Tattooist Inno, who’s based in Seoul in Korea, realised that tattoos can be art when he saw a tattoo of a small, beautiful flower. That tattoo set him on a journey to becoming an artist himself. Here we catch up with him to find out more about tattooing in Korea, guest spots and what motivates and inspires him…
How long have you been tattooing for? How did you train to become a tattoo artist?
“I started learning how to tattoo in 2019. I took classes at STUDIO BY SOL, one of the most famous tattoo academies in Korea at the time. In Korea, tattoos were illegal, so there were few places that taught hygiene education and technology properly, but I chose this place because it was the best place to train.”
How would you describe your style of tattooing?
“I live near the beach, so whenever I was frustrated or couldn’t think of an idea, I used to look out at the sea – it cleared my mind, it gave me room to think. It’s what made me realise I wanted to draw pictures of the waves and the sea. And turn other objects into waves too. Water is flexible and permeates almost anything. I guess that’s how it works with my clients too, their bodies become covered in my wave style.”
Do you tattoo lots of tourists who’ve travelled for your work?
“Most of the guests who visit me in Korea are foreign tourists. They come to visit me during their trip. Customers usually contact me through email before their holiday.”
What are the rules for tattooing in South Korea? Is tattooing more underground or becoming more mainstream nowadays?
“Tattoos are illegal in Korea, you need a special medical license to practice. However, in recent years, many celebrities are getting tattoos, and they are becoming more and more popular. I think Korean tattoos will become more and more famous around the world.”
How should customers contact you? If someone is travelling over from the UK, how much notice would you need?
“Customers come from various countries, as well as England. It is enough if you tell me the picture, location, and size of the tattoo you want. Please contact us via email at inno.waves.tt@gmail.com, with dates that you will be in Seoul.”
What’s the best way for customers to come up with an idea for you? Do you offer flash or prefer custom work?
“I don’t like doing Flash because the number of copycats has been increasing recently. I don’t like my paintings to be done by anyone other than myself. Now I prefer custom work because I want to draw a special picture for only one person.”
What is the address of your studio?
“It is located in Seoul, Korea. Please contact us via email for detailed addresses.”
Any interestinghotels / shops / cafes nearby?
“The place where my studio is located is one of the most famous tourist attractions in Korea. Therefore, there are so many foreigners and it is a place where anyone can enjoy. Perhaps that’s why I think the tattoo scene has developed a lot here.”
Do you ever do guest spots? If so, when / where?
“I have been to Australia, Canada, and the United States – so far. My drawing style is unique and rare all over the world, so I want to visit lots of different countries.”
What are your hopes and plans for the future?
“I believe my paintings will develop further. I haven’t done a lot of large-scale work yet, but I want to draw bigger pieces.”
“When asked if a tattooist is an artist or a job, I would say artist.”
Inno
What do you think about the tattoo world itself?
“Tattoos are one of the most basic acts of expressing oneself. Also, I think it is very noble work that expresses and communicates each person’s life. Therefore, I hope that all artists will be more careful and work passionately in their work. This is because many people now think of it as just a job to make money. When asked if a tattooist is an artist or a job, I would say artist.”
We absolutely love a tattoo flash day. It’s so exciting being part of a tattoo party, making friends in the queue and choosing a flash design to have tattooed on you forever. On Saturday July 15th, Three Kings London (@threekingslondon) in Deptford are celebrating their third birthday with a flash day and evening of entertainment.
All flash designs will be at a set rate of £60 from one of their expert tattooers, so check out the full blackwork flash sheets on offer here. If you’re one of the first 50 customers on Saturday July 15th you’ll receive a goody bag filled with:
Discount vouchers from Three Kings
Goodies from local independent neighbours
VIP entry for you and your pals to celebrate with the Three Kings crew to the sounds of Rinse FM loved DJ Joe Milli at Little Nan’s
So make sure you get down early!
The Three Kings Tattoo London crew
We first spoke to Amanda Rodriguez in 2019 (read her interview here). With it being three years in July since Three Kings Tattoo out of NYC and Brooklyn launched a studio in Deptford, South East London under the leadership of New York artist Amanda Rodriguez, we wanted to catch up with the tattoo artist.
