In New Zealand, the indigenous Maori people decorated their skin with intricate black-and-white design. Women would traditionally tattoo their chink with “moko kauae”, chin tattoos, right under their lower lip. Moko kauae tattoos were not only for beauty – they were considered sacred and indicated the wearer’s tribe, status, and personal story.

But unfortunately, these old traditions have slowly disappeared since the arrival of European settlers to New Zealand. In Europe, tattoos were associated with the lower class and considered ugly, so Maori people were discouraged from wearing them.

Today, however, tattoos are once again considered a form of art and are more and more accepted by the general population. And with “regular” tattoos, the moko kauae is also making a comeback.

Today, women of Maori descend once again decorate their chins with the moko kauae their ancestors wore proudly. Some paint it over their skin occasionally, and some get a permanent tattoo. All of them look beautiful and inspiring with their gorgeous moko kauae.

The post These Maori Women Are Celebrating Their Heritage With Chin Tattoos appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Rose’s skills were especially showcased in one of her recent tattoo works when she covered the client’s entire back with an elaborate tattoo that contained all the elements of her recognizable style. The outcome was truly stunning as the tattoo ended up resembling the work of a classical painter.

Rose’s painting-like tattoos aren’t a surprise when you know her first passion was painting.

“The feel and the mood brought through by my color palette and my style of tattooing is influenced by the way I like to paint and now vice versa as I spend a lot more time tattooing, they lend interestingly to each other,” she explained in a recent interview with Colossal.

Check out some of Rose’s other tattoo works below.

The post Stunning Flora and Fauna-Inspired Tattoos by Makkala Rose appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Honing her craft by practicing first on her friends, she started out by working out of a private loft space in her friends’ apartment. “I was doing it on the down-low, and I was on edge because it wasn’t an official shop,” she told The Great Discontent. It wasn’t until 2012 that she opened her own shop.

“The biggest challenge was that I was unable to get an apprenticeship because there wasn’t anyone who could teach me this form of tattooing,” she says. “Because of that, I literally just tried out a bunch of different methods until it felt right, and then I tweaked it as I went.”

Nowadays, her process is relatively straight forward. “When clients come in, I already have a good idea of what they want, because at that point we’ll have already emailed or talked about it over the phone,” she says. “Then I draw up the design and get the A-OK from the client before making a stencil. Once the stencil is made, I put it onto the person’s skin, and we decide on a placement that they like. Then we make it happen. The setup is clean and sterile, and everything is the same setup as it is with a machine, except for the tools I’m using.”

A palm-sized tattoo usually takes between 1-2 hours, a hand sized one takes 3 hours but back pieces can vary from 22- 40 hours depending on the size, detail, and coverage. Take a look at some of her work in the gallery below:

The post Jenna Bouma’s Tattoo Art Is Far Out appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Roxx

Tattoo artist, known simply as Roxx, puts the art in “tattoo art.” Using the human body as her canvas, her work is bold, geometric, and very much striking. So much so that it was featured in a 2017 exhibition in The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). “Tattoo to me is the enhancement and adornment of what nature has already given us,” stated the LA-based artist in an interview with Dazed & Confused.

Daisy Watson

Inspired by Picasso, Cocteau, and Jean Arp, Daisy Watson uses thin black lines to create surrealist tattoos with a playful twist. “My drawings are never too serious or boring,” said the Berlin-based tattoo artist in an interview with femtastics. “At least I hope so. I would call my style surrealistic.”

Tati Compton

California-born tattoo artist Tati Compton (real name Tatiana Kartomten) has made a name for herself thanks to her “stick-n-poke” technique. “I started doing tattoos on an impetus – for an experience or out of boredom or from a feeling and it didn’t really matter how it looked or turned out,” she admitted in an interview with Tattoo Life. “It was more about the act and experience. It was free – I didn’t have to ask anyone for anything – It was DIY, it was immediate, and it was fun. I don’t know how to use a machine, this is the only way I know how to tattoo.” The end result is undeniably cool.

The post Looking For Your Next Tattoo? Start Here appeared first on PlayJunkie.

After spending a few years hand-poking at Sang Bleu London, Tati moved to Los Angeles where she continues to pioneer in making stick and poke tattoos a respected art form, whilst inspiring a new generation of tattooers.

Admitting she actually wanted to be a fashion designer when she was younger, she told Tattoo Life that she was obsessed with tattoo aesthetic from a young age. “I always wanted them and would put temporary tattoos all over when I was in elementary school,” she recalled.

