When Ink, decked out in a furry vest and a large turquoise bolo tie, walked through the door of Rolling Stone’s studio to record a recent appearance on the Nashville Now podcast, she realized she’d forgotten one important piece of her outfit: her cowboy hat.
But Ink, born Atia Boggs to a military mom in Germany and raised in Georgia, is nothing if not resourceful. Spying an old felt hat hanging on the wall as décor, she tossed it atop her head and made it her own. “I Inked it up,” she says.
The 39-year-old songwriter, who’s also a singer, musician, and producer, has established herself as a secret-weapon collaborator across genres. At this year’s Grammy Awards, she was nominated for her work on Kendrick Lamar’s GNX, and during the 2025 awards, she watched with delight as Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter, for which she co-wrote hits like “Texas Hold ‘Em,” was named Album of the Year.
“As other artists help position me and help put my music out there through their music, it helps,” Ink says. “It really don’t matter what genre, the topic, the subject. It’s just about the music.”
Now, she’s focusing on Nashville. Last October, she released her EP Big Buskin’, a nod to her early days playing for change around Atlanta. She’s currently readying a full country album.
“So many people worry about what is and what isn’t country. We worry about labels and forget about the substance, the real thing, what’s in the container,” she says. “People from all walks of life are loving this genre. I stand with good music. It don’t matter where you’re from, what you’re doing, what you own, as long as you represent it right.”
To that end, Ink says she’s inspired by country artists like Sturgill Simpson and the late Charley Pride, as well as Kacey Musgraves, with whom she’s written several songs, and Kane Brown. She’s not averse to Billy Ray Cyrus, either. “I still listen to ‘Achy Breaky Heart,’” Ink says. “I just listen to what feels good.”
Feeling good is what drives the music Ink is making as well. The Big Buskin’ track “Hoedown” bristles with positive energy, as Ink sing-speaks over a line-dance rhythm: “I got my boots and my guitar/I’m a bad mother, shut your mouth/Came all the way from Georgia down to Tennessee.” Her self-belief is contagious, and it underscores the journey she’s already documenting for herself. Ink, who once attended film school, always has a camera within reach.
“I’m a real-life movie. No infomercial. No commercial. This is a movie. Inky Spielberg,” she says in rapid-fire cadence. “I used to play my guitar and have the camera around my neck filming everywhere I went around Atlanta. I knew it was so special and it should be captured. You have to make the archives. Any global superstar would make sure they had the footage. You never know in life what you’ll become.”
Along with her recent performance at at Rolling Stone’s Future of Music showcase at SXSW, Ink will make her debut at the Stagecoach country festival this April. She’s unbothered by those who might second-guess her choice of genre, as they did with Beyoncé. “If I ain’t country,” she says, “I don’t know what is.”
To Ink, any genre pushback almost always boils down to the fear of something new.
“If you’re used to protecting what you feel like is the only thing you got, you feel threatened when somebody else comes with that. You feel like it’s taking away from what you’re doing,” Ink says. “That’s a small-minded way of thinking.”
