Chapta Tattoo

BIOGRAPHY

Chapta is a tattooer from Hong Kong, now based in London. She does mainly “sketchy” black theme works, representing animals or surreal figures.

She graduated in graphic design and had been working in a big company, doing advertisements for the film industry.

Working in big company in Hong Kong the life and rhythms were very busy: Chapta decided to quit job and starting tattooing, following his artistic inspirations and relying on her drawing skill.

Learning by herself, she started tattooing as an apprentice, always focusing on her tattoo style.

She moved to London last year, after 3 years tattooing in Hong Kong, looking for more free and artistic environment.

Chapta explained that in London the clients, regarding the design of the tattoo, give her more freedom and space to express her art: here she is completely free to follow her style.

TECNIQUE

Chapta focuses mainly on sketchy black works designs.

She uses the stencil just as a reference, tattooing often freehand, starting from one side of the design to the other. She explained that If the tattoo is too dark is impossible to follow the guides of the stencil and you need to rely on your drawing skill.

Her works are not so outlined and she needs to be flexible depending on the skin, the image, the part of the body, etc.

When she tattoos, she just follows her style and her creativity and inspiration: there are not strict rules in art.

ART AND STYLE

In many cities, and sometimes in London too, the tattoo industry composed by people focused only on making business and not art.

Chapta explained that she wants to prioritize creative quality instead of money: she moved from Hong Kong to London to keep doing her tattooing style and avoid those business dynamics; for example she doesn’t work with walk in and she tattoos only her sketches.

What impressed me more is that she is very focused on her black and gray sketchy style and she follows that with a lot of consistency: she is probably the most consistence tattooer I met.

In London Chapta feels more free, especially for for the creative side of her job: the customer gives her more creative space and they trust her more.

She said: I don’t like realism so much, I like the way my characters come from my world; I like to draw parts of animals instead of whole bodies so can add more details and they look more alive.