I am an experienced tattoo artist working mostly in colour fantasy realism. But my beginnings in tattooing started with a fascination of neotraditional style, which I am currently developing. I was born and raised in Kielce in Poland, and this was the place where I began to pursue my artistic expression. At a young age, I started drawing a lot and learning different techniques. There were graffiti, print, vector and 3d art. It was my side hobby apart from skateboarding and getting my masters degree in Automatics and Robotics. But soon enough, I was asked to do a project like logo designs, commissioned cartoon characters, amateur movie editing or visual directing. I began learning by practice and experiments with styles and machine setup. After two years, I made a very difficult decision to change my hobby into a lifestyle. The studio where I made my first steps as a tattooist was Speak in Color Tattoo in Silesia, Poland. After two years, I decided to move on and try my best in one of the busiest places in the world, in London. Now you can find me in a Six Bullets Tattoo Studio, where I'm still developing my tattoo style. My works are influenced by fantasy and illustrative approach to colour compositions. Many of designs include movies/games themes and mythology symbolism.

Hi! My name is Sara Anastasia; I am a tattoo artist working in London. I specialise in dotwork, and my work is very much inspired by anime/manga. 

 

I enjoy watching all genres of anime; my favourite genres are dark/suspenseful anime and Shonen. Some of my favourite animes are Attack on Titan, Hunter x Hunter, Skip Beat! and the Studio Ghibli movies.

 

I first became interested in tattooing when I was in high school. I was inspired by the work of Grace Neutral and Hannah Snowdon in particular and love how they use dots to create body and depth. I used to spend hours in class and in between lessons drawing up tattoo flash - my work was inspired by anime back then as well as classic horror films like Child’s Play. I don’t really get to tattoo anything other than anime, which isn’t a problem of course, but it would be nice to do some Chucky tattoos too! 

 

I admire the history of tattooing, and I find how attitudes towards the practice are forever changing very interesting and also personal. My family are from Morocco and The Philippines, so they are places where tattoos are very looked down upon. I grew up in a household where tattoos weren’t accepted at all due to their association with gang culture, particularly in Asia.

 

It took a while for my family to perceive tattooing as an art form rather than something of a negative connotation, but eventually, they saw the beauty in it. I found the negative attitude a bit strange as tattooing has been a part of Filipino culture for many years, especially with Whang Od who is renowned being the last Kalinga mambabatok (tattooing with thorns, bamboo sticks and soot). It’s a shame that the art hasn’t been so celebrated.

 

It’s refreshing to see that attitudes towards tattooing are constantly changing, and it’s interesting to see how tattooing is evolving as well. A lot of the tattoos I see nowadays, including anime/pop culture designs would have been looked down upon by tattooists a decade ago; they still sort of are today, unfortunately. Despite this, it’s great to see that people are getting the tattoos they want and expressing themselves in new ways. I hope to see more of it!