Wherever you go in the world, you’ll find a legion of artists aching to ink your flesh. Here is a massive roundup of some of our faves...

Horihiro
Location Numazu, Japan
Website Horihiro.com/eng
How did you start tattooing?
My mother was a geisha, so I saw men with full bodysuits come into our house as a child. I built my first tattoo machine from transistor radio parts and, aged 13, began working on friends.
Who’s your typical customer?
Eighty per cent of my clients are yakuza [Japanese mafia]. They’re good clients, but if customers from rival gangs have appointments at the same time it’s a problem. Often a client who’s a week away from having their suit completed will get caught and go to jail for six or seven years. That really sucks.
Ever had a tattoo disaster?
Because I often tattoo gangsters, if I made a mistake it could be a huge problem. I can’t afford to make errors!
What would you say to an aspiring tattooist?
Do it because you enjoy it, not for business’ sake. If you truly love it, clients will come to you naturally.

Suzi Q
Location Holdfast Tattoo, Perth, Aus
Website Holdfasttattoo.com
How did you start tattooing?
While getting tattooed in North Carolina, USA, my regular tattoo artist, Lea Smith of Lucky Lady
Tattoo, gave me an apprenticeship.
What do you specialise in?
I’m known for my colour work, but I enjoy working with black and grey as well. I also like traditional western icons – roses, daggers, skulls, nautical themes – and the rockabilly/psychobilly scene.
Is there a typical Australian style?
There’s interest in new-school colour bomb pieces, larger oriental themes and traditional tribal.
Who’s your typical customer?
My clients are of all ages and from all walks of life.
What’s the best tattoo you’ve done?
My new three-quarter sleeve of a modern geisha with fans and cherry blossoms is becoming a firm favourite.

Tim Kern
Location Brooklyn, New York, USA
Website Myspace.com/ymonster
Which designs are hot in the US?
People ask me for the same things over and over again, such as bloody roses, so I do each one differently.
Is there anything that’s taboo?
I don’t do things that go against my personal ethics, such as racist stuff. If someone asks for, say, tattoos on their hands, and they have no other visible tattoos, I’ll try and talk them out of it. It makes them instantly unemployable.
Which designs do you like drawing?
Horror, realism... I like doing things that seem kind of ridiculous, but look good when tattooed.
What advice would you offer to anyone getting
a tattoo?
Meet the artist. There are tattooists whose work I admire, but I wouldn’t want them inking me! You’ll spend hours with your tattooist, so you must get on.

Joe Capobianco
Location New Haven, Connecticut, USA
Website Joecapobianco.com
What do you specialise in?
I’d like to say everything, but I’m mainly known for pin-up work. Nine times out of 10 I’m asked to draw a tattoo where boobs are the main focus.
Is there anything that’s taboo?
I shy away from tattooing people’s faces.
What’s the weirdest thing anyone has asked
you to tattoo?
Nothing fazes me now! I’ve been asked to do all sorts, from a Catholic schoolgirl being seduced by a Mother Superior to a devil girl going down on a female angel.
What advice would you offer to anyone getting a tattoo?
Think – think a lot! Don’t jump in headfirst. And research your artist – there’s talent out there, but you really have to search to find the best artist for you.

Marcus Kuhn
Location Portland, Maine, USA
Website Marcuskuhn.com
How did you start tattooing?
I started tattooing about eighteen years ago while I was working as a an art director in Los Angeles. I was getting tattooed and I thought I can do better than this. I fell in love with tattooing. We have been together for almost twenty years now...
What style do you specialise in?
I like Japanese works that have a flavour of graphic simplicity and old Americana that looks like a restored antique. I try to always be original. The web is the death of creative risk taking. Boring ripples in a pond mimicking the first big splash.
Is there anything that's taboo?
I don’t dig hateful images. But here hands and neck are pretty common. In San Francisco even your grandma has sleeves.
Who is your typical customer?
Someone looking for big or serious work. Usually after a few years of getting mediocre work or after doing a lot of research.
Ever had a tattoo disaster?
Well, if you can count a customer vomiting on me or punching me in the face a disaster then yes.
What single piece of advice would you offer to anyone getting a tattoo?
Wait. Get a really good tattoo artist, and plan all of your tattoos upfront - don’t get stickers on a suitcase style...


