A series · After the Masters
If she walked into the studio today.
Twelve pictures, the oldest from Caravaggio's Rome, the youngest from Klimt's Vienna. Nobody who sat for them was tattooed; nobody in those rooms would have been. We asked what each of them would carry now, and answered with real designs drawn by Monica. The paintings are real. The designs are real and can be booked. The skin in between is a visualisation, and we say so under every image.
More than one painting here has been cut, repainted or mended. The break is where the gold goes.
01 · Gustav Klimt, 1901
After Klimt: Judith
A gold collar at the throat, a flaming heart on the sternum. Klimt's Judith, the morning after.
02 · Caravaggio, c. 1596
After Caravaggio: Bacchus
A street kid as the god of wine, with dirty fingernails and fruit already turning. We let a woman take the seat.
03 · Diego Velázquez, 1647–51
After Velázquez: The Rokeby Venus
A back that was looked at for two and a half centuries, slashed once, mended, and now carries a picture of its own.
04 · Caravaggio, c. 1597
After Caravaggio: The Angel
An angel plays a lullaby from a real score while the holy family sleeps. Between the wings, a magnolia.
05 · Berthold Woltze, 1874
After Woltze: The Irritating Gentleman
A woman in black, a man leaning over the seat with a grin. 1874, and the train has not moved on.
06 · John Singer Sargent, 1883–84
After Sargent: Madame X
Her bare shoulders were the scandal of 1884. This time the scandal moves to the arms.
07 · Caravaggio, 1598
After Caravaggio: Saint Catherine
She leans on the wheel that was meant to break her and looks you in the eye. The sword is theirs. The heart is hers.
08 · Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, 1808
After Ingres: The Valpinçon Bather
The most famous back in French painting, and the painter never let it go.
09 · John Everett Millais, 1851–52
After Millais: Ophelia
She sings while she sinks, every flower a message. We let her breathe, and give her a sleeve that does not float.
10 · Thérèse Schwartze, c. 1885
After Schwartze: Puck
A professional model called Fortunata, a dog added a year later, and the only woman painter in the series.
11 · John Singer Sargent, 1882
After Sargent: El Jaleo
A flamenco dancer lit from below, guitarists along the wall, shadows as the audience. The tattoo only shows in the turn.
12 · Katsushika Hokusai, c. 1831
After Hokusai: The Great Wave
The one work in the series made to be printed thousands of times. The tattoo exists exactly once.
This design is real
Drawn by Monica, Dark Autumn Studio.
Every design in this series is an original drawing by Monica and can be tattooed. Placement and size are adapted to your body in a consultation; the painting is just where we imagined it first.