A ntionette Reames, ’12, discovered her zeal for art when she was seven, after an Orlando city bus encounter with a young rider who held a sketch book. 

“My mother and I noticed he kept looking at me,” Reames said. “She eventually walked over to ask, ‘Why do you keep staring at my daughter?’  He said that he was drawing a picture of me. I was sitting in a chair with my little teddy bear. When he showed us, I just knew that's what I wanted to do.”

Years later, she did just that. Taking advantage of her natural drawing and painting skills, Reames opened her own private tattoo studio, Black Barby Ink, in 2021. She’s the first African American woman to do this in Milledgeville.

When Reames was young, she enjoyed playing with Barbies™. Her mother wanted to get Barbies™ that looked like her. 

“She would bring me Black Barbies™,” Reames said. “Every time we went somewhere my mother would always call my sister and I her ‘Black Barbies™.’”

“This stuck with me,” she said. “Right before I decided to open my business, I took my daughter to the store to pick out a Barbie™. Before I cut my hair, I had curly hair with a ‘fro’ on top. She came to me and said, ‘Mommy, this is you.’ I kid you not. The Barbie™ doll looked just like me.”

Reames started tattooing as a student at the University of North Florida. The first tattoo she did was on the owner of Black Ink Orlando. Since then, Reames built on that experience by applying her refined drawing and painting skills that she learned from Georgia College & State University.

“I thought, Okay, I can do this—I can get certified,” she said. “I studied everything including the latest equipment and different tattoo styles, and I passed my exams. So, I was able to open a private tattoo studio.”

Not only does Reames tattoo her artistic works at her studio, but she also takes her talent on the road, touring places like Atlanta, Barbados, Chicago, Jacksonville and Trinidad.  

Reames came to Georgia College from UNF, where she majored in art and played basketball for three years. The coaches at Georgia College noticed her skill and contacted Reames to see if she would visit campus. She hopped on a Greyhound Bus bound for Milledgeville. 

“Women’s Head Basketball Coach John Carrick, ’74, ’77, and Women’s Assistant Coach Maurice Smith, ’01, ’06, are great individuals,” Reames said. “I enjoyed my visit to Georgia College. After touring the campus and meeting everyone in the Art Department, I decided this is where I wanted to graduate.”

She played basketball for two years as a front/center at Georgia College. At UNF, she had torn her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) during her sophomore year—just seven games into the season. So, the university gave her the year back for an extra year of eligibility to play.

As a student-athlete, Reames developed organizational skills that she still uses in her profession.

“I had to plan things out daily so I could focus on time management,” she said. “We would do early morning workouts, then I had classes and tried to fit lunch into my schedule and go to basketball practice and then classes again.”

Traveling out of town for a game or tournament meant Reames had limited time for homework. So, she used a tutor and study hall to keep her focused.

Art classes and painting were a welcome relief in her tight schedule.

“After I finished my homework and basketball practice, I went home to rest,” Reames said. “Then, late at night, I’d go to the Art Department to paint. It was very relaxing for me. That was my time.” 

She thought Dr. Tina Yarborough, former professor of Art History and Interdisciplinary Studies, was “amazing.”

“She made art history interesting and kept me engaged,” Reames said. “She understood that I was a student-athlete and extremely tired from early morning workouts.”

The long days were worth it, however. Playing basketball and leading the team at Georgia College taught Reames leadership skills.

“I learned how to socialize and articulate my thoughts while considering people’s feelings on and off the court,” she said. “I had to collaborate with my teammates to help them understand what the coach wanted within a short time frame to execute the play.”

Another one of Reame’s favorite professors was Valerie Aranda, professor of art, drawing and painting, who strongly encouraged her to push her ability to the limit.

“Antoinette, you're a well-developed artist,” Aranda would say. “We know you can paint and draw but we want to see you do more.”

“She knew I could effortlessly paint and draw things that I was naturally capable of doing, like portraits,” Reames said.

Aranda wanted to see something different from Reames. 

“One day, I looked at a basketball located in the center of the room,” she said. “I was like, ‘Why don't I paint on a basketball?’”

Reames researched to see if anyone had ever painted on the surface of a basketball or football before. She found nothing.

She went to Aranda with the idea, who approved it. Aranda told Reames to create a step-by-step guide on how she would accomplish this and articulate her plans to the class.

“That's what I did,” Reames said. “This became a way bigger project than I expected. But I like a challenge.”

Her painting ability and creativity are well suited for creating tattoos. Reames specializes in tattooing portraits on people.

“I know the different values and understand where light hits on the face so I can add shadows and detail to the nose, eyes and lips—everything,” she said. “I love drawing and painting. I use those same painting techniques I learned from Georgia College; except I just use a machine and needles instead of a paintbrush.”

Reames embraces the challenges tattooing presents.

“Not everyone can do a pop-up portrait,” she said. “If you do one of these, you must get it right on the first try because it’s permanent. I'm able to nail it every time from my experience with painting.”

From extra small to extra large, tattoos can take anywhere from 15 minutes to three days, depending on the size and intricacy of the artwork.

“The best part of owning my own business is knowing that I put that time and dedication into it,” she said. “I want it to flourish and want the grit that comes with it. It's all about the independence—I can make my own work-life balance.”

Every day, Reames draws inspiration from her children—Kaiden, London, Jordyn and Zuri, who inherited their mother’s drawing creativity.

“They are beautiful, intelligent and amazing,” she said. “I look at them, even when I'm dog tired, and they're so comforting. Then, when they come into the shop, they're constantly with their sketchbooks, drawing things.”

Reames is thrilled she became a tattoo artist, opened her own studio and can be a role model for her children and others.

“The best thing about being a tattoo artist is the freedom to know I can travel anywhere in the world and be in a trade where the demographic is huge,” she said, “and I can do what I love—painting.”