How have you been since we last spoke in 2019?
I’ve been really good. It’s been really up and down work wise since COVID but now it’s starting to pick up again. We’ve got an amazing crew at the shop now with five full time artists other than myself. My clientele is building slowly but surely and I’ve been able to work on some really amazing pieces in the last few years.
You’re now owner of Three Kings Tattoo, can you tell us how you got to where you are?
Just a lot of hard work and determination to be honest. My business partners from America were super helpful in getting me here to the UK also.
What’s owning a studio like – the highs and lows?
Owning a studio is different than I thought. I love the space I have curated and the artists I have chosen to work with and our employees. However, as a business owner you always have work to do and you are responsible for others’ income which is a lot of pressure. I’ve found juggling the business stuff and my own tattooing career really difficult at times as I have less time to draw and post online.
Amanda’s flash sheet
We think a flash day is the perfect way to celebrate three years, what can people expect on the day?
The flash day is so much fun! We usually have people waiting to get in at 11am and tattoo straight through to 7pm with a little lunch break. This will be our fourth or fifth flash day so I think we’ve got a good system – we take people’s details and what tattoo they want and then let them explore Deptford until we are ready for them. Our customers will get a goody bag with some merch and vouchers for local businesses and this year we are giving them to people before they get tattooed so they can utilise some of the vouchers while they wait (if they have a wait!) This is the first time we’re doing a Saturday so we’re expecting more people. Afterwards we have a party happening at Little Nan’s with a DJ. It’s going to be good fun!
What are you most looking forward to on the flash day?
We always meet some amazing new people on the day and I’m really looking forward to having new people come and experience the shop and the fun vibes. I’m also looking forward to people enjoying Deptford on the day while they wait. I really love the area and we tend to get a lot of people who don’t know it well so this is a great opportunity to get people here and see what Deptford is all about!
What does the future hold for Three Kings Tattoo?
Hopefully lots more guests and our artists being very busy! Brand collaborations down the line would be amazing and trying to give back to the community.
The flash day is open to the public from 11am to 7pm on Saturday 15th July on a ‘walk-in’ basis. The after party at Little Nan’s Grandad’s Shed in Deptford Markey Yard starts at 7pm.
We sat down to have a chat with tattoo artist Paula Castle, who owns Black Sheep Tattoo in Bristol. Paula is one of the most passionate and creative people in the tattoo world. And our chat covered everything from her fave subjects to tattoo to the deep-rooted misogyny in the tattoo world and the importance of safe spaces. Make yourself a cuppa and settle in for the ride…
We absolutely adore your tattoos, tell us more about them, your style and any themes that people love coming to you for…
I did my version of a crying heart as a sticker in 2017. Then in 2020, one of my clients said to me, I want your sticker tattooed on me. I loved doing it. And if I really enjoy doing a tattoo, my favourite thing to do is come up with different themes for that design. It’s just a really fun and interesting way to work. When people give me challenging themes, it’s fun working out how to do it or how to represent something. The crying hearts are especially fun to theme.
Drag queen, Divine themed crying heart tattoo
I’ve also done a few tickets, too. I’ve done a couple of those as memorial tattoos. It’s a nice design to incorporate dates into, without it being overtly memorial. I did one recently that was a ticket for a festival that my client had been to with her dad, and she lost her dad during Covid. I put a few important dates into the ticket. The problem with things that are obviously in memory of somebody is they lead to people asking questions. Sometimes that might be welcome, but for some people, they never feel comfortable sharing that stuff. Some people want something that doesn’t scream RIP.
Another fun design I’ve done recently is a rear view mirror tattoo – another design that’s good to add themes to.
Do you have a favourite tattoo that you’ve done? Or a favourite by someone else that you can’t stop thinking about?
There’s a tattooer called Josh Todaro who does traditional pieces. He did a portrait of Adam Sandler from The Wedding Singer – and Oh My God. “Somebody kill me please”. And it’s my most favourite tattoo I’ve ever seen. I just love it so much. One of those tattoos I wish was on me. I still look at it all the time.
