{"id":3068,"date":"2019-11-08T10:17:19","date_gmt":"2019-11-08T09:17:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rattatattoo.com\/?p=3068"},"modified":"2023-09-18T17:50:49","modified_gmt":"2023-09-18T15:50:49","slug":"miao-ha-ha-the-cute-but-creepy-cats-of-one-tattoo-artists-imaginary-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rattatattoo.com\/miao-ha-ha-the-cute-but-creepy-cats-of-one-tattoo-artists-imaginary-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Meow-ha-ha! The Cute but Creepy Cats of One Tattoo Artist’s Imaginary World"},"content":{"rendered":"
Daria Rei is a Berlin-based artist who creates black ink tattoos in a style that is unique to her. The style of her tattoo designs is a mixture of contemporary illustrations and Ukiyo-e<\/a>, an artistic style that has existed in Japan for centuries. Ukiyo-e means “pictures of the floating world” which means that the scene depicted in the painting or woodblock print has been conjured from the artist’s imagination; a world that is not substantial and exists in no physical realm. In this same way, Daria Rei’s tattoo designs are based on the world that exists only in the shadows and corners of her imagination. She paints scenes, animals and people onto the skin of her clients; giving them an eternal portal into her magical, imaginary realm. This imaginary world has a slightly esoteric element to it. Many of her characters are gothic and mystical.<\/p>\n My absolute favorite imaginary friends of Daria Rei’s are her tattoo cats. Like the cats of our world, Rei’s kitty cats are adorable and completely psychotic. They take themselves very seriously and yet somehow always come across as slightly na\u00efve and humorously petty. Because Rei chooses to work in black ink for her cat tattoos, her cats are black cats who carry a lot of symbolism. Black cats have long been considered unlucky in Western culture, and they are often portrayed as being magical familiars to witches and wizards because black cats are supposedly able to cross between the world of the living and the spirit world, where they can converse with the ghosts of deceased people. Many people feel that they can relate to black cats because they feel that they themselves are marginalised in society for something that they can’t change about themselves, such as their race or sexual preference. The stigma that being a black cat carries can be empathised with by many who feel that they are excluded from “normal” society, like those who practice unusual religions, spiritualism or magic systems.<\/p>\n Rei uses a fine tattoo needle to create intricate details in her cat tattoos, which are often fairly small; small enough to fit on the ankle or wrist without wrapping around the joint. She adds in white tattoo ink to add an extra gleam to the cat’s eyes and a shine to their whiskers. While Daria Rei’s colorwork tattoos are also exceptional; there is an elegance to the simplicity of her black and white tattoos that combines well with the dark humor of her cat designs.<\/p>\n Visit Kodiak<\/a>, the tattoo shop where Rei works from, her Instagram<\/a> and her Facebook<\/a> to see more gothic and darkly humorous tattoos that spring from this incredible artist’s mind.<\/p>\n