Today we’d like to introduce you to Michelle Varga.
Hi Michelle, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My husband, Eain, and I opened Body Mind Soul Studios in July of 2021 with a vision that went far beyond simply creating a successful tattoo and beauty studio. We wanted to build a place where talented independent professionals could grow their own businesses while being part of a collaborative environment centered around creativity, compassion, and community.
Body Mind Soul Studios became home to a collective of skilled professionals offering services ranging from tattooing to skincare and esthetics, with each studio operating as its own independent business. It gave us a foundation, but over time Eain and I realized that the work we felt most called to do extended far beyond the traditional studio model.
Through medical and restorative tattooing, we began seeing firsthand how much can remain after the medical system has technically finished its job. Someone may survive breast cancer, major surgery, burns, traumatic injury, or another life altering experience, yet still look in the mirror and see a constant reminder of what happened to them. There is often a space between medical survival and truly feeling at home in your body again.
That understanding became the foundation for Varga Medical Art INC, the 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization Eain and I created to help bridge that gap through restorative medical tattooing.
Our mission is to help people whose bodies have been changed by cancer, surgery, trauma, injury, burns, and other life altering circumstances through specialized services such as 3D areola and nipple restoration, scar and pigment restoration, and other forms of restorative tattooing. To us, this work is not simply cosmetic. It can be deeply connected to dignity, identity, confidence, and giving someone back a sense of choice over their own body.
Body Mind Soul Studios has played an incredibly important role in helping us build Varga Medical Art INC and has been a major source of support for the nonprofit during its early growth. We are very proud of that relationship, but our vision for Varga Medical Art INC is much larger than having our own for-profit businesses carry the mission.
We are now focused on growing Varga Medical Art INC into a strong, sustainable nonprofit supported by the community it serves. That means developing donor relationships, sponsorships, grants, fundraising, healthcare partnerships, corporate support, and long-term community collaborations so that the organization can continue expanding its reach without depending primarily on Body Mind Soul Studios or our personal businesses to fund it.
Eain and I want Varga Medical Art INC to become something that belongs to the community, not simply something the two of us personally finance.
What began with two people opening a studio in 2021 has grown into a much greater mission. Body Mind Soul Studios helped give that mission a home and a foundation. Now our goal is to build Varga Medical Art INC into an organization with the resources, partnerships, and community support necessary to serve more survivors for generations to come.
Ultimately, we are not trying to erase scars or erase anyone’s story. We want to give people a choice in how they carry that story forward.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It has definitely not been a smooth road.
When my husband, Eain, and I opened Body Mind Soul Studios in July 2021, we were building during an incredibly uncertain time for small businesses. We were navigating the aftermath of the pandemic, rising operating costs, a changing economy, and the challenges that come with creating a collaborative space made up of independent professionals and businesses.
But as Varga Medical Art INC began to take shape, the challenges became much bigger than simply running a studio.
Eain and I realized very quickly that having a meaningful mission and having a sustainable nonprofit are two very different things. The need for restorative medical tattooing is very real, but building the infrastructure to provide those services consistently requires funding, partnerships, community awareness, healthcare relationships, administrative support, and long term planning.
For much of Varga Medical Art’s early growth, our own for profit businesses have helped carry the financial weight of the nonprofit. We are incredibly proud that we have been able to do that, because it allowed us to begin serving people and proving the value of this work. But we also know that is not the model that will allow Varga Medical Art INC to reach its full potential.
One of our greatest challenges now is building a nonprofit that can stand on its own through donations, sponsorships, grants, fundraising, corporate support, healthcare partnerships, and community investment. We want Varga Medical Art INC to grow beyond what Eain and I can personally fund and become something that the entire community helps sustain.
Another challenge has been helping people understand that restorative medical tattooing is not simply cosmetic. For many survivors, these services come at the end of an incredibly long medical and emotional journey. Reconstructing an areola after breast cancer, restoring pigment, working with scars, or helping someone feel more comfortable in their body can have a profound impact on confidence, identity, and quality of life.
We are working to bridge a gap that often exists between traditional healthcare and the point where a survivor truly feels finished with treatment. That requires education, advocacy, and relationships with people and organizations who understand the value of this work.
Along the way, Eain and I have also faced significant personal challenges and losses while continuing to show up for our businesses, our nonprofit, our clients, and our community. Those experiences have deepened our understanding of what it means to survive something that changes your life and to continue moving forward afterward.
The greatest lesson has been that compassion alone is not enough. A mission has to be sustainable if you want it to continue serving people for years to come.
That is where we are now. We are building the partnerships, funding, visibility, and community support that will allow Varga Medical Art to grow far beyond the two of us.