Dr Lakra
Mexico
How did you start tattooing?
I got involved in the punk scene in Mexico City. Back then there were only homemade machines in Mexico, so I built my own. The studio where I paint is also where I do my tattoos. It’s all word of mouth – I don’t advertise.
How would you describe your style?
My particular style is my art, my drawings – and many of the drawings are not applicable to the skin. In motif terms, I’m really classic – girls, pirates, pirate girls, skulls. Everyone asks me for Day of the Dead skulls – I never do these in Mexico! I like using black and grey – in Mexico, people’s skin is darker, so it’s difficult to use colour. But when I travel I use a lot of colour. I prefer crude jail styles, where the meaning is more important than the technique. I also like a lot of tribal, but I don’t like to do it myself.

Alex Binnie
Location Into You, London
Website Alexbinnie.com
When did you start tattooing?
From a squat in the late 80s.
What do you specialise in?
Tribal and a sort of tribal fusion.
Is anything taboo?
Sure, facial tattooing. It’s getting more common, but it still puts you outside society’s norms. Hands are fine. We do swastikas, but not Nazi ones.
Who’s your typical customer?
In their 30s, university educated, and with a well-paid job so that they’re able to afford it.
What’s your favourite tattoo you’ve done?
I’ve recently completed a full bodysuit on a lady that’s pretty spectacular. It’s all freehand geometric.
What’s the oddest request you’ve had?
We tattooed Lucky Diamond Rich. That was a weird request. We tattooed him a lot, then he had his whole body blacked in, mainly at our shop.

Yann
Location Glamort, Quebec, Canada
Website Yourmeatismine.com
When did you start tattooing?
As an illustration student. I bought a machine to tattoo my friends.
What do you specialise in?
It’s just been a logical progression of my illustration work.
Is there anything that’s taboo?
If a customer is self-assured and wants to have their hands or face tattooed, I don’t object. But I make them aware that they risk excluding themselves from society.
Who’s your typical customer?
Those who weren’t interested in tattoos until they saw my work. And people who want me to do cover-ups.
Ever had a tattoo disaster?
I’m self-taught, so my early inks didn’t always turn out great!
What advice would you offer?
Find a tattooist with similar taste, who listens to you.


Kian Forreal
Location Innervision, Sydney, Aus
Website Innervisiontattoo.com.au
How did you start tattooing?
In Toronto with Crazy Ace, a 70s and 80s legend and one of the original bad motherfuckers of American tattooing.
What do you specialise in?
West coast-style script and trad Japanese.
Is there a typical Australian style?
Each city seems to have its own thing going on. Up the east coast it tends to be more 90s-style tattooing, such as black and grey, faces and demons. In Sydney, people seem to have slightly more mature tastes.
What advice would you offer?
Do your homework. Getting something put onto your skin for your whole life is an intimate and serious undertaking. There are countless great artists with online websites and portfolios, and ten-fold more crappy tattoo artists with the same. Learn to tell the difference between an OK tattoo and a great tattoo.

Colin Dale
Location Copenhagen, Denmark
Website Tattoo.dk
What do you specialise in?
I do a lot of historical and neo-Nordic designs – traditional ones as well as my own interpretations.
Is there a Scandinavian style?
We do ‘rock art’ such as stick men with giant phalluses, which comes from the Scandinavian Copper Age 5,000 years ago. It was a ritual or medicinal practice in those days. I like that philosophy.
Ever had a tattoo disaster?
When I started Eskimo sewing it didn’t look too
good. For this method you take a reindeer tendon, coat it in soot, and stitch it through the skin using a bone needle. When the tendon’s pulled out it leaves a line. But this style died out by the 1800s.
What advice would you give?
Explore your culture and don’t grab onto a symbol that doesn’t mean anything to you.


