Now starring ... Meghan

MEGHAN BETH PAGLIARONI

Age: 23

From: Somerset originally, now living in Warren, R.I..

Time tattooing: 3+ years..

Favorite tattoo/piercing: Tattoo: Definately a toss up between my Alice in Wonderland sleeve, which is in progress, or the diamond on my hand. It's so hard to choose only one! Piercing: My favorite piercing would have to be my nose (right side with a stud and a ring) and my vertical labret.

Interests: "I'm a girl and in being such, I love to shop. If I have money longer than two weeks, I feel the urge to shop! But I do love video games."

Favorite videogame of all time: "Final Fantasy 7. FTW. I've still got my fingers crossed for the remake. Come ON, SquareEnix!! Revive the PS3!"

Favorite colors: Black and pink

Favorite pieces she's done: A grimreaper werewolf, a really cool falcon with a sugar skull hood and a googly eyed goldfish.

Random fact: "I'm really strange and a huge geek, but I've become strangely comfortable with it."

"Although I don't get picked on as bad as when I was an apprentice, I still get it on a daily basis!"

Pagliaroni holds her own however.

"As soon as I turned 18, my cousin Tony had me come to the shop and Kenny gave me a few piercings, and not too long after Paul was tattooing me. Who knew that he would end up hiring me! The poor bastard!!"

"I hounded Paul a lot to hire me, and one day he actually took me up on the offer! And now I get my kicks annoying the hell out of him."

Averaging 11-hour days at the tattoo shop for the last few months, Pagliaroni has come a long way from working at Aeropostale and Reds Quickzone gas station.

"I can't see myself doing anything else with my life. I'm 23 and I'm living my dream," Pagliaroni said.

"I'd always loved art and I've been drawing since I could hold a crayon without eating it. It always seemed natural to persue a career in art, but until I moved to New Hampshire, I'd never even considered the possibility of tattooing."

"I hung around a lot of tattoo shops in my neighborhood and quickly developed a love for it. When I moved back to Massachusetts, I went from shop to shop looking for someone to take me in."

"The only place I found some hope in was XBody. The environment was so relaxing and the guys were really awesome. I was there every chance I could be until they finally gave me the chance I wanted so badly."

In the last two years, Meg has started making waves in the industry beyond Massachusetts and Rhode Island, appearing on Oxygen's realtiy tattooing competition "Best Ink" and on the cover of Tattoo magazine with the cast.

Meg loves doing color and black and grey portraits and works in an anime and comic book style although she can work across just about any style of tattooing.

MEG'S HOURS

Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, from noon to 10 p.m.