Drawing is an integral part of the tattooing process, from the conception and design to translating it onto the skin. For many artists, drawing is used somewhere in their artistic practice. It is often an entry point of artistic expression, and is used by many artists to sketch out ideas, even if it doesn't appear in the final product.

The act of tattooing is an inherently tactile process, with both the tattooist and the person being tattooed physically experiencing the act of drawing. Both the artist and the tattooed person can be involved in designing the final piece. Tattoos may even be based on a drawing by the recipient or someone close to them, such as the handwriting of a loved one.

Amy Winehouse, 'Daddy' and Gideon Pain's Handwash 2 illustrate the variety of tattoo styles represented in British art. The mural of Amy Winehouse depicts a more traditional style of tattoo. In the 2000s, it was transgressive to see these donned on a young female singer from a Jewish upbringing. The tattoos on the person in Handwash 2 have a sketched or doodle-like quality, highlighting the close connection between drawing and tattoos as art forms.

This article explores the relationship between drawing and tattooing. To do this, I spoke to two tattoo artists who engage with the medium both commercially and as part of a wider artistic practice: Gesiye and Joan Jaguar.

Gesiye is an artist from Trinidad and Tobago currently studying an MFA in Fine Art at the Slade in London. Their work often takes multimedia forms, blending animation, installation, performance, and tattooing. They also run a tattoo business in the capacity of Studio Lolia. They began tattooing at the age of 18. 'I started getting tattooed, and because I was already an artist, I was very drawn to the creative elements of tattooing.'

'I just felt excited by the process of it. I feel like there's something kind of magical and transformative about tattooing, in terms of you taking the flexibility over your body to decide what you want it to look like.'

2025, photograph and tattoos by Gesiye. Participants: Jamila Versi and Randa Toko; Creative Producer: Hamad Maiye; Cinematographer: Adenike Oke; Colourist: Dedula Kumalo; Music by Avilo Do Espírito Santo

I am You: Cartographies of Connection is a piece Gesiye developed, exploring the connections between two people through tattooing. Inspired by the relationship dynamics between close friends – the first pair tattooed was Jamila Versi and Randa Toko. Gesiye suggested that tattooing was a collective ritual that celebrated these close bonds.

The tattoo designs for this piece were influenced by the movement of water. They link the participants together like two pieces of a puzzle, creating a physical, ephemeral connection. This leaves a permanent mark of their bond, only visible when they touch to place the tattoos together.

I am You was displayed in the 2025 exhibition 'Human Marks: Tattooing in Contemporary Art', curated by Carrie Cushman at Joseloff Gallery in West Hartford, CT.

2025, photograph and tattoos by Gesiye. Creative Producer: Hamad Maiye; Cinematographer: Adenike Oke; Colourist: Dedula Kumalo; Music by Avilo Do Espírito Santo

'When I'm doing a lot of tattoos,' Gesiye explained, 'I'm often thinking about the relationship of the work to the person's body. Because it's not static, it's ageing and changing, time's passing, it's moving with the person. And I feel very aware of the fact that the tattoo itself is a really intimate connection that I'm having with a specific person that's also changing their body in a particular way.'

Tattooing was also used in Gesiye's project, The Wound is a Portal, commissioned by Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales in 2021 as part of their wider 'Reframing Picton' exhibition. In this piece, eight Trinidadian participants with no pre-existing relationships were tattooed as part of a performance installation. Images of all tattoos were cut together to create an animation, shown in the exhibition along with a short film.

2022, detail of installation at National Museum Cardiff

All participants were tattooed outside while discussing their relationship to that land and being part of the Black diaspora in a former British colony. 'The ritual of tattooing creates this visual mark of connection to the land,' Gesiye told me. The volunteers ranged from 18 to 78 years old. For some of them, this was their first time being tattooed.

Records of tattooing practices have been found on every continent. Tattoos have been used throughout history by indigenous cultures across the world. The earliest record of tattooed skin was found during the Ice Age between 3370 and 3100 BC. In tribal culture, tattoos have a variety of meanings, signifying a person's age or status.

The image of Ana Rupene and Her Daughter depicts a tattooed Māori woman with her child on her back. As James Frankham writes, 'She wears a moko kauae – a facial tattoo that is a mark of both her whakapapa (lineage) and mana (status within the tribe).'

Tattoos are often used in minority groups to foster this sense of collective identity. They have been historically used in queer culture to subtly signify belonging, such as the lesbian star tattoo. The portrait of Carmen and Luisa (Version 2) shows a queer Spanish couple in their home. It feels voyeuristic gazing at their naked, tattooed bodies, demonstrating the intimacy connected with tattoos usually hidden by clothes.

However, tattooing has developed from being a niche practice by marginalised communities to becoming a mainstream practice. It has become a permanent way of showing your appreciation for art, drawing and illustration.

It becomes part of a person's physical identity. It is not only an expression of the tattooist's artistic style, but also of the person being tattooed. This creates a form of performance, in conversation with the artists and the live canvas. As Olimpia Gaia Martinelli says, this 'places the art of tattooing at the forefront of contemporary artistic practices, where the body's surface acts as support, canvas, and vessel for visual, symbolic, and cultural narratives.'

An example of this innovative appreciation of art is the work of tattoo artist Joan Jaguar. Her tattooing style is inspired by the classical art pieces she previously studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw, such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti's Lady Lilith. There she specialised in printmaking and photography. These fine art tattoo designs are blended with drawn elements, often including line drawings or cartoon-style overlays.

Joan's popular tattoo designs include renditions of Sandro Botticelli's Birth of Venus.

Copy after the Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli in the Uffizi (Florence)

She told me her tattooing technique is very close to drawing on a page. She uses a tiny needle, 'it's basically like a pencil. It's like drawing with thousands of very small dots on the skin.' Almost like a Pointillist work by Georges Seurat.

Despite the intrinsic artistic nature of tattoos, most people engage with the art form from a commercial standpoint. Both Gesiye and Joan mentioned a distinction between tattooing as an artistic practice and as a profession. 'The thing that I think is really important in modern tattooing, when there's just so much competition, is to make something that's uniquely your own,' Joan told me.

So, where does that place the modern tattooing? Is it another example of practices from marginalised communities being adopted and commodified? Well, that depends on the relationship the artist and the person being tattooed have to those communities.

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The canvas, being someone's skin, can remove some of the inherent freedom of experimentation that comes with drawing. Both artists commented on the high-stakes nature of leaving a permanent mark on someone else, acknowledging the trust needed from the people being tattooed.

Perhaps the act of tattooing still retains a defiant nature, as Western culture is embracing more conservative values. The rise in mainstream popularity of tattoos doesn't take away from someone identifying with a group by being tattooed, even if that group is lovers of art.

Chloe Lovatt, writer and journalist

This content was funded by The Bridget Riley Art Foundation

Further reading

Carrie Cushman, ed. Human Marks: Tattooing in Contemporary Art, 2025

Gesiye, 'On Portals', Amgueddfa Cymru Blog, 2022

Olimpia Gaia Martinelli, 'Between Drawing and Ritual: Tattooing at the Crossroads of Art', Art Majeur, 2025

Ariel Messman-Rucker, 'Why have lesbians been getting star tattoos for more than 70 years?', Pride, 2025

Amy Olson, 'A brief history of tattoos', Wellcome Collection, 2010