Crimson River Tattoo is an all-female tattoo studio where design reigns supreme
Tattoos are very personal. Choosing to permanently ink a design on one’s skin can be a big decision and choosing a tattoo artist is as important as choosing a design. Crimson River Tattoo is a studio that’s well-known for its roster of designers who specialize in different forms of tattooing and illustration. They also happen to all be women, though according to owner Gigie Santiago, better known as Gigie Bear, that was a happy accident.
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
Gigie, a graphic designer whose interest in tattoos began in college, didn’t pick up a tattoo gun till 2015 when a friend who was going overseas left his kit to Gigie and her partner, who was apprenticing as a tattoo artist at that time. “My partner taught me (how to use it). I enjoyed it,” she said in Tagalog.
Crimson River Tattoo opened in 2018. However, in the middle of the pandemic, when many tattoo shops had to close down or artists with home studios needed to find new locations to adhere to pandemic safety procedures. “I had an idea to invite some of our friends [to work here],” Gigie said.

Gigie’s studio in Quezon City became a hub for other tattoo artists, namely Annie Concepcion, Drew Cortez, Kara Gonzales, and Wiji Lacsamana at first. “[It wasn’t] intentional but it just grew as an all-woman space because when the pandemic hit, a few of my artist friends had a hard time tattooing because back then, they were all working in condos and from their home studios so it was either too strict to accept regular clients or too risky because most of them are moms, so they didn’t want to expose their kids to the virus,”said Gigie, who named her studio after her two sons Chale Crimson and Johnny River.

Back then, an all-women studio was a rarity, if any ever existed at all. “It’s fun that we’re all girls,” Gigie said.
This became a selling point as well because an all-woman studio helped open the minds of people, who otherwise would have had strong negative feelings about the craft. “They were exposed to another side of tattooing which is lighter overall, I guess, because of the female space. It isn’t as [intense as a regular tattoo parlor],” Gigie said. “We’ve had younger clients come here with their parents and their parents appreciate that there’s a space like this that’s not intimidating. Sometimes they (the parents) will come back to get tattooed themselves.”
Read more of the artists of Crimson River Tattoo studio in MEGA’s February 2025 issue, now available on Readly, Magzter, Press Reader and Zinio.
Photographed by SHAIRA LUNA. Written by YVETTE TAN. Art Direction TROY NONATO. Production JONES PALTENG. Sittings Editor STEF JUAN. Makeup ANGELA OLONAN, JEN LANCIN- SANGALANG , AND CATHY LICAS OF NIX INSTITUTE OF BEAUTY. Hair PAU ONDRADA.