“I was about 6 years old when I first remember seeing a tattoo,” she went on to say. “I went with my dad to a photo shoot because he worked on catalogs. He said we were gonna hang with Dolly Parton so I was really excited because she was my favorite, but instead a tall thin woman with long black hair came down the stairs. It turned out to be Cher. We became friends and she showed me her rad tattoos and we played cards.”

Funnily enough, the first time Tati got a tattoo was also the first time she got a tattoo. “It was with my friend Moses at his house and we were listening to Metallica, we gave each other matching dots on our fingers and wrist.”

“I started doing tattoos on an impetus – for an experience or out of boredom or from a feeling and it didn’t really matter how it looked or turned out,” she admitted. “It was more about the act and experience. It was free – I didn’t have to ask anyone for anything – It was DIY, it was immediate, and it was fun. I don’t know how to use a machine, this is the only way I know how to tattoo.”

Now her Instagram page has more than 250k followers. Her tattoos are also presented in her debut book featuring 192 pages of over 800 of her most intricate illustrations, from whimsical psychedelia to powerful silhouettes of women.

Check out some of her designs below:

The post Tati Compton’s Tattoos Are Powerful and Original appeared first on PlayJunkie.

You’d probably think I was joking.

Getting a tattoo is no small thing, after all. Even though it’s now possible to have tattoos removed, the process is painful and expensive. Not to mention, most people who have had tattoos will be the first to tell you that you’ll definitely want to get a tattoo done right on your first try.

With that said, a lot of those interested in getting inked take a long time choosing the right design and artist to touch their skin.

Unless, of course, they’re getting inked by Helen Fernandes.

A tattoo artist who isn’t necessarily good at drawing — seriously, she’s not being humble. she’s not good — people are lining up to get inked by Helen and the results are so bad, they’re so good.

Confused? Scroll down below to see what we mean.

The post People Are Asking to Get Inked By This Tattoo Artist Who Can’t Draw appeared first on PlayJunkie.

“I like to paint vases or hands,” said Watson in an interview in German with femtastics. “Basically, I try to combine different, mostly contradictory things in one picture. That result is always exciting. But faces are my absolute favorite motif.”

“I wear many tattoos myself,” she went on to say. “Mostly on my legs, because that’s when I started practicing before tattooing other people. I do not wear tattoos on my arms or other obvious spots, as you can see. So I’m not the classic tattoo artist cliché. My grandmother knows nothing about my tattoos.”

Her tattoo art is shared on her popular Instagram page, which has amassed more than 200k followers. Quite an achievement in and of itself. Take a look.

The post These Tattoos Were Inspired by Picasso’s Inked Portraits appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Zihee’s gorgeous floral and animal creations come to life through the vivid, vibrant colors that she employs. For instance, she draws snakes made up of patterns of leaves and flowers, using pinks, reds, cold blues, and warm greens. Her choice of color and pattern spring new freshness into a tradition which is centuries old.

Zihee doesn’t only draw her creative ideas from traditional Korean art. She also inks unique renderings of paintings from famous artists across the world, sometimes combining them to achieve a stunning combined effect from the art of different geographies.

For instance, in one of her most famous tattoos, she combines two triangles in which the top one is Van Gogh’s “Starry Night,” and the bottom one is Hokusai’s “The Great Wave off Kanagawa.” The yellow moon of the “Starry Night” stands above the red setting sun of “The Wave,” while their different shades of blue create a strange and beautiful sort of harmony.

Scroll down to check out Zihee’s tattoos:

The post Tattoo Artist Brings Tradition Into her Work appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Below are some of the best-looking matching tattoos we found online. Some of them are illustrative and show the special bond between people, while others are super minimalistic and only reveal their meaning when the people wearing them are together.

Would you do matching tattoos with someone? Do you have a favorite from our gallery?

The post Creative and Clever Matching Tattoos for Couples and Siblings appeared first on PlayJunkie.

“We think [that] to find [a] dream – what she wants to be, what she wants to do in the future, is not easy at a young age,” her father shared on Dazed Digital. “So she might change her mind in the future – but [for] now, she is interested in tattooing and enjoying it so much. We want to do our best to support her. It’s normal as parents, we think.”

You can find her work on Instagram where she has attracted over 33.6k followers.

Scroll down and take a look at her creations below.

The post Check Out This 10-Year-Old Tattoo Artist appeared first on PlayJunkie.

