Stockholm - the city of tattoos
Stockholm is a creative city where we like to express our individuality. Therefore, it’s no surprise that the tattoo trend is bigger than ever. People of all ages choose to decorate their body with a tattoo, and it’s said that Stockholm is the most tattooed city in the world. Today, skin art is a whole world with a strong culture and trends.
According to the global survey, the Metropolitan Report, Stockholmers aged 18-49 are the most tattooed people in the world (except for some indigenous people). 33 percent of Stockholmers have tattoos, compared to an average of 14 percent when it comes to urban residents in the rest of the world.
In other words, the time when tattoos were associated with sailors and unreliable people feels far away. The negative prejudices have been erased for a long time and today body are is completely socially accepted. Tattoos are also the oldest form of body decoration, and, for example, we have found evidence that people who lived during the time of the pharaohs had tattoos on their bodies. Even the 5300-year-old iceman Ötzi, found in the Alps in 1991, had 61 tattoos.
Thomas Adolfsson is one of the founders of one of Stockholm’s most popular tattoo studios Finest Tattoo, which is located on Hornsgatan 158 on Södermalm. He agrees that it’s more popular than ever to decorate your body with ink.
“There are always people who want to get tattooed. And it’s the oldest form of art, so there’s no risk that it disappears. It’s a lifestyle,” he says.
The size of the tattoos varies. The first-time-visitor may often go for a small tattoo on the upper arm while others choose large a tattoo that covers the entire back. The motives also vary a lot, and as with everything else, the trends are constantly changing.
“Right now a lot of Mandala designs are popular among women. Otherwise, it’s animals and nature that seem to be favorites, but it’s a great mix when it comes to people’s tattoo requests,” says Thomas Adolfsson.
In addition to the individual skills of the tattoo artist, who often have an education in art or graphic design, new techniques and modern tattooing equipment have created greater opportunities for tattoo artists to make even more beautiful and grand designs. It’s just the imagination that sets limits.
“There’s nothing we don’t master. We can really do everything, and we do it very well,” says Thomas.
Finest Tattoo has several skilled artists, and they specialize in text, Japanese, reality, black’n’grey, and portraits, but also have a broader spectrum which includes, for example, old and new school, biomech, tribal, classic, fantasy, colors, and cover-up. The most important thing is always to realize the customers’ hopes and to be responsive to their wishes and concerns. Everyone should feel welcome and appreciated when they visit the studio.
If you visit Stockholm at the end of August and want to experience world-class skin art, you should visit the famous tattoo fair Stockholm Ink Bash (stockholminkbash.com) at Münchenbryggeriet on Södermalm.
It has been arranged every year since 1996 and gathers about 200 award-winning tattoo artists from all over the world. If you’re a fan of tattoo art, this is definitely the place to be.
More and more tattoo studios are also opening around Stockholm, and everything indicates that the tattoo culture boom that we’ve seen during the 2000s and 2010s will continue.
Our body has become like a canvas that we paint with expressions of who we are and what we like.
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