
Tattoos: Pop Portraits, Japanese Traditional, American Eclectic
Three tattoo artists working in three distinct styles get the same simple treatment: talk to camera, show the process, look at the finished work. Vinny Romanelli, at Red Rocket Tattoos, builds detailed portraits of pop culture idols on skin, treating celebrity faces the way a painter treats a commission. Kiku, working out of Invisible NYC, practices traditional Japanese tattooing, with its established motifs and rules about composition and placement on the body. Stephanie Tamez, of Saved Tattoo, works an eclectic mix of influences instead, mixing styles freely and occasionally working typography into a piece. The film cuts between the three studios rather than ranking them, letting the contrast in technique and philosophy make the argument that tattooing is not one craft but several, each with its own training and standards. The underlying question the episode keeps returning to is why permanent body art persists as a form of self-expression even as so much of daily life has gone digital.