{"id":2929,"date":"2018-02-19T17:09:37","date_gmt":"2018-02-19T16:09:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rattatattoo.com\/?p=2929"},"modified":"2018-02-19T17:09:37","modified_gmt":"2018-02-19T16:09:37","slug":"the-majestic-mandala-tattoos-of-new-jerseys-kirk-nilsen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rattatattoo.com\/the-majestic-mandala-tattoos-of-new-jerseys-kirk-nilsen\/","title":{"rendered":"The Majestic Mandala Tattoos of New Jersey’s Kirk Nilsen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kirk Nilsen was born in 1987 in the historical town of New Brunswick in New Jersey, USA. Nilsen has always been involved in creative pursuits, spending several years performing in international music acts and designing album covers for bands and record labels.<\/p>\n

He apprenticed himself to an older tattoo artist and began experimenting with dot work and cross hatching styles to create interesting textures and gradients. His style now heavily features sacred geometry and patterns that resemble those found in Buddhist and Hindi art works. Nilsen creates contrast in his tattoo designs by using lines of different thicknesses as well as area of dot work. His tattoos have beautiful visual textures that can capture a viewer and keep them interested in the design.<\/p>\n

Kirk Nilsen uses a lot of mandalas in his tattoo designs, sometimes overlapping several mandalas to create a sleeve tattoo, sometimes combining the mandalas with animals or skulls. A mandala is sometimes called a flower of life, so when the mandala contains skulls, it creates an interesting harmony between the themes of life and death.<\/p>\n

Altogether, Kirk Nilsen’s tattoos are not just superficially beautiful; they also explore the deeper nature of the universe, the balance between order and chaos, light and dark and the ever-present questions surrounding life and death.<\/p>\n

Follow Kirk Nilsen on Instagram<\/a> or Facebook<\/a> to get regular updates and more droolworthy pictures of his divine and majestic mandala tattoos.<\/p>\n

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\"Life<\/a><\/p>\n

Life and death are balanced in this black ink tattoo by master tattooist Kirk Nilsen. The mandala element in this tattoo designs represents life, while the skull represents death. By combining the two elements into one design, Kirk Nilsen has created an interesting balance between the themes of life and death. [source]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Tattoos<\/a><\/p>\n

Tattoos for girls often feature a strong feminine element like the flower of life mandala at the top of this tattoo sleeve by Kirk Nilsen. This lacy sleeve will be worn for eternity by this lucky client of Nilsen’s. [source]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Kirk<\/a><\/p>\n

Kirk Nilsen’s black ink tattoos often feature a distinctly Buddhist influence, as can be seen in the lotus flower in this tattoo design. Skulls not only represent death; they also symoblize endings, private thoughts and the unseen, inner worlds of man such as the imagination. When used in a mandala design like this one, the skulls could symbolise a balance between life and death, but it could also symbolise the balance between endings and beginnings, or the balance between creativity and destruction. [source]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Kirk<\/a><\/p>\n

Kirk Nilsen’s black ink tattoos often feature a distinctly Buddhist influence, as can be seen in the lotus flower in this tattoo design. Tattoo sleeves are very popular amongst Kirk Nilsen’s clients, because it means that they can show off their tattoo more easily by wearing short sleeves. [source]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

The intricate geometry of Kirk Nilsen’s tattoo designs are both trippy and mesmerising, and thanks to the skills of Kirk Nilsen, this woman now has a permanent piece of beautiful lace that she will wear for the rest of her life. [source]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Tattoo<\/a><\/p>\n

Tattoo artist Kirk Nilsen combines strong lines and ethereal dot work to create a contrast of textures in this sacred geometry tattoo. Is it a star, a flower or a snowflake? Kirk Nilsen’s sacred geometry tattoos are often a combination of all of the above. [source]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

A Hindu influence can be seen in this tattoo of a sacred Indian elephant by Kirk Nilsen. Ganesh is the Hindu elephant God of good fortune who brings success, happiness and wealth. [source]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Kirk<\/a><\/p>\n

Kirk Nilsen’s flower of life tattoo designs have a beautiful organic feeling to them. The perspective lines used in this mandala tattoo draws the viewer’s eyes right to the heart of the design. This is the perfect style of tattoo for girls who want a feminine tattoo that isn’t too girly. [source]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Before<\/a><\/p>\n

Before tattooing a design, Kirk Nilsen carefully draws the exact size and proportions to make sure that his sacred geometry tattoos are perfect. All good tattoo artists will take the time to carefully plan a tattoo on paper before inking it into skin – always ask to see your design to check if it’s just right before committing to a tattoo. [source]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"This<\/a><\/p>\n

This is an example of a Kirk Nilsen tattoo in the planning stage. It’s difficult for tattoo artists to lay out a design on paper because paper is a flat surface that doesn’t reflect the undulating nature of the human body. [source]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kirk Nilsen was born in 1987 in the historical town of New Brunswick in New Jersey, USA. Nilsen has always been involved in creative pursuits, spending several years performing in international music acts and designing album covers for bands and record labels. He apprenticed himself to an older tattoo artist and began experimenting with dot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2936,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[24,52,69,70,71,158,170,171,217,218,244,316,353,366,393,442,552,580,633,668],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rattatattoo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2929"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rattatattoo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rattatattoo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rattatattoo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rattatattoo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rattatattoo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2929\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rattatattoo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rattatattoo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rattatattoo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rattatattoo.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}