Rising Stars: Meet Kennedy Matteson of Culver City

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kennedy Matteson.

Hi Kennedy, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Raised in Culver City, Los Angeles—a city known for dreams not just being made, but fought for—I’ve always known that creation and connection were at the heart of my purpose.

My love for art began early. I started attending art school between the ages of 5 and 10, exploring mediums like watercolor, pastel, charcoal, and oil paint. Back then, art was purely for me. I didn’t create to impress; I created to express. Myy instructors often approached me not with correction, but with curiosity. I won art contests I don’t even remember entering. Even now, art remains a lifelong companion, showing up in chapters—sometimes active, sometimes resting—but always present. Creation: an everlasting flame waiting to be sparked.

While earning my degree in Psychology, I wore many hats—especially in hospitality and wellness. At 19, I worked as a veterinary technician. By 22, I was managing a medical office full-time while apprenticing at a tattoo studio in Reseda until 3 a.m., only to wake at 7 a.m. and do it all again. A year in, I left my apprenticeship to tattoo independently. I was later featured on In Ink We Trust Radio, where I spoke about the unique challenges women face in the male-dominated tattoo industry.

When the pandemic hit, I adapted. I took my tattoo work mobile, offering house calls across Los Angeles. My art and community grew entirely by word of mouth—proof that connection thrives even in isolation.

Post-pandemic, I shifted again—this time into yoga. I started at a front desk of a local studio, where I was soon encouraged to teach. At first, I didn’t feel like I “lived and breathed yoga” the way I thought a teacher should, but I took the leap anyway. Since 2021, I’ve been a double-certified, 260-hour yoga instructor. My bread and butter is Yoga Sculpt: a blend of vinyasa flow and weight training in a heated room, often with 30-40 students per class. It’s physically and mentally demanding, which makes the emotional atmosphere I create all the more important.

My classes are about more than movement. They’re about belonging. To feel at home. To create a space to simply be. I believe we’re all still children on the playground—wanting to connect, to play, to feel seen. The world can harden us. My intention is to soften that space again. I open and close every class with heartfelt words, intentionally chosen music, and a commitment to making each person feel witnessed. Every frequency, lyric, and tempo is selected with care—not just for energy, but for psychological impact. I believe in giving my students autonomy and awareness of their bodies—because true wellness begins with self-trust.

Through my years in hospitality, wellness, and my own healing journey with therapy, I’ve become deeply aware of the rising misuse of power in spiritual and wellness spaces. As more people seek healing, many are placing trust in those who haven’t done their own work—and sometimes, who lean into grandiosity over integrity.

That’s why I’m launching my podcast NRG: No Real Gurus in October 2025—to extend my words beyond the yoga studio. My intention is to demystify the wellness industry, to guide listeners back to themselves, and to spotlight community leaders who are walking their path with authenticity, service, and heart.

This isn’t just my story—it’s an ongoing journey toward wholeness, one that I hope will inspire others to come home to themselves, too.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I have known loss in many forms, from many faces and circumstances—each one arriving like a storm, threatening to stunt my growth. But instead, they carved out a deeper resilience in me.

In the echo of outdated structures and the shadow of agism and sexism within male-dominated tattoo shops, I was told—by both men and women—that I would never become anything. And yet, clients sought me out, drawn to the truth in my art.

Still, doubt hovered in the shadows of my mind. I shelved my craft for years, art supplies collecting dust, mistaking survival for surrender. In that silence, I learned: my art was never meant to be mass-produced for profit. It is sacred. It is selective. It is energy.

I have rebuilt from rubble—escaping harsh living situations, unlearning what I was told to accept, and choosing now to create from a place of healing.

I am no longer just surviving. I am reclaiming. I am becoming. I believe everyone deserves that chance.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am a yoga instructor teaching in studios, apartment communities, and private sessions, specializing in yoga sculpt. My classes blend the flow of vinyasa with the intensity of weighted HIIT, guided by music, intention, and the energy of the room. Each session becomes a state of flow—where the beat of rap, EDM, or classical score pulses with affirmations and manifestations. I speak to the body while speaking to the spirit, offering words of encouragement that land with breath, sweat, and rhythm.

Over time, the yoga community has praised the energetic presence I bring into every space. I’ve been entrusted with the quiet, deep stories of those who show up to the mat—shared in vulnerability, held in confidence, never to be tarnished. Within the walls of these studios, I’ve witnessed more than movement—I’ve watched people fall in love, form lifelong friendships, and transform. Community is not a side effect of this work—it’s the heartbeat of it.

In addition to yoga, I’ve been a tattoo artist for the past eight years. Tattooing has been one of my deepest creative callings—a ritual of expression, connection, and storytelling through skin. It is truly an honorable craft and career to connect and heal one another in this way. While I’m currently on hiatus from tattooing to focus on my podcast and community work, I plan to return to the craft in 2026 with renewed clarity and purpose.

I’ve known both hardship and luxury. I’ve seen darkness in many forms. What sets me apart isn’t just surviving it—but the insight it’s carved into me. The kind of wisdom that only experience can bring. In the choice to heal on my own, each day until my last one.

Healing has never been a solitary act. We heal in relationship. We heal in community. We are mirrors to one another’s growth. But to hold space for others—especially in wellness, spiritual, or medical fields—requires deep personal accountability. I’ve seen the difference between those who lead with integrity and those who misuse the platform entirely.

Los Angeles is my home. My people are from here. Everything abundant, joyful, and grounded in my life is a gift from this community. My podcast is an extension of that love and protection—a space to uplift, to reflect, and to give back to the city that raised me.

What sets me apart is the deep care I have for my community—and the deep care my community has always had for me.

Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
What makes me happiest is living in truth—and speaking in it, too.

It took years to find comfort in stepping into my truth, especially in the face of opinions, rejection, or being misunderstood. But over time, I’ve learned that truth is not just where we find ourselves—it’s where we free ourselves.

I never planned to become any of what I’ve been, and I’m so glad I didn’t. My path hasn’t been typical or linear, but it’s been honest. I’ve followed what felt real, even when it was uncertain.

The more I connect to myself, the more my community grows and opens up. There’s something powerful that happens when we give ourselves permission to remeet who we are—to speak from the present moment, learning from the past. When we do that, we create space for others to do the same.

It is creation coming full circle—because to create is happiness, too.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @remembersabra
• Youtube: @remembersabra