Ink Master star Ryan Headley tragically passed away after a battle with cancer at the age of 46. His family announced his passing on his social media account
Ink Master star Ryan Hadley has died at the age of 46 after a battle with cancer, as his family paid tribute to him.
His loved ones made the announcement on their Instagram page on June 21. The family shared a black and white photo of Ryan smiling and getting a tattoo on an unidentified person’s thigh.
The message was captioned, “Ryan left this world last night surrounded by his loved ones.” Although his life was cut short, he left a legacy in both the art and tattoo worlds during this time.
“He loved his many fans, his friends and customers and most of all his children. He will be missed and remembered forever. A legend for life,” the post concluded. At the end of the ad were two hashtags: “RIP and damn cancer.”
Ryan was diagnosed with seminoma, a malignant germ cell tumor that “arises from testicular cancer.” He revealed this diagnosis on Instagram in December 2023, posting a photo of himself in a hospital bed with his eyes closed. He said he had completed the first week of chemotherapy and was on “high alert” to avoid catching a cold or flu.
He added that “poison was pumped into my heart for approximately 122 hours” to help him fight the disease, which is a “very fast cancer cell that seemingly creates tumors everywhere it goes.” Thanking his fans for their support and kindness, he said he was “not ready to leave the world,” will “not let my children and loved ones down,” and will continue to fight “day by day.”
At the end of the message, he added that he had created a GoFundMe page. On his official GoFundMe account, the tattoo artist said he was “incapacitated” while undergoing “aggressive cancer treatment.”
In April, he posted on Instagram that his chemotherapy had not been successful or helped him, saying the “incurable” cancer had spread to his liver and lungs. He said, “Death is the outcome,” and was unsure how long he would be here, saying maybe “another week, or maybe another three months.”
The post ended, “Death doesn’t scare me at all…just the fact that my kids left me makes me angry and there’s nothing I can do about it.” “I’ll keep everyone updated on that up until a certain point. Very soon, I’ll be gone for good.
Just three days ago, on June 17, his family announced that Ryan was accepting end-of-life donations “to help cover end-of-life costs.”
Ryan was on season 6 of Ink Master. He had over two decades in the tattoo industry and he owned a tattoo and art gallery in Indiana.