When we want to immortalize our family memories, the first thing that comes to our mind is probably taking a photo. Capturing our kids as they grow up and our parents and grandparents as they smile and hold hands may give us a lot of sweet reminiscences in the future. A tattoo artist named Karol Rybakowski goes even further and gives people the chance to have a tattoo of their beloved, which is as realistic as a family portrait.
Here at Bright Side, we instantly wanted a super-realistic tattoo of our nearest and dearest done on our bodies after we saw the work of this gifted artist. We’d love for you to take a look at the stunning imagery and head-spinning detail of the tattoos together with us.
The artist was skeptical about tattoos at the beginning.
Karol Rybakowski is a tattoo artist who is located in Rybnik, Poland. He’s been tattooing in a hyper-realism style for over 4 years now, and his artistic story began like thunder in a calm sky. In his interview for thINKdifferent, he confessed that he had a very different idea about tattoos at the beginning.
He says, “My idea on the topic was that when I heard the word ’tattoo,’ it made me think as older people do, about a prison or sweaty Harley riders.”
When he first got a job offer from a tattoo studio, he refused and said he wanted to be an art professor, not a tattooist. But later, he was convinced and became absolutely fascinated, wanting to try his realistic painting skills with a new perspective: to paint on human bodies. As he confessed in his interview, the money he was going to earn this way was, of course, attractive, but this wasn’t the reason why he decided to try this absolutely different approach to his art.
The artist has a very special attitude toward his work.
The tattooist genuinely loves what he does. For him, every tattoo that he does is not just ink on a body, but a whole composition that he sees from his own artistic perspective. As he stated in his interview for thINKdifferent, he doesn’t do it for anybody else — he does it for himself.
This is why all the tattoos that he does seem to have their own soul. This is because it’s not like “putting this bulldog together with something else” for Karol. He makes his art following the intricate composition in his head and adds details that only he is able to visualize.
Being a tattooist means being a good psychologist, and Karol knows this for sure.
Clients who visit Karol are all very different. As he shares while speaking with his interviewer for thINKdifferent, he has clients from hooligans to doctors and lawyers, and he tries to find a special approach for everyone. His studio is a place where everyone meets and everyone is equal, and this makes Karol even more excited about his job.
If someone doesn’t want to talk, Karol doesn’t insist on chatting and gets fully absorbed in the process. But if his clients want to share their stories or just discuss art or any other topic, Karol eagerly switches into conversation mode. This way, he gets more understanding of the customer’s personality.
The artist’s attitude toward being paid for his work deserves some praise.
Karol is quite indifferent about the money he gets for his work. In his interview, he says that at the beginning, he didn’t know what to do with the money he got for the tattoos, and when he needs to settle up the bill with a client, he always feels hesitant and confused. When his rate is high, he says he always feels sorry for the client and thinks of what he can do with the cost.
When his boss tells him how much he earned per month, it’s always a surprise for Karol, just because he really doesn’t care about money. All he wants to see and do is art, and this is why so many people trust him to paint the portraits of their loved ones on their bodies.
Would you ever consider getting a portrait of someone you love on your body? If you could get a portrait tattoo, who would be the person to be inked on your body?