It was war that drove Alona Hamova from her home, but somehow she always knew she was destined to leave. “I felt like I didn’t fit in there,” she said.
He grew up in Novovasylivka, a small Ukrainian village just a few miles from the port of Berdyansk in the east of the country. For Ms. Hamova it was a space of limited opportunities and imagination, a space that thwarted her ambition. “I lived in this village where everyone was like, ‘Oh, you just have to be like this,'” she said. “I would see people on TV living their best lives and think I want that too. I am motivated by my own desires. Not having something I want hurts.”
He attended the National Linguistic University of Kyiv and graduated with translation studies and proficiency in four languages, but he was unsure about the work he wanted to do and where exactly he wanted to live.
When she was 22, she got a tattoo of a whale on her stomach and opened a conversation with the artist. The artist became her mentor and Ms Hamova learned the basics of tattooing. “I loved drawing since I was a kid,” he said. “But I always thought I wasn’t creative enough. It was a lack of confidence.”
She messed around with it for a few years, searching for her own style. She got six more tattoos: a lotus on her back, a mandala on her thigh, a small branch near her collarbone, a beetle and flowers on her feet, and daffodils near her kneecap, which is her favorite as it is over time. become a personal symbol of self-acceptance.
It was a difficult breakup at age 25 that helped her gain clarity. “This is the moment I discovered my style,” she said, “because I was able to accept myself, love myself and embrace who I am.”
Soon, her high-contrast floral tattoos executed in fine lines became popular. He was gaining customers and confidence. Then Russia invaded Ukraine. Ms Hamova said she had to leave: “There was nothing else I could do.”
It was early 2022, when her art was also rising followers on social media. A tattoo studio in Williamsburg, Brooklyn offered her a position as a guest artist. But she wasn’t ready to move to the United States, so she spent nearly a year traveling around Europe, working as a studio artist in places like Munich and Vienna. “Work helped me deal with everything,” he said. “And I did therapy, which helped a lot with dealing with the emotions.”
She finally felt ready to accept Brooklyn’s offer. “I didn’t know anything about New York,” he said. “I thought it’s probably the place for everyone, as it’s so multicultural.”
$4,514 | Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Alona Hamova, 28
Occupation: Tattoo artist
In the big cities: When Ms. Hamova first arrived in Kyiv as a student, she immediately knew she preferred life in a big city. “It feels more natural,” he said. “I feel like in Kiev I started to learn who I am and now in New York, I’m getting the results. I believe everyone knows what they want in life – it just takes courage to really listen to that inner voice and follow it.”
For home furniture: Before moving to New York, Ms. Hamova had lived in several apartments in different cities, but they had all come furnished. Her Brooklyn apartment provided her first opportunity to decide what her home would be like.
Ms. Hamova arrived in New York in February 2023 and was granted a two-year visa under the government’s Union for Ukraine program. “You make a decision to go somewhere, book a flight, book a place to stay and that’s it. You will understand when you get there,” he said. “I prepared myself financially because I heard everyone say it was too expensive.”
The Court Square, a hotel in Queens, was her home for a month. She spent most of her time looking for an apartment in Williamsburg, where she knew she would work. Skip the online searches and just walk the streets, looking for posted signs for available apartments.
The feel of Williamsburg reminded her of Kiev, but she had trouble finding the right place.
He felt he needed to slow down, so he rented another apartment for a month through Airbnb. “I was going through some mental challenges,” he said, “just because I didn’t know I was so traumatized by the situation in Ukraine. And I realized that when I looked at each apartment, I compared it with the one I had in Kiev. I finally understood the situation with my therapist, who I have been working with online for over two years. I was able to let it go and be ready to move on to something new.”
With extra time and a fresh perspective, she found a one-bedroom apartment at 325 Kent, a development built by Two Trees Management in 2017 along the East River. Now she has floor-to-ceiling windows that frame her skyline views and, on a framed poster above her couch, her life motto: “The world is yours.”
Most importantly, it lives in water. “Whenever I’m facing challenges in my life and I need to regain my composure, I just go to Domino Park and sit and look at the water and the view of Manhattan,” he said. “My peace comes from looking at the water, so it’s a great gift to be able to go right outside and do that.”
Anchored in her shelter on Kent Avenue, she spent much of 2023 working out the details of her new life. The original studio where he was hired didn’t work out and he had trouble making friends. “I’m quite an introverted person,” he said. She got a job at another studio called Atelier Eva — which was a better fit, just a five-minute walk from her apartment. She found her favorite pizza place and a friend, also from Ukraine, meets there regularly. “We have our ‘Pizza Joe moments,'” he said, at the famous Joe’s Pizza in Brooklyn.
New York is now giving Ms. Hamova the freedom she sought when she left Novovasilivka and the security she needed when she left Kiev. “Of course, it’s very stressful to move to another country,” she said, “but New York didn’t scare me. I knew it was big enough. There must be a place for me.”