Eminent Ink Tattoos
Address: 256 East 100 South
Telephone: 385-598-1514
Website: instagram.com/eminentinktattoos
District: Central City
“I was adopted from China when I was a baby. They brought me back to Utah when I was about one and a half, and I have been here ever since.” Lili Deforest is the only adopted child among six siblings in an LDS family. Some of her sisters now have tattoos, and her mother, once unsure, has become one of her biggest supporters - offering quiet pride and praise for her designs. Lili’s story begins softly, but with certainty. In 2025, at the young age of twenty eight, she is the proud owner of Eminent Ink Tattoos, an all-female studio. She is a single mother, a self-taught artist, and a quiet force who wants every woman who walks in to feel safe and seen.
Lili grew up in South Jordan, surrounded by music and movement - piano lessons, basketball, art classes, and crafts scattered across the kitchen table. Her family cheered on the sports and music; the art she kept quietly to herself. After graduating high school in 2015, she trained in dental assisting through Jordan Academy for Technology & Careers (JATC) and began studying dental hygiene in college. At twenty one, her life changed with the birth of her daughter, Kiyana. She began working at call centers and dental offices with bills to pay and a growing desire to build something that truly felt her own. For a time, she worked in body art and permanent makeup, which deepened her fascination with skin and precision, but eventually she decided to leave it all behind and pursue her dream of becoming a tattoo artist.
When COVID arrived, Lili was working from home and searching for purpose. The quiet became clarity. She decided she would no longer wait for permission to make art. Sitting at her kitchen table, she began to teach herself tattooing - researching every tool, studying safety protocols, and practicing first on synthetic skin, then on the arms of brave friends. Her earlier experience with dental work and permanent makeup had given her a respect for skin, for cleanliness, and for the science behind artistry. The rest she learned through patience and repetition.
“I never did an apprenticeship. I am all self taught.” Lili knows that in a male-dominated, deeply traditional field, that admission raises eyebrows. But she believes there are many paths to mastery. What matters most, she says, is ethics, skill, and how a client is treated once they sit down. The name Eminent Ink came early. She wanted a word that felt strong and luminous - something that suggested presence. From her first Midvale studio in 2022, the name has stayed the same. When the Midvale shop proved too small, Lili searched for nearly a year before finding a bright new space on 100 South with high ceilings - room for vendors, for piercings, for laughter and quiet alike. The team, however, has grown. Seven artists became ten, all women, each running her own business under one roof.
Artists set their own schedules and bring their own style. Once a month they meet for “Art Day,” where one member chooses a creative or team-building activity - a craft, a field trip, an exercise that keeps them connected. Clients notice the camaraderie. They also appreciate the range: traditional, realism, neotraditional, blackwork, fine line, and tiny tattoos. Some arrive with exact requests; others grant full creative freedom. Lili enjoys both, trusting that a thoughtful consultation will always bring the vision into focus.
Eminent Ink does not just serve clients, it gathers community. The team hosts flash events and fundraisers that draw lines out the door. Last year’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women event raised more than $4,000. Another supported immigrant causes, donating forty percent of proceeds.
Lili’s approach to tattooing is grounded in trust. Sessions can last for hours, and when someone lies on the table, conversation often turns intimate. People share their stories, their griefs and triumphs, their private hopes. Lili listens patiently, unhurried. She understands that sometimes her role is simply to be there, a steady presence as art becomes part of someone’s skin. Her style leans toward line work. It can be bold where it should be bold, fine where it needs breath. Feminine, flowing, and rooted in nature. “I feel as an artist I am still a beginner,” she admits. “I’m experimenting. I think I’ll have things more figured out down the road.” That humility shows in the sketchbooks stacked beside her station and in the loyal stream of returning clients.
There is also a deeper reason behind the all-female space. Many women have shared stories of feeling uneasy in other shops. Tattooing is intimate work, close to the body and deeply personal. At Eminent Ink, consent and comfort come first. The studio’s warmth does not soften its standards; it strengthens them.
Lili’s own relationship with tattoos has evolved. Her first, at seventeen, was impulsive and permanent. (She now believes that eighteen should be the minimum age that someone should get a tattoo.) As she got older, Lili began choosing designs that honored her heritage, drawing from the Chinese middle name her adoptive parents preserved - Xiao, a link to her province of birth. “Tattoos can tell your story,” she says. “They can invite questions or keep them at bay.”
Lili is building all of this while raising her daughter and lifting up other women. She does not seek the spotlight. She creates it for others and invites them in. She works with purpose and grace, believing that the industry is ready for change - and that women will lead it. “I do not need to stand out. I want to help this community grow. I want every woman who walks in here to feel safe, supported, and proud to wear art that tells her story.”