The road has been difficult, but every obstacle has made the mission clearer. We know why this work matters, and we know that the next stage of Varga Medical Art INC will require a community of people who believe in it as strongly as we do.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Varga Medical Art INC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization my husband, Eain, and I created to provide restorative medical tattooing for people whose bodies have been changed by cancer, surgery, trauma, burns, injury, and other life altering experiences.
Our mission grew from seeing a gap that often exists between medical treatment and emotional restoration. Someone can be declared healed, cancer free, or finished with surgery and still carry visible reminders of everything they endured. We believe restorative medical tattooing can help bridge that space.
We specialize in services such as 3D areola and nipple restoration following breast cancer and reconstruction, scar and pigment restoration, and other forms of medical tattooing intended to help survivors feel more comfortable, confident, and connected to their bodies again.
What sets Varga Medical Art apart is that this work is being built as a nonprofit mission rather than simply another service within a traditional tattoo business. Eain and I believe deeply that access to restorative care should not depend solely on someone’s ability to pay out of pocket.
Body Mind Soul Studios and our other for profit work helped us create the foundation for Varga Medical Art and have supported much of its early growth. We are incredibly grateful that we have been able to do that, but our goal now is to grow Varga Medical Art into a sustainable nonprofit supported by the wider community.
That means developing relationships with donors, businesses, healthcare professionals, foundations, sponsors, and community partners who believe in the value of this work and want to help us reach more survivors.
We want Varga Medical Art to become bigger than the two of us.
One of the ways our community can support the mission is through our annual Pink Ribbon Gala. This year’s gala will be held October 1, 2026 at Venue 252. It is one of our largest fundraising events and brings together survivors, supporters, healthcare professionals, local businesses, and community members for an evening centered around the people we serve and the future of the organization.
We welcome businesses and individuals who would like to become annual gala sponsors, sponsor or purchase tables, attend the event, or partner with Varga Medical Art in other meaningful ways.
People can also donate directly and learn more about our services, events, sponsorship opportunities, and ways to become involved through our website at www.vargamedicalart.org.
Every contribution helps us build more than an individual service. It helps support the infrastructure necessary to expand programs, develop healthcare partnerships, increase awareness, reach additional survivors, and create a nonprofit that can continue serving people well into the future.
What Eain and I are most proud of is the community that is beginning to grow around this mission. We may have started Varga Medical Art, but we do not want it to remain something funded or carried by us alone. We want people throughout our community to feel that they have a place in this work.
Whether someone donates, becomes a sponsor, fills a table at the gala, shares our mission, connects us with a healthcare partner, or simply tells a survivor that this resource exists, they become part of what Varga Medical Art is building.
Ultimately, our purpose is not to erase scars or erase anyone’s story. It is to recognize what someone has survived and give them a choice in how they carry that story forward.
We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
I think almost everything meaningful Eain and I have built has required some level of risk.
Opening Body Mind Soul Studios in July 2021 was certainly one of those risks. We were building a new business during an uncertain time, in highly competitive industries, while trying to create something that did not look like a traditional tattoo shop or beauty studio. We wanted to build a collective where independent skilled professionals could grow their own businesses while still being part of a supportive and creative community.
But the much bigger risk came when we decided to build Varga Medical Art.
Creating a nonprofit around restorative medical tattooing meant stepping into something far larger than either of our individual businesses. We were not simply adding another service. We were committing ourselves to building an organization around a mission we believed deserved to exist, even before we knew exactly how we would fund it long term.
For much of its early growth, Eain and I have used our own businesses, time, resources, and personal investment to help carry Varga Medical Art forward. That allowed us to get started, serve people, build relationships, and demonstrate why this work matters. But it has also taught us an important lesson: if we want Varga Medical Art to reach its full potential, it cannot depend indefinitely on the two of us or on the success of our for profit businesses.
The next risk is also the next opportunity.
We are choosing to believe that our community will see the value in this mission and help us build something sustainable through donations, grants, sponsorships, healthcare partnerships, fundraising, corporate support, and long term community relationships.
There is vulnerability in asking other people to believe in something you have poured so much of yourself into. There is risk in building an organization before every answer is known. But there is also tremendous possibility.
Eain and I have learned that meaningful risk is not the same as being reckless. For us, it means being willing to invest in something because you believe the impact can be greater than the uncertainty.
Our goal is for Varga Medical Art to eventually become much bigger than its founders. We want it to have the financial strength, community support, and organizational foundation to continue serving survivors regardless of what is happening in our own businesses or lives.
That is probably the greatest risk we have taken, but it is also the one we believe in the most.
When someone has already survived cancer, surgery, trauma, burns, injury, or another life altering experience, they have already taken on risks they never chose. If we can take a few of our own in order to build something that helps them move forward, then to us, those are risks worth taking.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Vargamedicalart.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/varga_medical_art_inc?igsi=MXR3eHp3MXhndGNmNA==
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1DVZ9z3xig/?mibextid=wwXIfr