As for me, it’s such a hard question to answer. But I just did my first ever Muppet tattoo – Miss Piggy from Treasure Island. I just kept giggling the whole way through tattooing it, because I absolutely love The Muppets.
One of the reasons I love tattooing so much is because my favourite tattoo is always the most recent one I’ve done. It just feels like that’s constantly continuing forever – it doesn’t get old.
Do you have lots of regular clients that always come back to you?
I love, love, love building relationships with clients. I enjoy time with people that I’ve tattooed before, because it’s like catching up with an old friend. I’ve got some people that I’ve been working with now for the best part of my career. I’ve seen people move through life in such positive ways – going through beautiful moments like marriages and buying houses and having children. Then likewise, I’ve had long-term clients who sadly lost parents or gone through other stuff and I’ve been able to offer them support.
It’s been interesting, I was diagnosed with ADHD last year, and so many of my clients are also neurodivergent. I’d love to understand if there’s a correlation, whether neurodivergent people gravitate towards other neurodivergent people without really knowing that they’re doing it, you know.
Tell us about your shop, Black Sheep Tattoo in Bristol. We know tattoo shops can sometimes feel like intimidating places if you’ve never been in one before.
I try my best to make the studio safe and welcoming for everybody, but also I’ve taken as many steps as possible to make it really clear who we don’t want here. I think that’s just as important. We’re trans friendly, queer-owned, female-owned – it says female-owned on my sign outside – like I’m very upfront about it. I don’t want people in my studio who are going to make not only my artists, but any other clients feel uncomfortable. And that’s always been of the utmost importance to me. The clients that we have here really reflect that.
We have eight artists and a studio manager and tattooers who do regular guest spots. Then we also have The Tooth Pixie, who does a couple of days a month offering tooth gems. And Amanda who comes one Saturday every month and does brow lamination and eyelash tinting. When it comes to body modification, it it isn’t just about permanence. I love integrating to offer more than one service. Which brings people into a tattoo studio who’ve never thought about tattooing before, and might have a preconceived notion of what a tattoo shop is like.
‘Even now, you open a tattoo magazine and every advert has got a half naked woman in it’
Breaking down those kinds of social barriers is still something that’s really important. We have a responsibility to tattooing – and especially tattooing for women. It’s still an extremely male-dominated industry and it’s misogynistic, from a systemic point of view. Even now, you open a tattoo magazine and every supplier advert has got a half naked woman in it – it needs to stop.
We’re ready for change, why isn’t it happening quicker?
It’s those little micro aggressions of misogyny in advertising and in, you know, the percentage of sponsorships and things that go to men over women in the industry, that leads to inappropriate behaviour with clients in studios, and sexual assault and sexual violence against female clients and artists.
These things can’t be fixed by me opening a studio and not standing for that behaviour in my studio, the only way to fix the problem is to address the people doing the things in the first place. It’s not on us to fix it. But it is the responsibility of the suppliers and the media that work within tattooing to fix the systemic misogyny within tattooing, because it’s not acceptable anymore. And it needs to stop.
It’s been gorgeous to chat, and we loved you getting on your soapbox about the change that’s so needed. Anything else you want to share?
It’s my tenth year tattooing this year. It feels like such a milestone. It’s definitely been a roller coaster. But it’s so hard having your own studio. If I had been able to find a space to work in that was like mine, I would absolutely not choose to be a studio owner. If anybody’s really unhappy where they are, don’t think that the solution is to have your own place. It isn’t always the answer. But yeah, all I ever wanted was to have somewhere that I could truly be myself – like, you know, somewhere not to feel embarrassed all the time. That’s all I ever wanted was to not have that feeling anymore.
Devils Detail Tattoo, an eco-friendly tattoo studio has been open since July 2022. Located at 228 Hornsey Road, N7 7LL, the studio on the diverse and busy street is just a short walk from Finsbury park or Holloway road station tube station.
Tattoo by Karen
The inspiration
Karen always had dreams of opening her own private tattoo studio since she began her career seven years ago. Karen’s partner Shane previously worked in the live event industry where he was unfortunately made redundant due to Covid.
