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 […]
Category: Interviews
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 […]
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 […]
Ian Damien: Singapore’s Next Breakthrough Tattooist
“A tattoo comes alive, when a body moves,” says Ian Damien, a resident artist at Shane Tan’s Singapore studio Feather Cloud. Damien began tattooing approximately five years ago and completed a two-year apprenticeship to enter the profession; however, Tan has been mentoring Damien on the flow and technical aspects of tattooing since he was invited […]
Adriaan Machete, Acclaimed Neo-Traditional Tattooist
Inspired by the work of Renaissance and Art Nouveau painters, German tattooist Adriaan Machete is renowned worldwide for his delicate and exquisitely colored body art. His professional tattoo career began around 2007 after he apprenticed with Iban Maya. His major break came in 2010 when he was invited to be a guest artist in various […]
Freddy Corbin, Oakland’s Tattoo God
Freddy Corbin was born in Tampa, Florida, in 1966, grew up in Sacramento, and at 18, went to San Francisco, California, to pursue a career as a tattoo artist. Joshua Golden gives him his first professional tattoo at Lyle Tuttle’s shop. Corbin spent a lot of time at studios and received body art from various […]
Taki: One of America’s Finest Japanese Tattoo Artists
Takahiro “Taki” Kitamura was born in Tokyo in 1973 and moved to the United States with his parents when he was two. His father taught for 18 years at the University of California, Davis (UCD), and his mother instilled Japanese culture in her children, from cuisine to folktales, to preserve their history. Kitamura got his […]
Stephen C Stratton: The Journey of a Tattoo Anthropologist
Stephen C Stratton, a youngster in the late 1970s, tattooed his buddies with a popsicle stick and taped sewing needles. At The Needle Master studio, he got his first professional tattoo, a Lambretta-scooter motif connected with the Mod revival subculture. Stratton joined the military and became a nurse a decade later. Because tattoos were frowned […]
Ilya Cascad: Interview with Precision Tattooist of Ornamental Illusions
A native of Russia and resident artist at the acclaimed Love Machine studio in New York City, Ilya Cascad works hours on end to finalize geometric, motion illusion patterns on the bodies of his clients. “Symmetry” and “precision” are words that best describe Cascad’s tattoos, done in black ink; however, recently implementing color to arm […]
Rope Bondage: Dirty Archangel and Shibari Dream Team Photographed in NYC
We started with email correspondence with the author of “Lust is My Favorite Sin” and photographer of this remarkable “Shibari Project,” Dirty Archangel is his artistic name. A Turkish immigrant and citizen of New York City, who’s day job are taking professional cityscape pictures of the Big Apple. Because a photoshoot like this one generally […]