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Helena: A Fort Collins Tattoo Artist with Global Experience and Heart
- Aimee Heckel
- Sep 21
- 5 min read
Updated: Sep 26
When you sit in Helena Bezpalko’s chair, you’re not just meeting another female Fort Collins tattoo artist. You’re looking at a survivor, a dreamer, and someone who has fought harder than most to live a life filled with art and meaning.
Helena’s journey began in Kherson, Ukraine, where childhood dreams of art school were crushed by tragedy, political collapse, and hunger. Yet through it all, Helena carried a spark: a love for drawing, and a true gift for bringing beauty into a broken world. Today, that spark burns bright in every line she pulls.
Helena’s story is one of resilience. It’s why clients feel so deeply connected to her — because she doesn’t just ink skin, she pours her heart into every piece. Helena, a Ukrainian refugee, has worked her way around the world to get here. At Solana Tattoo in Fort Collins, she has finally found not only her studio home, but also a community that embraces the hope and healing her art represents.
The Artist’s Journey
Helena was born in 1986 in Kherson, then part of the Soviet Union. From the beginning, she was different: outspoken, incredibly quick to read, and gifted with a natural talent for drawing. She dreamed of attending a specialized art school, but when her family was hit by tragedy — the sudden death of her sister, followed by her mother’s years-long depression — those dreams were pushed aside.
By the early 1990s, the Soviet Union had collapsed, and Ukraine was thrown into chaos. Families went hungry, jobs disappeared, and crime filled the streets. Helena remembers those years as a time of pure survival.
“We had nothing — no food, no work, no future,” she says.
Still, she excelled in school, throwing herself into art whenever she could. She was always at the top of her class.
Helena went on to earn multiple university degrees in accounting and economics with a “red diploma,” an honors diploma awarded to students with the highest academic results. But the work felt empty compared with her hunger for art. She changed her jobs about 10 different times.
“It was not mine. From my childhood, I dreamed of creating art – something for my soul. Not just numbers and computer work,” Helena says.
Everything changed in 2014, when she met a man named Igor. Their love blossomed quickly. One year later, they were married. He had served in the Ukrainian special forces and survived some of the world's deadliest jobs. But she saw another side of him, too: an artist’s soul.
He showed her his artwork: beautiful, realistic drawings that reignited her own passion for art. She urged Igor to pick up a tattoo machine again (he’d done a few tattoos in the army with a self-built machine). They learned together.
They had no mentors, no apprenticeships — just determination, YouTube videos, and the occasional kindness of another artist willing to share a scrap of knowledge. Ukraine offered no formal training in tattooing, and the artists Igor and Helena held their information close. As with their whole lives, they would have to figure it out on their own, against all odds.
Helena first perfected permanent makeup. A few years later, she and Igor were invited to work in a professional shop, and Helena expanded beyond permanent makeup into tattooing, where she had even more creativity.
“I didn’t want to be famous or do it for the money,” she says. “I just really love to make people happy. The world is so cruel, and I wanted to show them that there is goodness, too.”
From those humble beginnings, Helena grew. Guest spots across Europe taught her resilience and skill, often under harsh conditions. In Turkey, she tattooed tourists for 15 hours a day for a 15% cut in a chaotic shop filled with drinking and drugs. In Finland and Poland, she and Igor lived on the edge, scraping by and supporting their families while working nonstop.
Along the way, they lost close friends to war. They endured rejection, exploitation, and exhaustion — yet Helena continued to create because art was her lifeline.
In 2024, after years of uncertainty and war in their homeland, Helena and Igor finally reached the United States — their lifelong dream. Fort Collins became their refuge, and Solana Tattoo Company their new artistic family.
Artistic Style and Specialties
Helena doesn’t box herself into a single category. She can truly do anything. But fine line tattoos and cartoon-inspired art hold her heart. Unique, detailed, and full of life, her tattoos reflect both her technical skill and her emotional depth.
“Every tattoo is a chance to make someone smile,” she says. “To take an idea, bring it to life, and know they’ll carry that joy forever.”
It’s a legacy for a young woman whose love of art was nearly lost to war and poverty.
“They will see the tattoo all their life, and they will remember me,” she says.
What It’s Like to Get Tattooed by Helena
Clients often describe their experience of being tattooed by Helena as calming and deeply personal. She takes time to listen, not just to the design request, but to the emotions and story behind it. As a refugee, she knows firsthand that a tattoo can mark survival, transformation, or remembrance, and she treats every piece with that level of care.
At Solana Tattoo Company, Helena finally works in an environment she always dreamed of but never knew could be real: private rooms, sterile equipment, creative encouragement, and a close-knit team that values professionalism as much as artistry.
She and Igor were invited to work at a long list of tattoo shops in Colorado and have worked in more than a dozen studios across the globe, from bustling shops in Europe to some of the most prestigious studios that personally recruited them for their skill.
And yet, with all of that experience, Helena says nothing compares to Solana.
“This is the best shop we’ve ever worked in,” she says. “Not just in Fort Collins — in our whole career.”
Learn More About Fort Collins Tattoo Artist Helena
Helena is a trained boxer, and the discipline of the sport influences her art.
Her happiest moment? Seeing the joy in a client’s face when they realize the tattoo is precisely what they hoped for.
She grew up in a communist republic on a farm with 19 cats, eight dogs, chickens, ducks, and a garden. She helped her dad build the house from the ground up.
Helena has been drawing since the age of 3.
She holds a bachelor's degree in accounting and a master’s degree in economics, both of which were awarded to her with the highest accolades.
Helena’s life is proof that even in the most challenging times, art can survive — and heal. From the streets of Kherson to the studios of Europe to Solana Tattoo Company in Fort Collins, her journey has been one of resilience, courage, and love for art and people.
Book with Helena today and see firsthand why she’s one of the best tattoo artists in Fort Collins — an artist who can turn survival into beauty, and pain into lasting art.