Shane, having spent a lot of time getting tattooed always loved the idea of being involved in the tattoo scene, so he took the opportunity to pursue his dreams of working in a tattoo studio. Together, they decided to turn a negative into a positive and decided to open their own family run tattoo studio which would reflect them as people and have the art of tattooing at its heart.
Tattoo by Mia
The studio
Karen and Shane wanted to create a space that was clean, bright, inspiring and welcoming. The studio has a lot of natural light and the walls are decorated with art work from their resident and guest artists.
People can expect a warm friendly welcome when they arrive, plus a professional and caring experience during your visit. The team also offers complementary hot and cold beverages, and vegan treats for clients to enjoy during their tattoo.
Tattoo by Liam
The ethos
Clean, bright, welcoming and eco-friendly. Devils Detail Tattoo aims to deliver a personal, enjoyable and professional experience. The artists work with and carefully listen to their clients to provide them with a unique, custom tattoo that reflects their personality.
We believe that you should be able to achieve a perfect tattoo no matter your demographic.
All the disposables we use are plastic free, this was an easy but important part of our ethos. We want people to know that they are always welcome to come in to our space, whether it’s an enquiry or simply for some advice. We are always happy to help!
Tattoo by Karen
Eco-friendly
We have a keen interest in doing our part to help the planet and reduce plastic waste. We think there should be more of a focus on eco-friendly products in the tattoo industry, choosing to help the planet over cheaper plastic products.
Safe space
We want to let people know that no matter your race, gender, sexuality, disability or inexperience of being tattooed, we are a very welcoming and non-judgemental studio.
We want all of our clients to feel happy and comfortable in our studio and have the best tattoo experience possible.
Owner and resident artist, Karen specialises in a style she likes to call Geo-trad, a mixture of colour traditional and geometric style tattoos. Karen loves large scale pieces which push her artistic skills to the max, carefully customising a personal tattoo or putting her artistic spin on a design you may have in mind.
Junior artist Mia joined our team when the studio opened in July 2022, Mia previously worked with Karen in central London where she was surrounded by incredibly talented artists which has helped shape her into the super star she is! Mia is a perfectionist in clean lines and awesome shading, specialising in black and grey tattoos including nature based/gothic/witchy style tattoos.
As a fan of music, film and pop culture iconography, Liam enjoys tattooing any and all things that fall under this umbrella in his minimalist, black linework style. Besides this, he is always up for collaborating on bold, bright colour work or designing with geometric elements such as mandalas, sacred geometry and ancient Eastern patterns.
Tattoos by Liam
Make sure to follow Devils Detail Tattoo and artistsfor more shop news and amazing tattoos.
Shreya is a multidisciplinary artist and traveling tattooist based in a private studio in New Delhi, India. We chatted to the tattooer about her organic textured tattoos, how their purpose is to bring more joy and connecting tattoo communities during the pandemic…
What drew you to hand poking? Can you tell us about your journey into the tattoo world? I first discovered handpoked tattoos at a college house party, and loved how accessible the art form was! I appreciated this new perspective of the intimate experience of getting tattooed by a loved one as the main purpose of the tattoo rather than a perfect piece or some design with deep meaning attached to it. Soon after I taught myself handpoke tattooing by watching YouTube videos, doing an online BBP course and practicing on family and friends.
Since then I have been quite dedicated at spreading the love of handpoke tattoos around India, and helping people take their bodies less seriously by giving their friends n fam’ imperfect but really special tattoos.
Self Portrait (all handpoked tattoos on Shreya done herself
What’s the process behind your tattoos? For me giving tattoos is an extension of my art practice, I have been drawing since I was five or six years old and have kept multiple drawing books for life. So it only made sense for me to do flash tattoos in my style of drawing, which is inspired by my playful childlike-drawings with a heavy dose of colour.
I don’t really attach myself to any style of tattooing, I have been tattooing for almost six years now, and my style has developed maybe eight to nine times since then.
I am constantly experimenting and evolving into my craft and feel like I’m getting closer to my unique voice as a tattoo artist.
