Photography by Nadia Morozewicz.
There are few things as intimate as allowing someone to make a permanent mark on your flesh, and equally, it’s incredibly personal to give someone a piece of your work to carry with them for the rest of their lives. Whether it’s the fascinating conversation you have with the artist, the amiable silence, or the physical sensation, a tattoo is imprinted with the memories of its making. This vulnerability should be treated as sacred. Unfortunately, all too often, however, the respect and consideration that’s needed to make the tattooing process enjoyable and rewarding is lost, or disregarded completely.
Before tribal tattoos were associated with Harley Davidson, and grossly butchered Japanese calligraphy tattoos were a trend (à la Ariana Grande), the origins of tattooing could be traced back to ancient tribal practice and body modification rituals. Today, the craft has largely been re-appropriated by cis, straight, white men. And despite tattoos being a vehicle for self-expression and a method of taking ownership over one’s body, mainstream tattoo culture is fraught with racism, misogyny, transphobia, homophobia and body-shaming.
The boys’ club that is mainstream tattooing operates under a system where aspiring artists work (often unpaid) under older and “more experienced” practitioners in a studio, until they are qualified enough to be a tattooer in their own right. Due to the heteronormative and discriminatory nature of many studios, as well as the financial hardships that come with doing free work, tapping into the industry can be difficult for artists who are queer, femme, female-identifying, or people of colour. Many feel unsafe doing a traditional apprenticeship or get turned away, flat-out. Furthermore, having the agency over your own body to get a tattoo can be incredibly empowering, but unfortunately it can also be an opportunity for misconduct. With more and more people speaking out against abuse at the hands of tattoo artists, the industry has been having a #MeToo movement of its own. But hopefully things are changing.
Enter Coco, Yeda, Tio, Rozi and Anny of queer tattoo collective Fantasy Berlin. They have come from different places, got into the industry in different ways, and have very different tattooing styles—some work with hand poked styles, while others work with machine (Coco even assembled their own machines at the start of their tattooing career.) All of them are self-taught, having bypassed the traditional apprenticeship process. Still, they have all encountered the more sinister sides of the industry at one point or another.
Tio, from New Zealand, describes their style as going “from scary as fuck to cute, mostly somewhere in between,” which pretty accurately describes the whimsical and bizarre creatures that Tio inks—often drawn in collaboration with their client. Having previously worked in their private studio in Budapest, Rozi’s distinctive hand poking is a bit simpler, but no less evocative with their interpretations of faces that capture the breadth of human emotion in the most delicate of lines.
After being aware of each other’s work via social media for years, the quintet eventually gravitated to Berlin. Following several guest residencies at other studios together and frequently doing tattoo trades with one another, it was clear that, although the different members came from different places and tattoo in different styles, they had a shared vision (or ‘fantasy’, if you will) of the change they wanted to see in the industry, and thus the collective was born.
With each person bringing something unique to the table, Fantasy Berlin was formed, in a bid to create a more inclusive, safe and comfortable experience for everyone involved. For the collective, the relationship between the client and the artist is sacred. In Rozi’s experience, tattoos are a source of comfort and self discovery. “My tattoos helped a lot to be able to accept my body and feel more comfortable exposing it because I feel like tattoos can be a protective shield.” Although the collective is made up of queer artists, Fantasy Berlin’s members believer that “queerness has no specific aesthetic.” The queer experience, just like tattoos, comes in every shape, size, and colour. It is boundless, just like the possibilities for tattooing.
Located a little ways off the beaten path in Rummelsberg, the collective’s studio is inundated with neon lights and greenery, and the walls are plastered with tattoo flashes and vibrant drawings. Yeda’s adorable Chihuahua—the unofficial mascot—Bean slinks around playfully. The space is a happy composition of their individual personalities and styles—it’s a lot more laid back here than your average tattoo parlour. When you see how comfortable they are in the space and around one another, it’s hard not to feel at home as well. Just make sure to leave any toxic masculinity at the door, “We’re super softies. We certainly don’t want any toxic masculinity and bro attitude in our space.”
Their first priority, even before finding the space, was to make their intentions and expectations as clear as possible through a manifesto that would serve as a guideline. Having all worked in environments that were unsafe for both client and artists (Tio recalls receiving threats to have their studio trashed by gang members), Fantasy Berlin’s manifesto highlights the rights of the client as well as a code of conduct for the artist in order to ensure mutual comfort and respect.
Berlin is widely considered one of the most LGBTQ+ friendly cities in the world, but many members of the community are still overlooked or excluded: “While there is a lot of space for white, cis, gay men there is a lack of space for the rest of the queer community, especially trans, femmes and POC.” Fantasy is a benchmark for what a queer space can and should be— inclusivity at its best. And while the work they are doing is admirable, they don’t claim to be perfect: “As a collective we are constantly learning and trying to improve our space through experience, good and bad.” It’s exactly this attitude and accountability that is so sorely missing from so many other queer spaces.
The response to the collective has been resoundingly positive: “I think we were surprised by how much of a demand there was for the space we created from our guests and clients and it grew much faster than we anticipated.” It’s not uncommon for them to be fully booked, and they’ve been invited to be guest artists at studios all over the world, including tours around the US and Europe, making it a bit of a challenge to catch them all in the same place and at the same time. And, while for those while don’t have access to inclusive, safe spaces this may seem, indeed, a bit like a fantasy, it’s invigorating to see passionate, talented people defying conventions and working towards making it a reality.
See more inside Fantasy Berlin’s studio below:
All photos by Nadia Morozewicz