Hyeonhwa Kim is a Tattoo Artist Who Enjoys Leaving Detailed Drawings and Writings On People’s Skin

When it comes to reproducing an emotion, a feeling or perhaps remembering some experience that has left something in the person, there are many ways such as music, poetry, writing a book, and also tattoos.

Hyeonhwa Kim is a tattoo artist who works in Studio 369, who leaves the lived memories of people in the form of drawings and writings marked in the most beautiful way on the skin of her clients for the rest of their lives. 

“I started to get into this business because I like tattoos. It was really interesting to be able to carve pictures on the body, not on drawing paper. As I received tattoos from the artist, that part was really interesting. Drawing meaningful things to me and leaving them on my body for the rest of my life. It came to me while looking at the artist’s tattoo. I thought it was really cool to see an artist focused on the work. Sitting for long periods of time and concentrating on his work.” Hyeonhwa Kim explains.

For Hyeonhwa Kim it is very interesting to be able to engrave drawings on the skin of people and not paper. She differs from her competitors as her work is more detailed than that of other artists. While other artists do not reflect enough detail in a small tattoo, her works express even the smallest detail.

“I try to create the tattoo identically to the given picture or artwork. It takes a lot of time, but when clients are surprised to see the details after the job, I feel proud.” Hyeonhwa Kim adds.

Being in an industry where details are important, the drawing and the paint used in each tattoo are also important and for Kim painting was for a while one of the biggest obstacles.

The biggest obstacle I have overcome in tattooing has been painting. I’ve never learned to paint and it’s never interested me. Most tattoo artists learn to draw first. However, for me, I learned how to draw while learning how to tattoo at the same time. I always completed one drawing a day at a time. Before working on the tattoo, I drew the artwork myself to improve my understanding of the artwork, and because of this I was definitely able to get a higher quality tattoo.” Hyeonhwa Kim states.

When starting in this industry one of the biggest challenges was to make herself known. Hyeonhwa Kim made a portfolio asking other artists to let her tattoo them, and slowly started to make a name for herself.

“Tattoos stay on the body for the rest of your life, so you always have to work carefully. I value the memories of that time while receiving the tattoos. This is because I want to leave good memories for the clients.” She says.

In the near future, Hyeonhwa Kim plans to travel to other countries in order to meet new people and her favorite artists so that she can try new styles. She wants to work in a bigger size, with more diversity, and do more detailed work. 

Find out more about Hyeonhwa and Studio 369 here.