Tattoos Toronto

Many people don’t realize that you could find a tattoo in Toronto before Toronto even existed. That’s because, like most of Ontario and other parts of North America, the original inhabitants of the area were creating intricate body art long before our ancestors arrived or the City was founded.

Since then, tattoo culture has continued to grow, and with it the City of Toronto has become a destination for some of the best Toronto tattoo artists you can hope to find.

TORONTO TATTOOS TODAY

As it is in most big cities today, the Toronto tattoo scene is bigger and more mainstream than ever. Far from being something only sailors and construction workers get, tattoos are now seen in every workplace and in many homes throughout Canada, and Toronto is no different. There’s a good chance your favourite chef has more than one tattoo, as does your banker, your child’s third grade teacher, and possibly even your doctor. Tattoos of every size, colour and description can be found on people from all walks of life, in all sorts of jobs.

GETTING A TATTOO IN TORONTO

If you’re looking for some ink in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), you have several options to make sure that the work you get done is some of the best in the world.

One option is to attend one of the tattoo shows or conventions that are hosted in the City. One of our personal favourites is Northern Ink Xposure, or NIX, which is an annual summer time event showcasing the best Toronto tattoo artists, as well as visitors from elsewhere in Canada and the World.

If you can’t wait for a convention, you still have great options, because when it comes to the best tattoo shops, Toronto is a world leader. Tattoo studios like Painted People Tattoo Co., offer a convenient, easily accessible and comfortable place to access groups of the best Toronto tattoo artists in one place, and we’re always happy to make our customers’ dream tattoos a reality, at any time of the year.

See below video of the Toronto Painted People Tattoo company location

FINDING THE RIGHT TORONTO TATTOO SHOP

If you are looking for tattoo shops in Toronto, there are several things you can do to make sure you get the best service, skill and safety.

Visit a few shops that you’re considering, to talk to the artists, view examples of past work, and look at the overall condition of the shop. You can tell a lot about a place just by spending some time there, so make a short list, and do a Toronto tattoo tour!

Read online reviews about the studios on your list, and make sure that the shops you are considering have a valid and current personal service setting license from the city. This ensures that they are working legally and have had the necessary public health inspections. Make sure that the shop you’re planning to use meets all the industry standards for safety and hygiene.

Finally, when you’ve narrowed your list down to one or two Toronto tattoo studios, talk to individual artists about your designs and ideas. The best Toronto tattoo artists will be able to take the vision you have in your head and translate it into a design that you can wear on your skin.

Whatever your style, whatever your reason, we welcome you to get in touch with us. We are here to help with our warm welcome and friendly personality, so that you are totally comfortable with your tattoo experience.

Asia

Artisr

Watercolor, Color & Tattoo Cover-Ups

Kristina

Artisr

Hand-poke, Dot-work, Tribal, Blackwork Tattoos

Ashley

Artisr

Tattoo Cover-Ups, Color, Black and Grey Tattoos

Toronto
Tuesday - Saturday
12PM – 7PM
Wednesday -FRIDAY
closed

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Asia

ABOUT ASIA

Asia, pronounced like Asha rather than like the continent, is the head artist and proud co-Owner of Toronto’s Painted People Tattoos Salon.

Asia has been tattooing for over 15 years. Her rich resume, apart from owning a tattoo studio, includes roles such as painter, volunteer, designer, music dabbler, and more. Finding her calling at the age of 16, she studied tattooing, first independently, and then as an apprentice to a number of celebrated artists before becoming one herself.

Tattooing is a passion for Asia. She loves creating livable, permanent art through that passion. When she’s not creating, Asia enjoys carrying for her pets, spending time with her family, watching movies, playing old video games, sucking at soccer (or football if we’re being all European) and unloading cat sounds with her husband Nick for general amusement of herself and others.

WATERCOLOR TATTOOS

As the name indicates, watercolor tattoos essentially represent using the human canvas and drawing on them with tattoo ink making them look like watercolors.

Watercolor tattoos require the same expertise and initial process that other tattoo techniques require (you may or may not do a stencil and mix shades of color), but where they really separate themselves from other tattoo techniques is the final outcome. A fresh watercolor tattoo can often appear as splashes of watercolor paint on your body.

Created with a lot more gradual coloring (unlike, for example, traditional tattooing where solid colors are merged together), the subtle gradients help create the characteristics and design of a classic watercolor painting. The other differentiating factor is outlining. Watercolor tattoos pride themselves on often not having a solid outline which is then colored in. The free flowing colors are meant to represent a painting – which they most definitely do.

Asia, while doing every style from black and grey, traditional, tribal, realism, neo-traditional, new school, etc, has really specialized in watercolor tattooing recently. Outside of loving the look and feel of them and genuinely enjoying creating unique watercolor designs, she is quickly becoming known Canada wide for her passion of watercolor tattoos.

One of the common misconceptions around watercolor tattoos is that they fade very quickly. Putting it simply, all tattoos fade overtime. In the hands of a professional tattoo artist (such as Asia), watercolor tattoos are safe from fading for years. How many years heavily depends on various factors such as maintenance of the tattoo / skin care along with placement of tattoo as not placing it on an area where there may be constant rubbing will make it last longer. Watercolor tattoos can fade just slightly quicker due to use of lighter colors, so if one of our tattoos does start to fade you can come back after a few years for a quick touch-up to get it looking vibrant again.

For tips on how to maintain your watercolor or any other tattoos, check out our healing instructions page here

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Kristina

ABOUT KRISTINA

Kristina Guison, who is an emerging sculpture, installation and performance artist, is a Hand Poke tattoo artist specializing in stick and poke tattoos.

