Meet Dr. Dennis Boseman

We recently connected with Dr. Dennis Boseman and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Dr. Dennis, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?

I didn’t build confidence from compliments. I built it from keeping promises to myself for a long time. I didn’t feel confident I felt uncertain overwhelmed and behind, so I stopped chasing confidence and started chasing competence. I showed up on the days I didn’t want to. I did the hard things when no one was watching in overtime I started trusting myself Confidence didn’t come from my hype. It came from proof of my outcomes project after project year after year, I also learned that confidence isn’t loud, but it is certain it’s knowing who you are what you won’t tolerate and what you’re capable of even when things fall apart the moment I stop trying impress people and started to respect myself. Everything changed.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I’m the founder of Tattoo Therapy™ and Nobility Tattoo, and what I do goes far beyond putting tattoos in skin. I work with people who are healing, transforming, grieving, reclaiming themselves, or finally becoming who they were always meant to be. Tattoos became my language for helping people rewrite their stories in a permanent and powerful way.

I’m 38 years old, a father of two amazing kids, Dennis and Brooklyn. I was born in Queens and raised in Brooklyn, New York. I moved to Ohio and began my tattoo career in 2005, expecting to build a trade, but found a calling.

Early on, I noticed something unexpected: many people consistently described getting tattooed as therapeutic. Not in a casual way but deeply therapeutic. While working with thousands of clients, I began to recognize patterns in grief, identity loss, trauma, and self-reclamation that showed up again and again.

At the same time, I was navigating my own lived experience with trauma, loss, and parental alienation. Tattooing became my therapy, lifestyle and my survival. That struggle is what pushed me toward learning everything I could about psychology and emotional healing.

My path changed when I met my partner in healing, Christine Toporcer, LPCC. She introduced me to the clinical side of therapy and helped structure what I was already seeing in my work every day. I hadn’t had formal training at that point but I had thousands of real conversations, real stories, and real transformations happening in front of me.

That’s where Tattoo Therapy™ was born. Not as an idea but my solution.

As founder of Tattoo Therapy™ and Nobility Tattoo, I focus on helping people heal through intentional art, trauma-informed care, and emotional awareness. We’ve expanded this mission through our nonprofit organization, The Tribal Temple, which provides free tattoo services through a donation-based, pay-it-forward model for those who need healing the most.

My long-term vision is to see Tattoo Therapy™ become recognized as an acceptable therapeutic treatment modality within healthcare systems where art, psychology, and nervous system healing are respected alongside traditional therapy and somatic integration.

I’ve since been awarded an honorary doctorate in creative arts therapy and have become a trauma-informed educator, helping train other artists to work safely and intentionally with people who carry invisible wounds. Together with Christine’s clinical support, we integrate art, trauma-informed coaching, and professional counseling to meet people where they truly are.

What drives me is simple:
Helping people feel like themselves again.

If someone walks out of my studio standing taller, breathing deeper, or finally feeling seen, my work is working.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

If I had to boil it down, the biggest things that shaped me were dedication, commitment to my craft, and my ability to recognize patterns.

I didn’t have some overnight success story. Most of what I built came from showing up when it was inconvenient, uncomfortable, or discouraging. I learned early that motivation fades, but the people who last are the ones who keep going even when it’s quiet or slow.

Tattooing was never just a job to me. I treated it like a responsibility. I studied skin, healing, symbolism, and how art lives on a body over time. I wanted my work to matter ten plus years later, not just look good on day one.

I’ve also always noticed things other people don’t like how people react emotionally, how designs flow, how patterns repeat in behavior and relationships. Some people might call it ADHD, but I learned to use it instead of fight it. It lets me read people quickly, see connections, and understand what someone is really saying even when they don’t know how to say it yet.

If I could tell anyone early in their journey something, it would be this: stop trying to be like everyone else. Learn how you work. Aim what makes you different instead of trying to erase it.

Awesome, really appreciate you opening up with us today and before we close maybe you can share a book recommendation with us. Has there been a book that’s been impactful in your growth and development?

The book that helped me navigate people the most has been How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie.

That book taught me something I never forgot: most people don’t want to be impressed, they want to be understood. Simple things like really listening, remembering names, not making everything about being right, and letting people feel seen changed the way I move through the world.

One of the ideas that stuck with me the most is that you can’t argue someone into changing. Instead you have to create space for them to feel safe enough to change on their own. That’s been huge for me, especially working with people who carry trauma or emotion into a room before they ever speak.

Another principle I live by is: “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” Tattooing, healing, relationships, business, none of it works if you just wing it. Intentional people live differently. When you prepare, you create options instead of accidents.

Those two ideas together shaped how I live:
Treat people like they matter and move with purpose.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Dennis Boseman, Korbin Gebhart, Richard Cook, Zack Gibson, Brooklyn Boseman, Christine Toporcer, Amanda Cason, Jordan Cason, Daniel Kamel, Antoine Davis, Jamie Hickey

Suggest a Story: BoldJourney is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems,
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
Confidence
Breaking Barriers: Succeeding Even When Representation is Lacking

What do you do when no one else in the company or the meeting looks

Leadership Development
Finding Your Why

Not knowing why you are going wherever it is that you are going sounds silly,

Relationships
Surviving Divorce: Stories and Lessons

For many, marriage is foundational and so when a marriage falls apart it can feel