Working under the moniker Pain Ting, Szymon Gdowicz brings a painterly touch to his tattoos. The colorful works of body art feature bold pigment that mimics the carefree fluidity of watercolor, with giant brushstrokes and drips across skin. They are punctuated by finer details that look like markers rather than the etching of a needle. […]
Author: Sara Barnes
The Beauty in Chaos: Tattoos by Frank Carrilho
“Light as a feather, stiff as a board.” This phrase can be used to describe the tattoos of Frank Carrilho, a Brazilian artist who incorporates thin, wispy lines with bold, heavy outlines. There is no in-between, but the two approaches work together and convey a chaotic harmony. Each tattoo is simultaneously delicate as a dandelion […]
10 GIF Artists Who Will Blow Your Mind on Ello
The animated GIF—which stands for “Graphics Interchange Format”—has been around before the advent of the World Wide Web. First introduced in 1987 by CompuServe, it was eventually adopted for use on early web pages. This was mostly crude animations that served as flashy banners, but as technology became more sophisticated, the use for the GIF […]
Jennifer Angus’ Spectacular Wallpaper Comprised of 5,000 Bugs
Artist Jennifer Angus has produced a site-specific installation that lines hot pink walls with 5,000 real insects. Appropriately titled “In the Garden,” she uses their bodies to produce an intricate, ornamental wallpaper that features iridescently-colored stag beetles, cicadas, and other bugs that are the size of a human fist. Together, these southeast Asia-based creatures form […]
Architect Turned Tattoo Artist Builds Structured Imagery
Monika Malewska is trained as an architect but chooses to express herself in other creative fields. “My two passions are drawing tattoos,” she writes, “and I try to combine them working as a tattoo artist.” Her style is reminiscent of a draftsperson as she uses thin, precise lines and geometry to build and map out […]
Shape-Shifting Blackwork Tattoos by Matteo Nangeroni
Matteo Nangeroni combines portraiture with a surreal compositional elements to produce tattoos that are simultaneously elegant and strange. The blackwork body art—with influences of cubism, comics, and geometry—features shape-shifting, two-faced characters and creatures that raise more questions than they answer. As two seemingly disparate parts connect to each other, we’re left wondering what their relation […]
Continuous Line Tattoos in Constant Motion by Stan Bree
According to Stan Bree’s tattoos, we’re all just a collection of simple shapes and lines. The Mexico City-based artist creates complex figures using a series of lines that effortlessly and continuously flow into one another. As a result, conventional portraits feel like they’re in motion that could twist and take a new form at any […]
Embroidered Breasts and Butts Challenge the Notion of “Beautiful Bodies”
Note: Contains nudity. “I love bodies,” Sally Hewett writes in an artist statement. “And it is not the conventionally beautiful bodies that take my eye, it is bodies which show their history, that have been altered by their experiences, that are decorated with bruises, scars, spots, stretch marks, freckles, pigmentation, veins.” She recreates sections of […]
From Taboo to Mainstream: Tattoo Art in Illustration, Ceramics, and Embroidery
As tattoos transition from a once taboo practice into one that’s socially acceptable, artists are implementing elements of this timeless body art into their work. In illustrations, ceramics and embroideries, tattoos have two primary focuses: one is purely decorative and adds a special flair to the subject or object. The other takes a conceptual approach, […]
Blackwork Tattoos by Brazilian Artist Fredão Oliveira
Elements of fantasy and geometry are incorporated in the blackwork tattoos of Fredão Oliveira. Strikingly-detailed portraits grace his client’s bodies, commanding attention with a realistic style that’s framed by decorative shapes and bold lines. Together, they evoke the feel of a technical ink drawing that you’d see on the pages of an enthralling comic book […]