An Inspired Chat with Nicole DeRoy

We recently had the chance to connect with Nicole DeRoy and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Nicole, thank you for taking the time to reflect back on your journey with us. I think our readers are in for a real treat. There is so much we can all learn from each other and so thank you again for opening up with us. Let’s get into it: What do the first 90 minutes of your day look like?
The first thing I do is get up and make my bed, this is an instant way to set up your day for success. Taking those first moments really helps me keep my mind clear and set the intention that all is in order. I intentionally sip a glass of water and then feed my dog and bring him for a nice walk around our neighborhood. When we return I settle in and put on some meditation music, light some incense, and invite some stillness to ground and center me for the day ahead. After meditation I make myself a nice hearty breakfast chock full of protein and fruit and then I enjoy my coffee and check up on messages. These slow mornings invite calm to my nervous system and allow me the ability to walk through my day with peace no matter what lays ahead.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m Nicole DeRoy, the owner of Sacred Rebel Tattoo in Sedona Arizona. I’m a tattoo artist and energy worker, and my shop blends bold, color-forward illustrative traditional tattooing with Reiki, tarot, and intention-based ceremonial practices.

After years in the industry, I recently opened my own studio to create a space where art, energy work, and personal transformation intersect.

Alongside tattooing, I’m also working on creative projects like a chakra-based coloring book series (first edition has already been published) and a hand-made Goddess Painting Series. I also have the intention to illustrate my own tarot deck and create oracle card decks. I also enjoy oil painting.

No matter the medium, my work is rooted in empowerment, storytelling, and helping people feel more connected to themselves.

Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. What relationship most shaped how you see yourself?
Hands down, the relationship with myself.

It’s taken years of deep inner work to decondition and grow into the woman I am today. That journey has been my greatest teacher. It’s taught me strength, tenacity, authenticity, and how to honor my worth. It showed me how to pursue what is truly meant for me, not what others project or expect.

The path hasn’t been easy. It’s required dedication, sacrifice, relocating, shifting, and reclaiming my sovereignty over and over again. You have to be bold enough to mourn the past versions of yourself that were shaped by conditioning, and sometimes you have to let people you love fall away if they can’t meet you in your truth.

But that kind of courage: to see yourself in a new light and walk that illuminated path, is what moves humanity forward. It’s brave, it’s disruptive, and it’s necessary.

If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?
The right people will always want to see you win. They won’t carry jealousy, malice, or try to dim your light. They’ll celebrate your growth, your process, and every step of your becoming.

They’ll be inspired by you, not threatened, because your evolution reflects the parts of themselves they’re ready to awaken.

Anyone who makes you feel small is simply there to teach you how to reclaim your power and rewrite those old relational patterns.

Being authentically yourself is medicine for the world. It won’t always be painless, but the way you move through those experiences is what shapes you, aligns you, and prepares you for the life that’s meant for you.

So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. Is the public version of you the real you?
This question always makes me laugh, because the answer is absolutely yes.

The public version of me is me. People often tell me they look up to how I show up: rolled out of bed, unpolished, sharing my thoughts and reflections in real time. They honor the unfuckwithable, unbothered parts of me because that’s genuinely who I am.

I’m someone who lays it all out there. I wear my heart on my sleeve, and I’ve spoken my truth time and time again knowing it would cost me relationships. But that’s the point, authenticity asks for courage.

When we show the world our truest self, we create space for others to feel safe enough to step into theirs. It becomes a ripple effect of permission and liberation.

My values and convictions are strong, and I’m in service to them and to God. That alignment is what keeps both versions of me, public and private, exactly the same.

Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. What do you think people will most misunderstand about your legacy?
If you’ve only entered my story now, you don’t see the difficult years that built me. You don’t see the decades of fighting chronic illness, the years of alcohol and drug abuse, the lack of self-respect, the lack of self-love… all the pieces of my past that formed the foundation for who I’m rebecoming.

People might see me move with ease and direction now, but it wasn’t always like this. It wasn’t always clear. I wasn’t always in my light. They might think I manifest things effortlessly, when in reality it took years of discipline, surrender, and inner work.

I was there in the darkness. I lived in the pits of hell on earth for most of my life, and I fought tooth and nail to claw myself out of it. That part of the story is rarely witnessed, but it’s the truth of my becoming.

So what’s misunderstood, what remains unseen, are the deaths and rebirths that had to happen for me to show up the way I do today. None of it was in vain. Every single moment was necessary and foundational.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sacredrebeltattoo.com , www.nicolederoy.com
• Instagram: @nicolederoytattoos , @sacredrebeltattoo
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@sacredrebeltattoo?si=cBQZZKsOSEdxQYN-

Image Credits
Headshots by Nicole Lukas