Lainey Castro: transforming materials, emotions, and stories
La Catedral Studios, Dublin — Inside La Catedral Studios, one of the artists shaping up the space with her emotions, instinct, and sensitivity is Lainey Castro. Born in São Bernardo do Campo, São Paulo, and living in Ireland for the past nine years, Lainey carries with her an artistic allure informed by migration, curiosity, and a lifelong desire to express what she feels but cannot always speak. Her practice spans tattooing, visual art, and jewellery made from discarded materials, a set of disciplines connected by her belief in transformation, both artistic and personal.
Lainey’s pathway into creativity began early. Trained in Fashion Design, she later expanded her skills through courses in art, digital illustration, photography, eyebrow design, tattooing, and more, following whatever medium allowed her to explore expression. She has been tattooing for five years, but she recalls that it was only recently, while creating her first mini-installation, that she felt a profound shift, a sense of finally being able to access and communicate her deepest emotions through art.
This emotional depth shapes all her work, particularly her tattoos, which emerge from a mixture of intuition, nature, and lived experience. Ideas often come to her late at night, drawing from sensations rather than references, and she approaches each piece as a unique dialogue with the person who will wear it. Although she welcomes input from clients, she never repeats or copies designs; each tattoo grows from a combination of her instinct and the individual in front of her.
Alongside tattooing, Lainey has been creating upcycled jewellery for the past ten months, a practice that reflects her fascination with giving new life to overlooked materials. She feels a particular connection to bicycle inner tubes, drawn to their rough, resilient texture; she balances their toughness with the lightness of natural elements such as stones, wood, shells, and bones. She often finds objects simply while walking, noticing how certain shapes or fragments seem to reveal themselves to her. Transforming these materials into something wearable brings her a sense of joy and renewal; every piece she makes is one-of-a-kind, carrying the story of what it once was.
Since joining La Catedral Studios, Lainey has also been considering the idea of offering workshops. For now, she is reorganising her many projects, including returning to eyebrow design, which she practised professionally for two years, but she hopes to develop workshops in the future when the time feels right. Teaching, for her, is another form of connection, an extension of the creative exchange she already experiences through her tattoos and jewellery.
Lainey’s artistic voice is shaped not only by her training but also by her life outside the studio. Before becoming a tattoo artist, she worked in several types of jobs, experiences that taught her patience, attention, and emotional presence.
She is also grateful for the opportunities to work as a guest tattoo artist in other countries, finding cultural exchange both inspiring and transformative, one of the reasons she continues to make her life in Europe.
Lainey’s practice adds another voice to the diverse creative landscape of the Studios. Her creative path does not follow a straight line; it shifts, branches, and loops like the organic forms she draws on skin or assembles into jewellery. At the heart of everything she makes is the act of listening to materials, to people, to intuition, and the desire to transform experience into something tangible. Her presence in the studio reflects a commitment to growth, connection, and the constant reshaping of ideas, all grounded in the belief that creativity begins long before the work takes its final form.
You can see more of Lainey’s work on her Instagram profiles:
Tattoo: @laineycastro_
Upcycled Art: @laineycastro_art
Brows: @laineycastro_browartist
Written by Federica Paletta