I am always drawing flash on paper and making final versions on my iPad (procreate ftw). Once a client picks a flash, firstly I get really really excited and then we start working on an interesting placement for the design. To me, placement is such an important part of the tattoo process and the stencil can take much longer than the actual tattoo! I am quite fast when handpoking and like to give my tattoos a raw feel, with enough creative liberty to make small adjustments to the stencil while tattooing. For me the stencil is a general marker, and not something I am trying to trace.
Handpoked tattoo in UV ink
What inspires your tattoos and the designs? I am quite a nostalgic person, and still very much obsessed with all the stuff a five year old would be. Flowy organic lines are quite important in my designs, you will almost never see a straight line or a sharp angle! I take a lot of my inspiration from spiritual books and quotes I read on the go, if I see something sweet in nature that warms my heart, cute home decor that I spot at a stranger’s house, or just something simple like fruits and candies and bugs.
The purpose of my tattoos and designs has always been to bring more joy!
Flash sheet inspired by newfound love for handpoke + machine hybrid tattoos
What do you love tattooing and what do you want to do more of? Currently I’m obsessed with American traditional style attoos, but with my own soft touch to it! I love the idea of bold black machine lines with soft textured handpoked colours. I hope to do more pieces like this in 2023 and play around with exciting motifs and symbolism in my work.
Can you tell us about your private studio, the set up, your process, the ethos behind it? For me it has always been really important to make my clients feel at home. I love the idea of my tattoo studio looking like a cute little living room, filled with art by my friends, music that my clients choose and nice smells around the room to set the mood. Allowing someone to tattoo your skin is a very vulenerable experience and in India, there’s very few studios that cater to women and queers, my aim is to provide a space for them to feel totally comfortable in.
Can you tell us about your guestspots and travel plans? Picking up tattooing as my profession has been a blessing and curse for my love for travel, the good thing about being a traveling tattoo artist is that I can always pick up my needlesand ink and visit any city and make a few bucks. The bad part is, I have not taken a single holiday in the last four years purely for pleasure.
My upcoming trip is to London, UK and I will be guesting out of Maria Paradise Studio from 6th to 9th February 2023! We’ll also be doing a flash day on 12th February. I’m quite excited to be able to provide the brown skin toned people in the city with an opportunity to get tattooed by someone who knows how to work those skin shades. This is my second trip to London in the past six months just because I love this city so much, there’s always something to do.
I plan on doing a Europe tour sometime in September/October and Singapore and Vietnam in December as well, which I’m super excited for. Rest of the year I will be spontaneously visiting different cities in and around India and guesting out of studios owned by my tattoo artist friends.
Though this year I had hoped to reduce my traveling it seems like I will be visiting at least one city every month and spending the rest of my time in my private tattoo studio in New Delhi, India.
What have you got planned for the flash day? One of the (few) good things that came out of Instagram was that it allowed me to make creative friends all over the world! During the pandemic Bebek and I really connected, though our art styles are fairly different but our mindset about tattooing ethos, our creative practice and general lifestyle is fairly similar.
We have kept in touch the last two years and are coincidentally going to be in London, UK at the same time this February. So it only made sense for us to mash up our styles and create a collaborative flash sheet where in we both tattoo our client simultaneously. This is going to be a new experience for both us and our clients and we are super excited to make some beautiful forever kind of memories on skin with love and care.
Can you tell us more about teaching other people to tattoo, what does this involve? From my personal experience, teaching other people to tattoo involved a lot of listening and learning from the participants. As a self-taught artist myself I wanted to teach people the basics of tattooing (set up, depth and hygiene). Also part of it was teaching them to ask the right questions on the internet for them to be able to delve deeper into their education of the craft.
What my students valued most was the constant access to directly message me if they ever had any queries after our session! Just having the patience to be present for any small, silly questions and giving them the confidence to tattoo others by teaching them proper tattoo etiquette has been my biggest learning in the last five years of hosting handpoke workshops. I now offer personalised one-on-one sessions in my private New Delhi studio for anyone who is interested in learning the craft on a deeper level.
Hand poked tattoo kits (est. 2017)
What was your first tattoo you got and the first you did? The first tattoo I got was when I was 17. I had wanted to get a tattoo for a really long time and finally convinced my parents. Nervous they might change their mind, I quickly found a cute illustration on Tumblr that I liked and went to the local trusted tattoo shop with my mum, showed the artist the design and he made it on me within 20 minutes, and I held my mom’s hand the entire time!
