Because your tattoo can either be a flaming ying-yang prison badge or a goddamn work of art.

Coming up in the tattoo world by driving a ballpoint pen through other prisoner's butt flesh is pretty chill, but being able to call yourself a master of your craft is a whole different story. And when it comes to choosing a tattoo artist to permanently alter your pecs or pear shape, you always want to go with the latter option.

That's why we rounded up some of the world's best, most original tattoo artists for you; because your tattoo can either be a flaming ying-yang prison badge or a goddamn work of art that makes Daddy proud.

Here are some of the greatest tattoo artists in the world. Don't ask us why they're all in Europe; we're too busy figuring out how to stow away on a Paris-bound cargo ship to answer that.

Loïc Lavenu, aka Xoïl

Thonons les Bains, France 

What can we say, the man loves the Photoshop collage aesthetic. The results are always surreal, sprawling and highly experimental.

Website here.

Peter Aurisch

Berlin, Germany

Peter excels at creating tattoos that perfecty mimic watercolor, cubism, or precisely shaded pencil drawings.

Website here.

Ondrash

Znojmo, Czech Republic

Ondrash is practically becoming a household name due to the raging popularity of the watercolor tattoos he specializes in.

Website here.

Mariusz Trubisz

Wroclaw, Poland

Mariusz has a god-given gift for shading and creating incredibly vibrant, near-neon tattoos.

Website here.


Madame Chän

Berlin, Germany

Madame Chän specializes in dreamy, chimerical tattoos that are as humorous and irreverant as they are realistic. At times, her tattoos are dense, but at others, they're understated line drawings that look clean and design-forward.

Website here.

Marcin Aleksander Surowiec

Warsaw, Poland

Marcin uses incredibly vibrant inks to make surreal, brilliantly shaded tattoos.

Website here.

Kenji Alucky

Hokkaido, Japan

Kenji is known for a dotting technique called stippling. His tattoos respresent geometric and tribal motifs, and beg to be inspected up close where you can see the insane amount of detail and feather-thin lining.

Website here.


David Hale

Athens, Georgia, USA

Working out of his own Love Hawk studios, David’s tattos are emblazened with a folk-art spirit and perfect symmetry.

Website here.

Amanda Wachob

Brooklyn, New York, USA

The woman makes tattoo ink look like acrylic paint. Or watercolor. Or any hand-made piece of painting sorcery.

Website here.

Chaim Machlev

Berlin, Germany

Known in the tattoo world as Dots to Lines, Chaim Machlev creates stark black-ink geometric tattoos with wave-linke lines that are both intricate and pristine.

Website here.