Shana Irish and the Path to Surviving Remission: A Life of Restoring Mind, Body, and Soul with Holistic Health

Shana Irish, a former esthetician, renowned cosmetic and paramedical tattoo artist, wellness coach, and cancer survivor is proud to announce the unveiling of the Maevora Wellness Collective. An idea born at the crest of her fight with breast cancer, Shana carried herself out of the dusk through her sheer will to empower other survivors. With the operatic tone of a clear purpose ringing in her ears, she shares her story from trying out law school to tattoo artistry to the transformative power of holism with the Maevora Wellness Collective.

Raised in a home filled to the brim with art and creativity, a young Shana looked forward to a life following her parents’ footsteps. Both her mother and father are internationally-known artists who have showcased their works around the world, so when Shana achieved a full-ride scholarship to study art in college, she was disappointed when neither of her parents wanted her to struggle and encouraged her to follow a different path. Of course, they knew that a life fulfilling one’s creative needs would be a difficult one, so Shana started law school instead. “And I hated it. I absolutely hated it,” she says.

The moment she started college, Shana was already done with law. During her gap year, she was introduced to esthetics, where she as a skincare professional learned what it meant to show people they were as beautiful on the outside as they were on the inside. However, Shana’s inner artist was growing restless, and she continued to yearn for a more creative route to empowerment.

Before starting her business, Skyn Studio, Shana had one last tango with esthetics after a late-night YouTube rabbit hole into microblading— a technique to enhance the appearance of one’s eyebrows. This was right at the cusp of its mainstream popularity in the USA, and Shana knew she’d hit a goldmine. She went from Chicago to Toronto to train with the continent’s best practitioners. Shana returned as a certified microblading tattoo artist, and Skyn Studio opened with roaring success.

She recalls, “As an esthetician, I eventually came to a point where I felt I had done everything that was there to be done. That’s where tattooing came in. It was the perfect marriage between honoring the skin and artistry. I could finally be the artist I was; I had found my canvas.”

Her expertise with Skyn Studio was in hyperrealistic enhancements of the natural body. Renowned for eyebrow tattoos that are impossible to distinguish from the real thing and medical tattoos that camouflage scars and restore areolas, Shana has always been committed to restoring people to their whole selves. Skyn Studio flourished and thrived for eight years; then, she received a diagnosis of breast cancer.

It was the night before her fourth operation— the surgeries were always the scariest part of the treatment process— and all of a sudden, she woke up at 3:30 AM in the morning to the sound of a bell chiming. As she went back to sleep, Shana felt a sense of clarity rush through her bones. “They say that if you hear a bell ring between 3 and 4 o’clock in the morning, it’s a sign that everything is going to be okay. When I heard the chime, I knew what I had to do. It was my call to action as a healer,” she recalls.

She awoke the next morning with no anxiety or fear. Her surgery was successful, and Shana recovered quicker than she ever had before. Shana adds, “After the operation, I was of clear mind and ready to leave right away. It was unlike anything I’d ever experienced in a hospital.”

From that day on, Shana assumed a life in service of her community. As she went through the many complications that arise from cancer treatment, from hypersensitivity to prescription medication to hair loss and a double mastectomy, she chose to follow a holistic treatment plan with her oncologist’s encouragement. Shana became a breast cancer survivor in 2023, and more than followed through on her newfound mission as a healer.

She had always known the value of holistic health practices and the gaps in knowledge that Western medicine leaves for patients and people in remission to fill in. So, she founded the Maevora Wellness Collective for women to reconnect with the strength of their bodies through holistic empowerment and share their inspiration with each other.

Striving to run parallel to Western approaches to healthcare, where etiologies and recovery plans often don’t provide survivors with the tools to truly restore themselves in mind, body, and spirit, Maevora hopes to engender a like-minded community of care and a complete, holistic education of health.

Today, Shana Irish is working to phase out the success of Skyn Studio and dedicate her attention to cultivating the Maevora Wellness Collective with her unique empathy and expertise. Maevora is set to begin programs centered around life after cancer and women’s health in early 2025 and open the Collective’s doors to retreats soon after. Maevora is committed to blending the art of ancient wellness with modern empowerment and reuniting women with their physical, emotional, and spiritual bodies.

Medical: This article is for informational purposes only and does not substitute for professional medical advice. If you are seeking medical advice, diagnosis or treatment, please consult a medical professional or healthcare provider.