Tag: Eastern Europe

Traditional Chinese Ink Wash Translated into Tattoos by Chen Jie

Chen Jie creates delicate “paintings” on skin. Here, the tattoo machine acts like a brush dipped in black ink, and Jie translates the subtly of this ancient artistic tradition. Her style, with its splashes of pigment, represents a modern form of ink wash paintings that adopts Western techniques. It’s fitting for the tattooing field, which is consistently innovating, refining, […]

Breaking the Boundaries: An Interview with Tattooer Rit Kit

If you aren’t familiar with the name Rit Kit, you might be acquainted with her tattoos. Last year, her live leaf approach went viral and propelled her into body art stardom. Working directly from nature, there’s simultaneously a beautiful order as well as spontaneity to Rit Kit’s tattoos. Dipping flowers and leaves in stencil ink, […]

Pristine Geometric Tattoos by Malvina Maria Wisniewska

The tattoo artist Malvina Maria Wisniewska (Malwina8) is a master of minimalism and geometry. Using black ink, she creates flawless, razor-sharp lines that transform sections of the body into intersecting layers of triangles and diamonds, creating a three-dimensional look. In some of her works, she applies the same geometric aesthetic to create abstractions of familiar […]

10 Tattooers from Eastern Europe to Keep Your Eye On

With the soaring popularity of tattoos coupled with increased globalism, the world gets seemingly smaller and smaller—tattooists from across the world are easily inspired by cultures in foreign lands. Likewise, these artists also travel to tattoo shops in different countries and bring their unique style there. Illusion magazine has been an admirer of the work that comes […]

Bold Tattoos by Inez Janiak Look Like Charcoal Drawings

Inez Janiak creates tattoos that look as though they’re drawn with charcoal or pen. The Poland-based artist has seemingly ripped her designs from the pages of a sketchbook and flawlessly translated them onto human skin. The bold yet unsure lines—which vary in weight line like the drawing tool—retain their energetic look and feel, like they’re […]

Black-Ink Portraits Accented with a Hint of Red by Denis Marakhin

St. Petersburg-based artist Denis Marakhin uses red ink as a striking accent color to his bold tattoos and drawings. The stylized pieces are reminiscent of graphic novels that utilize shape-driven shading, some parts flattened and opaque, and other parts with defined forms. Like a comic book, Marakhin also incorporates text into the works, carving out […]

A Peek into the Photographic World of Denis Kulikov

Note: Contains nudity. The 23-year-old Russian photographer Denis Kulikov finds most of his models through the web. Some are actual friends. Often posing in the nude, the models sit on sofas and beds, walk around someone’s home closing and opening doors, and playfully throw plastic sheeting over their bodies to create artistic shots for the […]

Digimatism: A Future Visual Language by Stanislaw Wilczynski

Moscow-based tattoo artist Stanislaw Wilczynski produces shape-centric imagery that is born out of the Digimatism movement. Digimatism, a combination of the words “digital” and “suprematism,” describes his bold abstract assemblages that are created with the help of the computer. This contemporary approach has a historic bend to it by recalling artistic movements from the early […]