The first time I did a tattoo was on myself when I was 21, I was living in NewYork at that time and had ordered some stick and poke supplies as my birthday present. One night after binge watching all the stick and poke videos on YouTube I decided to just go for it! I spent one hour tattooing this really tiny design, going over it again and again cause I didn’t want it to disappear when I woke up. The next day I went to my job with my supplies and tattooed my boss and the other intern working there. And then my boss tattooed me back!
That’s when I realised the power of a handpoked experience with your loved ones.
Handpoked river
What’s been your favourite tattoo experience? Definitely tattooing my husband one random night during the pandemic! He had gotten a few tattoos from me before, but this session just had some different energy to it. He was on his laptop making music, I was tattooing one of my flashes on his calf. We were just on our bed, the tattooed started around 2am and went on till sunrise, we were in such a comfortable zone with each other, we barely even spoke during that session but were totally in sync.
Machine linework – handpoked textures
What’s the tattoo scene like where you are? Tattoos are not a contemporary concept in India, Gonna a tribal form of handpoke tattoos has existed for centuries. Different tribes in India have tattoo practices of varying styles and for different purposes.
With the rise of machine tattoos and influence from the West, you can see India adapting to the culture and getting big, bold custom tattoos as a form of self-expression. Though tattoos are still a niche and fairly looked down upon in corporate jobs there is a slow but sure acceptance of the art form.
The contemporary stick and poke scene of independent artists that I am part of is slowly gaining respect from the tattoo studios that work with cool/rotary machines. Like the rich diversity of India, the country also offers a wide range of tattoo styles and artists you can get work done from!
Tattooing at a guest spot
You mentioned you want to provide brown skin toned people an opportunity to get tattooed by someone who knows how to work those skin shades. What do you want people to know about tattooing brown skin and how can they work with different skin shades? I think many people are afraid to do coloured tattoos on brown skin tones just because we lack representation on blogs and Pinterest boards. Studying colour theory and drawing flashes on brown toned backgrounds helps a lot with understanding how to make colours pop on POC. But also, experiment, offer free colour tests to clients with darker skin tones so you can better understand how melanin plays a part in the healing of a coloured tattoo.
Machine linework – handpoked colour
What have you been doing since the pandemic? Ahhh, hoenstly a lot on some days and then nothing at all on many. I experienced a massive rise in the sale of my handpoke tattoo kits during the pandemic, which helped me keep afloat and busy with work.
It was interesting to see so many people take up stick and poke as a hobby during the pandemic.
When times were good between the second and third wave we would take the opportunity to host IRL flash days, I even hosted a three city handpoke tattoo festival across India showcasing some of the country’s brightest new tattoo artists. When we were forced to go back into isolation I kept the community strong and alive with virtual flash days and Clubhouse chats with tattoo enthusiasts, which was also great because then we weren’t bound by borders and tattoo artists from around the world could join in!
What do you see for the future of tattooing in India? How do you see yourself in this? Oooh, I think the future for tattooing in India is super bright. We are definitely gaining momentum on the map as a legit place for international artists to come for a guest spot, simultaneously Indian artists travelling abroad for work and getting fully booked out.
India hosts some of the most exciting tattoo conventions, I attended one recently in Mumbai called Kula tattoo convention which was a beautiful coexistence between traditional handpoked tattoos and contemporary tattoo artists from villages of India to the far West.
Is there anything else you want people to know? In 2022 I took the leap of changing my artist name that I built over five years from Tender Pokes to Paradise Tender. I felt like this was an important step in my growth as a multidisciplinary artist, as now in addition to handpoked tattoos I also have machine tattoos and tooth gems in my skills roster.
I am looking forward to what I’ll create this year, with my new found love for hybrid tattoos that involve both handpoke and machine! Also, being the first artist doing colourful tooth jewellery in India, I am excited to see what heights I can take this form of body art in my country to!
Follow Shreya for more hybrid tattoos and guest spots.
