For my Project „Passion“ I got the chance to accompany a tattoo artist at work.

Of course when you make pictures from an tattoo artist at work you also need the permission from the person which get the  tattoo. This person gives me the permission but wanted to stay incognito.  I respect this and say thanks a lot. Please, if there is somebody recognizing this person, don‘t post here name somewhere.

Thanks a lot to Maaika to let me in her studio Growink in Heerenveen, Netherlands. Her studio doesn’t look like a normal studio and she doesn’t manage it like I know it from other studios. If you don’t know it is there,you would never recognize it from the outside. I loved  that the whole room was floated with natural light, because of the big window front. Perfect to make pictures and I’m pretty sure its not too wrong to have enough light when youre tatooing. If you want a tattoo you can not just walk in, you have to make an appointment by e-mail with her. If she doesn’t like the tattoo you want, you need to go to another tattoo studio. I really appreciate this way; if you get a tatto from her you can be sure she loves it too. What I really liked was the point that she spend the time at an appointment just with you to answer all the questions and find the best design for your tattoo, she really takes care off you.

After the session Maaika was so friendly and answered me some question (show below).

How did you start your career as a tattoo Artist?

I started tattooing about ten years ago. I learned tattooing in a local shop, the guy who taught me wasn’t the best but I learned the basics of him. After working for about two years in his shop I got invited to work as a guest artist in Berlin, At tatau obscur. Thats the place where I learned a lot about style and composition

When did you open your first own shop?

After I visited Berlin a couple of times I decided to start my own shop, wich I have now for almost 8 years.

 What inspires you? If you need something to inspire 😉

Inspiration I get from my customers, and looking at a lot of artists. Not only tattoo artists but illustrators and suchs. I try to stick to my own style. If I think the tattoo doesn’t work for me I just don’t do the tattoo.

How did you find your style, or is your style always changing?

Style does change. It’s the same with painting. You can see it’s somebody’s work but looking at the same artist ten years ago it might be completely different. But you can see it’s that person‘s work. It’s good that style changes, you have to develop, you can’t stand still, everything changes around you so why not you to. I always like the arty tattoos, it’s nice to see tattoo artists developing their own style. I did artschool before I started tattooing. So I always had an interest in new things. Although I do find realistic tattooing always nice to do. In artschool I did medical drawing so I guess the realistic stuff is stuck with me forever 😉

If somebody would say:” Do whatever you want, how big or colorful, I don’t care!” What would you do?

If somebody would give me “card blanche”, I would be pretty much afraid 😉 I would need some time to come up with the best idea ever. Most likely there will be realistic in it, that I can tell for sure, but probably some abstract too (I love abstract tattooing).