorful photos capture an intimate and sometimes dream-like perception of typically obscure subjects within/in proximity to the industry, along with muses and moments that have impacted Melissa's own perception of life. Focusing on portraiture photography, she documents various themes of fantasy and everyday life.  
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Melissa hopes capture the support of her San Diego and Long Beach communities and with any luck, have the opportunity to install a mural.