In New Zealand, the indigenous Maori people decorated their skin with intricate black-and-white design. Women would traditionally tattoo their chink with “moko kauae”, chin tattoos, right under their lower lip. Moko kauae tattoos were not only for beauty – they were considered sacred and indicated the wearer’s tribe, status, and personal story.

But unfortunately, these old traditions have slowly disappeared since the arrival of European settlers to New Zealand. In Europe, tattoos were associated with the lower class and considered ugly, so Maori people were discouraged from wearing them.

Today, however, tattoos are once again considered a form of art and are more and more accepted by the general population. And with “regular” tattoos, the moko kauae is also making a comeback.

Today, women of Maori descend once again decorate their chins with the moko kauae their ancestors wore proudly. Some paint it over their skin occasionally, and some get a permanent tattoo. All of them look beautiful and inspiring with their gorgeous moko kauae.

The post These Maori Women Are Celebrating Their Heritage With Chin Tattoos appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Rose’s skills were especially showcased in one of her recent tattoo works when she covered the client’s entire back with an elaborate tattoo that contained all the elements of her recognizable style. The outcome was truly stunning as the tattoo ended up resembling the work of a classical painter.

Rose’s painting-like tattoos aren’t a surprise when you know her first passion was painting.

“The feel and the mood brought through by my color palette and my style of tattooing is influenced by the way I like to paint and now vice versa as I spend a lot more time tattooing, they lend interestingly to each other,” she explained in a recent interview with Colossal.

Check out some of Rose’s other tattoo works below.

The post Stunning Flora and Fauna-Inspired Tattoos by Makkala Rose appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Honing her craft by practicing first on her friends, she started out by working out of a private loft space in her friends’ apartment. “I was doing it on the down-low, and I was on edge because it wasn’t an official shop,” she told The Great Discontent. It wasn’t until 2012 that she opened her own shop.

“The biggest challenge was that I was unable to get an apprenticeship because there wasn’t anyone who could teach me this form of tattooing,” she says. “Because of that, I literally just tried out a bunch of different methods until it felt right, and then I tweaked it as I went.”

Nowadays, her process is relatively straight forward. “When clients come in, I already have a good idea of what they want, because at that point we’ll have already emailed or talked about it over the phone,” she says. “Then I draw up the design and get the A-OK from the client before making a stencil. Once the stencil is made, I put it onto the person’s skin, and we decide on a placement that they like. Then we make it happen. The setup is clean and sterile, and everything is the same setup as it is with a machine, except for the tools I’m using.”

A palm-sized tattoo usually takes between 1-2 hours, a hand sized one takes 3 hours but back pieces can vary from 22- 40 hours depending on the size, detail, and coverage. Take a look at some of her work in the gallery below:

The post Jenna Bouma’s Tattoo Art Is Far Out appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Roxx

Tattoo artist, known simply as Roxx, puts the art in “tattoo art.” Using the human body as her canvas, her work is bold, geometric, and very much striking. So much so that it was featured in a 2017 exhibition in The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). “Tattoo to me is the enhancement and adornment of what nature has already given us,” stated the LA-based artist in an interview with Dazed & Confused.

Daisy Watson

Inspired by Picasso, Cocteau, and Jean Arp, Daisy Watson uses thin black lines to create surrealist tattoos with a playful twist. “My drawings are never too serious or boring,” said the Berlin-based tattoo artist in an interview with femtastics. “At least I hope so. I would call my style surrealistic.”

Tati Compton

California-born tattoo artist Tati Compton (real name Tatiana Kartomten) has made a name for herself thanks to her “stick-n-poke” technique. “I started doing tattoos on an impetus – for an experience or out of boredom or from a feeling and it didn’t really matter how it looked or turned out,” she admitted in an interview with Tattoo Life. “It was more about the act and experience. It was free – I didn’t have to ask anyone for anything – It was DIY, it was immediate, and it was fun. I don’t know how to use a machine, this is the only way I know how to tattoo.” The end result is undeniably cool.

The post Looking For Your Next Tattoo? Start Here appeared first on PlayJunkie.

After spending a few years hand-poking at Sang Bleu London, Tati moved to Los Angeles where she continues to pioneer in making stick and poke tattoos a respected art form, whilst inspiring a new generation of tattooers.

Admitting she actually wanted to be a fashion designer when she was younger, she told Tattoo Life that she was obsessed with tattoo aesthetic from a young age. “I always wanted them and would put temporary tattoos all over when I was in elementary school,” she recalled.

