Jenna Bouma, slowerblack

I can't quite put a finger on what it is but the tattoo work of Jenna Bouma, aka slowerblack, is fascinating to me. The designs are simple and evoke a strange nostalgic feeling, to a time that I did not exist in. The work is also all "hand poked", meaning:

I don’t use a machine to tattoo, I do it by hand. No electricity, no power supply. Its similar to tebori and hand tapped tattoos. I hold my tool which has a needle on it, I use pressure and break the skin, the ink goes in, and then I repeat that thousands of times until you have a nice tattoo. ta da.

I don't think it's any one single aspect to it - the simplicity, the retro-ish style, the abundance of nudie lady depictions or badass snakes and knives. It really feels like what a tattoo should feel like. I've none myself but I can't stop looking.

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