Artist of the Month: Lera Ooqza

Lera is an artist from Moscow, Russia. Her specialty is blackwork, particularly Asian inspired horror.

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Japanese Yōkai featuring a couple of lantern demons and terrifying head.
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Terrifying demon woman.
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Incredibly dark blackwork demon and monsters.
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Japanese geisha demon with a geometric kimono.
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Detailed moth and moon.
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Shoulder flowers with eyeballs.
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Japanese inspired demon with too many hands!

Most of her work takes on a dark theme, such as ghosts, demons, and skeletons.

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Skeleton and nude woman. Some fantastic details in there.
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Peony flowers covering up old scars.
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Robotic severed hand and knife.
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Sternum moth.
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Maneki-neko cat from Japan.
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Heavy blackwork goldfish.

When she isn’t doing blackwork, her other work is quite delicate, including flowers and other natural plants.

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Delicate pink rose.
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Cute mushrooms!

Lera has an incredible attention to detail, with an eye for the supernatural and spooky!

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Queen of hearts meets gruesome death.
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Creepy goblet of blood.
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Namakubi with incredible linework in the hair.
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Small butterfly with some great dotwork detail.
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Some brilliant kanji with great hand placement.
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Split lion head with a distinct Asian style.

Lera is a must see artist for your creepy blackwork needs.

Winnipeg Artist 7: Jan Veldman

Jan Veldman works at First String Tattoo in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

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Matching Russian nesting dolls with totem designs.
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Blackwork death’s head moth.
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Big ole’ werewolf and red moon.
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Badass cobra with witchy hands.
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We all float down here… Pennywise and balloon.
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A Salvador Dali inspired piece.
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Traditional ship with flowers.
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He’s late! Black and grey white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland.
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Terrifying snake lady with barbed wire.

Jan’s style can be characterized as neo traditional and new school, with a hint of American traditional thrown into the mix. He tattoos everything from classic roses to characters from shows and movies.

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Ghost sheet tattoo with some classic flowers.
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Devilish baphomet in black and grey.
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American traditional style Jesus Christ and cross.
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Hobo cat doing his thing!
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Japanese good fortune Maneki Neko cat.
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A drunk Speedy Gonzales.
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Road Runner and Wile E Coyote.
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Creepy new school spider with eyeball.

Most of Jan’s work is bright and bold, but he doesn’t shy away from some brilliant black and grey work either!

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Neo trad woman and wolf head.
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Classic and deadly scorpion with red background.
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A ghostly Bart Simpson with some script and trad flowers.
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Cute little cactus with budding flowers.
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Bender!
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Bright red chameleon.
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Adorable Michelangelo with his favourite food.
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Super cute new school cupcake.

Bring in your own design or pick one of his. Whatever you choose, Jan is a must see artist in Winnipeg!

Winnipeg Artist 3: Jade Harper

Jade Harper is a tattoo artist and owner of House of the Rising Sun in Winnipeg. Jade does mainly blackwork American traditional pieces, but has been doing more bold colourful works recently as well. She’s also very well known for her cowboy and cowboy girl pieces.

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Bold bear and elegant script.
Butterfly and laurel hand tattoo.

Due to the current pandemic (April 2020) Jade and other artists cannot tattoo temporarily, but she is still selling paintings. Check out her Instagram to do so, linked above.

Butterfly chest tattoo.
Negative space traditional flower.

Jade has a large amount of her own tattoo flash to choose from, and she also takes ideas, and will make changes to her own flash to suit the client’s needs.

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Healed cowboys in love.
Bright and bold peacock.

Jade focuses on being inclusive in her shop, and is proud to be the owner of the (currently) only queer owned and operated shop in Winnipeg. She acknowledges that tattoo shops can be a (sometimes) intimidating place, particularly for those in the LGBTQ community, as well as people of colour, so she’s created the space to be a welcoming place for all.

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Roquefort the mouse from Disney’s The Aristocats.
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My own “hang in there” noose from Jade.

Jade is a must-see artist in Winnipeg if you’re passing through, or a local looking for someone great!

Lady head in a spiderweb.
Cowboy girl portrait.

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Artist of the Month: Dust “Horitsuki” Wu

Horitsuki is a tattoo artist and owner of Galaxy Tattoo 3 in Hong Kong. He studied under Nicckuhori, the god son of the brilliant Horiyoshi III, in Singapore before finding his own style within Japanese traditional art, despite working in China.

He has gained recognition throughout Asia and Europe, travelling as a guest artist. He does all the classic Japanese designs such as hanya masks, snakes, koi fish, fu dogs, and flowers. However it is dragons that he is most famous for. He is nicknamed the Dragon King in Europe.

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Fu dog hand piece.
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Brilliant Hanya with a bold placement.
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Colourful chrysanthemum.
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Ghost lantern.
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Koi and cherry blossom sleeve.
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Koi and cat piece.
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Matching foot namakubi.
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Beautiful, bloody namakubi.
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Bold red Oni.
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Traditional smoking frog.
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Beautifully detailed Japanese tiger.
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Angry dragon head.
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Dragon head and claw.
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Dragon chest piece coming off of a sleeve.
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Gorgeous dragon back piece with flowers.

Horitsuki is the guy to see if you’re in Hong Kong.