Max Tattoo
Location Bangkok, Thailand
Website Maxtattoobangkok.com
How did you start in tattooing?
By getting a traditional dragon tattoo in Singapore aged 15.
I started my own shop in Bangkok in 2002, and I now have seven tattooists working here.
What style of tattoo do you do?
Oriental designs, and I also enjoy freehand work.Typical clients?
Swedish and English, many of whom are tourists who come to Thailand to get tattooed. We also get celebrities from Taiwan, Thailand and Hong Kong.
Have you had any unusual requests?
Lots of weird sexual stuff! But we try hard to give clients what they want.
What would you say to budding tattooists?
Draw lots, because that’s the most important part of your art. And trust your imagination.

Horimyo
Location Saitama, Japan
Website 13project.com
What do you specialise in?
I do tebori, where needles are manually inserted. There are few tebori artists left in Japan – most people use machines these days.
How did you start tattooing?
It took four years of wanting to do it before I took the plunge. It was a big decision to make. Most Japanese tattoos are in a yakuza style, and to be an artist often meant becoming a gangster, which I’m not. I don’t have any yakuza clients.
Who’s your typical client?
Everyone from company directors, workers and truckers. It creates a trusting, intimate atmosphere.
What’s your favourite tattoo you’ve done?
One client let me do whatever I wanted over his entire body. That was fantastic.


Mark Kopua
URUORA MOKO STUDIOS
Tolaga Bay, New Zealand
How did you start tattooing?
I was a traditional Maori carver for over 23 years. I learnt traditional Maori design, their multiple meanings, their protocols (taboos) and placements. I also spent 10 years applying drawn Moko or Kirituhi onto haka performers. About 10 to 11 years ago I decided to transfer my combined traditional knowledge and art skills from timber, stone, paint, metal and bone to skin. Through a close friend and carving colleague, I gained some tuition from a tattooist relation of his, on tattooing.
What style do you specialise in?
I specialise completely in traditional Maori Moko and Kirituhi of New Zealand. Kirituhi is a form of Maori design that allows non-maori the participation in Maori skin art without the pressure of offending Maori by claiming they wear Moko. However my main passion within the Moko side is facial Moko for both genders.
Is there a typical New Zealand style? What is it?
Maori Moko also known as Ta Moko is the typical New Zealand style as it is what identifies the wearer as clearly Maori and/or clearly from New Zealand.
What designs are popular in New Zealand?
After a long period of Maori culture and language renaissance, and after nearly 20 years of re-establishing itself, Ta Moko has reclaimed its position as the most popular design/style in New Zealand. That popularity is not totally from the Maori population but also from many non-maori who see Moko or Kirituhi as a link of belonging to New Zealand.
Is there anything that's taboo?
There are many things that are taboo about Moko simply because the designs symbolise genealogy that is inherently Maori. Wearing facial Moko of any kind without support and consent from the family who share its genealogy is considered inappropriate. Even the selection of the artist is taboo because families prefer an artist with knowledge of genealogy rather than with artistic skills, simply because absolute accuracy is required when applying symbols of rank and position. So Moko when viewed more as a culture than an art means that it is laden with taboos.
Who is your typical customer?
Maori people are my typical customers, followed largely by non-maori from overseas, then non-maori from New Zealand wanting Kirituhi.
What's the weirdest thing anyone has asked you to tattoo?
For me, that would have to have been a female genital Kirituhi I did while in Spain, only because the woman I did was far more liberal about dropping her trousers in public than I was about doing that piece in public.
What's your favourite tattoo you've done?
My nephew’s facial Moko, only because throughout all three sessions he lay as still as a rock which means now that it’s one of the better facials Iíve done.
Ever had a tattoo disaster?
Naturally there are a couple of my very first Moko that I eventually went back to and redid. A couple of these where due to the over zealous support of family which left me contending with people bumping and moving the recipient which resulted in small mistakes which off course I had to mend. I now make it very clear to support families that they have to stay clear of the work being done or leave.