Bethel Park woman takes unconventional path to tattoo reality TV show
Jacob Calvin Meyer/The Almanac
Rachel Helmich stands in her Bridgeville studio after recently appearing on the “Ink Master” television show.
Jacob Calvin Meyer/The Almanac
Pyramid Tattoo in Bridgeville.
When Rachel Helmich turned 18 years old, she rushed to get a tattoo.
It was 1994, and it would be the first of many tattoos – so many she’s stopped counting.
Looking back, it isn’t about the ink she got or where she got it, but rather her tattoo artist, Craig Helmich.
By Jacob Calvin Meyer
Staff writer
jmeyer@thealmanac.net
Rachel Helmich, of Bethel Park, talks about how she got her start in tattooing, her Bridgeville tattoo shop, Pyramid Tattoo, and being a contestant on “Ink Master.”
“I liked my tattoo a lot, but I also liked him. So I kept going back for years,” she said. “I had a crush on my tattoo artist. I just waited patiently for him to be available.”
Nearly 25 years after her first tattoo, Rachel and Craig are married with two kids. She’s a tattoo artist herself after learning 16 years ago from her now-husband. She recently appeared on two versions of Spike’s reality television show “Ink Master.”
Rachel, who grew up in Ingram, continued to go back to Craig’s tattoo shop in Pittsburgh to get tattoos. It wasn’t until 2000 – six years after her first tattoo – when they started dating after a mutual friend connected the two.
A year earlier, Rachel graduated from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh for industrial design, but she decided to go into tattooing after Craig, who started tattooing in 1977, offered to teach her.
“Craig was one of the original five people in the city who tattooed in the 70s, so he’s a veteran around here,” she said. “The opportunity for him to teach me came up, and I decided to take it.”
Craig then moved to Hawaii in 2001; Rachel followed a year later. They got married, opened a tattoo shop together and had two children. In 2015, Rachel and Craig moved back to Western Pennsylvania to live in Bethel Park and opened Pyramid Tattoo in Bridgeville, where Bridgeville Tattoo used to be.
Soon after, Rachel was contacted by a 2017 spinoff of “Ink Master” called ”Ink Master Angels,” where a group of women from “Ink Master Season 8,” travel to different cities in the country to find contestants for the upcoming season of “Ink Master.”
“I’m not competitive with other people, and I don’t really like the attention. But when we moved back to Pittsburgh, all of my clients were in Hawaii, so I was starting from scratch,” she said. “Craig had connections here, and people were just finding out that he was back, but I was basically just trying to get business.”
Rachel competed against two other contestants in Pittsburgh, including her brother, Joe Capone, who is also a tattoo artist in Verona. In the show, which aired right before Thanksgiving, Rachel defeated both contestants, as well as one of the hosts of the show, to earn a spot on “Ink Master Season 10.”
The first episode of “Ink Master Season 10” started on Jan. 9 with 24 contestants. While 18 contestants moved on to the rest of the season, Rachel’s “Ink Master” ride was over, as she was eliminated.
After the show aired, Rachel tweeted from her Twitter account @RachelHtattoo thanking her fans and the other contestants.
“I met a lot of great people. I learned a lot quickly. Watching them do something, you pick up right away. That was great just for that little bit of knowledge,” Rachel said. “The show is crazy. It’s a lot of filming. The tattooing is the easy part. Everything else was strenuous.”
Since tattooing is something Rachel didn’t plan on doing for a living, she’s enjoying the everyday work at Pyramid Tattoo.
“I like that it’s different every day and that people come to me for all different styles,” she said. “I constantly get my fix for doing new creative things or something simple or traditional. I’m constantly satisfied as an artist.”
To watch Rachel Helmich on “Ink Master Angels,” click here.
To watch Rachel on “Ink Master Season 10,” click here.
Pyramid Tattoo is open Monday through Saturday from 12 to 7 p.m. To schedule an appointment, visit www.pyramidtattoo.com.