Kristina is an all-round great artist. She plays a number of traditional instruments, does amazing sculptures and on top of that is a very gifted tattoo artist.

What separates her from other good tattoo artists (apart from the obvious) is that based on her travels across South East Asia and learning about culture of tattooing, she has become an established Hand Poke tattoo artist. As the name indicates, hand poke, or stick ‘n poke tattooing, is a non-electric method of tattooing that is done in freestyle with needle and ink. This style of tattooing is in high demand, and we’re very proud to be associated with one of the best artists in all of Canada for this old style and traditional method of tattooing.

So how did Kristina’s passion for Hand Poke tattoos flourish? Her love for this traditional art led her on a very long journey in her home country of the Philippines and rest of South East Asia where, for a number of months, she conducted independant research on culture of tattooing.

Having researched and received multiple tattoos by the oldest living and world-renowned Kalinga artist, Whang-od, she also studied Sak Yant tattoos in Thailand and Cambodia, Iban tattoos in Malaysian Borneo and Mentawai tattoos in Indonesia.

Perfecting these styles over years of practice, her amazing Hand Poke tattoos speak for themselves.

Hand Poke tattoos are special in how they look. Some relate them to looking more organic, but either way, there is no mistaking that you cannot achieve the look and feel of a well-done Hand Poke tattoo by even the most skilled machine tattoo artist.

Apart from Hand Poke tattoos looking special and unmistakable, they generally are known to hurt less as they are less invasive than machine needles, and they tend to heal faster than from any other tattoo style.

 

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Ashley

ABOUT Ashley

Ashley is an experienced tattoo artist working out of our Toronto tattoo studio. As an extremely passionate artist with over 10 years of tattooing experience, Ashley is one of the best cover-up and watercolor artists we’ve come across, although she’s quite great when it comes to black and grey or any tattoo style work.

Ashley’s commitment to perfecting her art is inspiring to us. As a very positive, although at first sight generally shy person, her art is quite daring, bold and confident. We instantly made a bond with Ashley due to her general positive aura and are happy to have her as a member of our family.

A reason why we’re excited about Ashley, outside of her being a genuinely nice person and artist, is her cover-up ability. Cover-ups are a special talent requiring absolute precision, patience and imagination. Only a few artists handle cover-ups, and even less truly enjoy doing them.

Drop by anytime in our Painted People Tattoo studio in Toronto, check out her work via Instagram link below or drop her a note at [email protected]

Instagram
  • (416) 551-2233 (Toronto)
  • (905) 637-7277 (Burlington)

Estimates/Booking

Use the form below to describe your vision for the tattoo or to request a consultation / booking. If looking for an estimate, please be descriptive. For bookings, review our pricing & payment page; we typically start with a free consultation for larger work; Note that custom drawings or to have a confirmed appointment, a deposit will be requested; Last, but not least, remember to check your junk / spam email folder in case you don’t hear from us within 3 days.

Brooke

ABOUT BROOKE

Brooke is a “new” artist in every sense of the word – she redefines what a tattoo artist might look like. Not to say that there is such a thing as a certain “tattoo artist look” since we’re all unique, and proudly carry our own style and character; however, Brooke redefines many things.

Our young artist got involved in art at the tender age of 3 when she started doodling. This may be so for many of us, but what separates Brooke from others is when, at the at of 16, she took doodling to the next level and started working part time at a tattoo studio in order to study from other artists.

She was trained at doing piercings by the age of 18, but after realizing that her true passion was in drawing and expressing herself via permanent art, Brooke changed paths to become a tattoo artist. Now, Brooke has been under our wing for a number of years, first as an apprentice being trained by her figuratively adopted mother Asia, and we’re proud to see her grow into a very capable tattoo artist today!

Brooke can be unassuming. The 5”1, quiet, attractive and very focused artist frequently agonizes over producing the most amazing work – a trait that is often attached to perfectionists. With over a thousand of tattoos under her belt and extensive training on safety and cleanliness handling, it’s very easy to forget that Brooke is still early in her career. Brooke has long moved away from script and simpler tattoos towards inventing her own tattoo style. Specializing in floral and general minimalist tattoos, we’re super proud to see where Brooke’s already impressive artist career takes her next.

NEO TRADITIONAL TATTOOS

Brooke is interested in pursuing neo-traditional tattoos (neo means new in Latin). The dictionary would define it as “A re-adoption or revival of traditional styles, values, practices, etc.”, while we see it as taking the traditional old-style tattoo art that has been around for over a hundred years (think American and sailors) and fusing it with new concepts.

Neo-traditional tattoos are still traditional in essence, but what separates them from old-school traditional tattoos is moving away from thick, broad lines, and instead, delve more into realism. Additionally, they may take the traditional subject of a skull head, for example, draw it in a similar traditional fashion, but then add flowers, colors and smoother lines to the tattoo, making it a neo-traditional tattoo as it blends multiple styles together.

It’s no surprise that Brooke is most drawn to this tattoo style because she embodies new tradition, and we couldn’t be more excited to see her grow further in her artist’s journey. Check out some of her work below and stop by our tattoo studio to meet her. We proudly feature some of her work on our tattoo shop walls in Toronto where she apprenticed originally before helping us establish the Burlington studio where she now tattoos from exclusively.

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10% Off Booking

Use the form below to describe your vision for the tattoo, or to request a consultation / booking.

Tell us about a tattoo idea you had and be entered for a chance to win your tattoo for free (must be 18 or over); Please check your junk / spam email folder in case you don’t hear from us within 3 days

For Estimates, click here