Tattoo Life September/October 2026

Cover Girl: Carina Maria

Meet Carina-Maria, the cover girl of this issue: a stunning thirty-year-old tattoo artist from Kempten, in the Allgäu region of Germany, where she works at Pain for Pleasure Tattoo. Creative by nature, she loves to observe life through an artistic and aesthetic lens, filtering everything she experiences through the world of tattooing.

Chat at the top with Alex Rusty

We met Alex Rusty, a tattoo artist from Sydney well-known for his amazing backpieces in japanese style, deeply connected to the city where he was born and still lives today. He began his tattooing career here at the age of 24, when Sydney’s tattoo scene was a very different place—rougher, more challenging, yet incredibly exciting as he tells us himself in this interview.

Camilo Orsorio Neo Traditional is in the eye of the beholder

Raised among the cultural richness and contrasts of Colombia, his home country, Camilo Osorio, now based in Colorado, over time has developed a personal visual language rooted in Neo Traditional but open to influences from Realism, New School, and Traditional tattooing. Today his work is recognizable for its elegant female figures with empty eyes — subjects hovering between reality and imagination that leave room for personal interpretation, turning each tattoo into a narrative rich in symbolism, mystery, and emotion.

Inkdustry: Allegory

In tattooing, some tools accompany every phase of the work, while others — despite their apparent simplicity — represent its very foundation. Black ink belongs to this second category. Lines, saturation, shading, contrast: much of the language of tattooing is built around it. It is precisely this awareness that gave rise to Allegory Ink, an American brand that has chosen to focus its attention on one of the most widely used elements in studios the world over.

Body Story: The Inner Cosmos of Julien Kuttke in Julian Siebert’s Bodysuit

In this Body Story we enter the visual and inner universe of Julien Kuttke, a 33-year-old tattoo collector living in Bielefeld, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, who works as an IT consultant. His bodysuit has become one of the most significant and enduring journeys of his life. Through collaborations with artists such as Peter Hilgers and Ilya Fominyh, he then entrusted the unification of this visual cosmos to Julian Siebert, allowing each tattoo to become part of a broader composition — deeply intimate and in constant evolution.

Blackwork tattoos by Hanumantra

In order to fully grasp the universal message that runs through the work of British tattoo artist Hanumantra, it is enough to keep in mind one sentence — one of many he offered us during an interview which was more philosophical than technical: “For me, tattooing exists in the space between two forces. On one side there is discipline, precision and structure. On the other there is instinct, risk and creative freedom. The real challenge to find harmony between them. It is this tension that keeps me engaged.”

Michelle Vestergard

Michelle grew up in Denmark in a family immersed in biker culture, breathing in the smell of ink long before she could imagine it would become her trade. Today Michelle is known for her intense, cinematic style, exploring the deepest nuances of the human soul through faces, emotions and atmospheres imbued with a strange blend of beauty and unease. “Faces became such an important part of my work. They allow me to tell stories without explaining them. Over time, it became almost an obsession—not just to tell my own stories, but to help tell other people’s stories as well”.

Tattoo shop: Welcome to Electric Grizzly Tattoo

In the heart of the Canadian Rockies, surrounded by snow-capped peaks, turquoise lakes and wildlife, over the years, Electric Grizzly Tattoo has become a point of reference for those seeking quality tattoos in one of the most spectacular landscapes in North America. We spoke with Derek to hear the story of Canmore, the birth of the studio, and the international team that today brings life to this creative space where tattooing meets mountain living.

Minh Pham: between Asian and Realism

Combining cultural traditions deeply rooted in his Asian heritage and an intense personal stylistic research, the work of Minh Pham is a blend of Realism and Asian imagery, breathing life into pieces where the visual flow aligns with the contours of the body. Born in Vietnam and now based in Texas, this artist has built a recognizable language, where female faces, symbols and emotions come together in a coherent and contemporary narrative.

Who’s who: Alex Mister. P

We present you the work of Alex Mister P, with an overview of his art, distinctive style and the stories behind his paintings. Coming from the punk and skate scene of the 80s and 90s, Alex blends personal experience, underground culture and a strong background in tattooing into a visual language as raw as old ashtrays and nostalgic as the Belgian sky yet profoundly human. Somewhere between Neo Traditional tattooing and painting, his work becomes a reflection on identity, music and everyday life.

Paul Dobleman. Lines and Drawings launches Travel Tool

In every tattooer’s artistic evolution and daily practice, there is a fundamental point you always return to — the moment when research inevitably comes back to paper. Because before colour, before shading, before volume, before the tattoo itself, there is drawing: the line as exercise, study, and construction of a personal language, repeating the same subject hundreds and hundreds of times, chosen from the defining motifs of a given style. This is the idea behind Paul Dobleman – Lines and Drawings, the volume with which Tattoo Life inaugurates Travel Tool, a new series dedicated to reference tools for tattooers and enthusiasts. All titles share a compact format (165 × 240 mm), easy to carry as a pocket reference archive to browse in the studio, on the road, or during creative research — to find that inspiration, that solid foundation from which to develop fresh work.

…and much more

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