Gigi, a 35-year-old native of Seoul, enrolled at Suwon University to study apparel and textiles but left after the first year to become a fitness instructor and then a tattooist. With only three years of professional tattooing experience and a strong desire to learn, she has received plenty of advice from skilled Korean tattooers. Her […]
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Tattooer Jimmy Shy is Reviving Pinky Yun’s Legacy
Taiwanese Jimmy Shy’s vibrant dragon and tiger artwork is essential to the present and the past of tattooing. Takahiro Kitamura’s 2023 book “Tattoo Master Pinky Yun: The Don Ed Hardy Flash Collection” featured his rebirth of Yun’s (1927-2010) iconic artwork. According to Jimmy Shy’s remark for that publication, “Pinky Yun (…) is the godfather of the Asian […]
Swani’s Ceramic Fine-Line Tattoos
Swani, a native of Seoul who is 31 years old, enrolled in 2014 at Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Art de Limoges in France, which offered a major in ceramic arts and design but ultimately decided to pursue a career as a tattooist. Before becoming a professional tattooer in 2017, he studied for two years under the […]
Shane Tan’s Complete Collection, From Paintings to Japanese Tattoos
Shane Tan, known for his triumph in Japanese-style tattooing, spent seven years developing his self-titled book. Tan’s passion for woodblock print masters is evident in the 448 pages of hand-drawn line drawings, paintings, and tattooing of characters ranging from Tenjiku Tokubei to Nango Rikimaru. Although woodblock imagery has a long history, it flourished as a […]
Yelselogy, Singapore’s Emerging Tattoo Artist
Yelselogy has a Bachelor of Arts in Visual Communication from the School of Art, Design, and Media at NTU in Singapore and an MA in Visual Sociology from Goldsmiths, University of London. Worked as a freelance illustrator and graphic designer for a few years, creating backgrounds and photo props for a photo-booth firm, but found she […]
Dino: From Soccer Professional to Tattooist in Los Angeles
It is no surprise that Dino is so successful at the Los Angeles-based tattoo studio 10KF Hollywood since his large-scale, modernized Asian art style appeals greatly to American clients. Hannya masks, snakes, and flowers reappear on the arms, legs, and backs using red and black inks. His favorite theme is dragons, as he states, “the scales drive me crazy […]
Art Show by Seventh Son Tattoo at 111 Minna Gallery
Even though 2022 was the official “Year of the Tiger,” Seventh Son Tattoo believed it would be a fitting homage to begin 2023 with a traditional motif as the theme for their art exhibition. From Pinky Yun to Ed Hardy, the tiger has been consistently and strongly represented in the tattoo industry. Luke Stewart, tattooist […]
Ilya Kuznetsov’s Stippling Tattoo Creations
Born in Russia in 1989, Ilya Kuznetsov worked at an Italian fabric store after earning a degree in costume design from Smolensk State University. A tattoo artist friend urged him to use his drawing skills in the tattoo industry as he barely made ends meet. Self-taught in this new discipline, Kuznetsov began taking tattooing more […]
Upcoming Book Release: Tattoo Master Pinky Yun
Scorpion Front Publishing will print “Tattoo Master Pinky Yun: The Don Ed Hardy Flash Collection” by author and American-Japanese tattooist Takahiro Kitamura in March 2023. The life and work of Pinky Yun, born in Canton, China, on October 29, 1927, are shown on 111 pages in a 90s-style graphic arrangement. Yun moved to Hong Kong […]
Arirang’s Painterly Tattoos
Arirang developed an interest in the arts at a young age and wished to further his studies in them, but his family did not have the financial means to do so. He worked for years at a car wash, restaurants, and bars, and as a tiler on a construction site to save money to become a […]