“I was about 6 years old when I first remember seeing a tattoo,” she went on to say. “I went with my dad to a photo shoot because he worked on catalogs. He said we were gonna hang with Dolly Parton so I was really excited because she was my favorite, but instead a tall thin woman with long black hair came down the stairs. It turned out to be Cher. We became friends and she showed me her rad tattoos and we played cards.”

Funnily enough, the first time Tati got a tattoo was also the first time she got a tattoo. “It was with my friend Moses at his house and we were listening to Metallica, we gave each other matching dots on our fingers and wrist.”

“I started doing tattoos on an impetus – for an experience or out of boredom or from a feeling and it didn’t really matter how it looked or turned out,” she admitted. “It was more about the act and experience. It was free – I didn’t have to ask anyone for anything – It was DIY, it was immediate, and it was fun. I don’t know how to use a machine, this is the only way I know how to tattoo.”

Now her Instagram page has more than 250k followers. Her tattoos are also presented in her debut book featuring 192 pages of over 800 of her most intricate illustrations, from whimsical psychedelia to powerful silhouettes of women.

Check out some of her designs below:

The post Tati Compton’s Tattoos Are Powerful and Original appeared first on PlayJunkie.

You’d probably think I was joking.

Getting a tattoo is no small thing, after all. Even though it’s now possible to have tattoos removed, the process is painful and expensive. Not to mention, most people who have had tattoos will be the first to tell you that you’ll definitely want to get a tattoo done right on your first try.

With that said, a lot of those interested in getting inked take a long time choosing the right design and artist to touch their skin.

Unless, of course, they’re getting inked by Helen Fernandes.

A tattoo artist who isn’t necessarily good at drawing — seriously, she’s not being humble. she’s not good — people are lining up to get inked by Helen and the results are so bad, they’re so good.

Confused? Scroll down below to see what we mean.

The post People Are Asking to Get Inked By This Tattoo Artist Who Can’t Draw appeared first on PlayJunkie.

“I like to paint vases or hands,” said Watson in an interview in German with femtastics. “Basically, I try to combine different, mostly contradictory things in one picture. That result is always exciting. But faces are my absolute favorite motif.”

“I wear many tattoos myself,” she went on to say. “Mostly on my legs, because that’s when I started practicing before tattooing other people. I do not wear tattoos on my arms or other obvious spots, as you can see. So I’m not the classic tattoo artist cliché. My grandmother knows nothing about my tattoos.”

Her tattoo art is shared on her popular Instagram page, which has amassed more than 200k followers. Quite an achievement in and of itself. Take a look.

The post These Tattoos Were Inspired by Picasso’s Inked Portraits appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Zihee’s gorgeous floral and animal creations come to life through the vivid, vibrant colors that she employs. For instance, she draws snakes made up of patterns of leaves and flowers, using pinks, reds, cold blues, and warm greens. Her choice of color and pattern spring new freshness into a tradition which is centuries old.

Zihee doesn’t only draw her creative ideas from traditional Korean art. She also inks unique renderings of paintings from famous artists across the world, sometimes combining them to achieve a stunning combined effect from the art of different geographies.

For instance, in one of her most famous tattoos, she combines two triangles in which the top one is Van Gogh’s “Starry Night,” and the bottom one is Hokusai’s “The Great Wave off Kanagawa.” The yellow moon of the “Starry Night” stands above the red setting sun of “The Wave,” while their different shades of blue create a strange and beautiful sort of harmony.

Scroll down to check out Zihee’s tattoos:

The post Tattoo Artist Brings Tradition Into her Work appeared first on PlayJunkie.

Below are some of the best-looking matching tattoos we found online. Some of them are illustrative and show the special bond between people, while others are super minimalistic and only reveal their meaning when the people wearing them are together.

Would you do matching tattoos with someone? Do you have a favorite from our gallery?

The post Creative and Clever Matching Tattoos for Couples and Siblings appeared first on PlayJunkie.

“We think [that] to find [a] dream – what she wants to be, what she wants to do in the future, is not easy at a young age,” her father shared on Dazed Digital. “So she might change her mind in the future – but [for] now, she is interested in tattooing and enjoying it so much. We want to do our best to support her. It’s normal as parents, we think.”

You can find her work on Instagram where she has attracted over 33.6k followers.

Scroll down and take a look at her creations below.

The post Check Out This 10-Year-Old Tattoo Artist appeared first on PlayJunkie.