karolina.

raf taught her at his old shop, she followed him to shade, and she's been tattooing eight years now.

her work is colour and illustrative — watercolour especially, where the colour sits loose around a tightly drawn subject rather than filling it in edge to edge. animals, florals, horror characters done with the same loose colour treatment, so a piece can look playful and precise at the same time. she takes black and grey too, but colour is the reason people specifically seek her out.

watercolour tattoos are less forgiving than they look on the wall — the linework underneath still has to be precise even though the colour around it reads as free and unplanned, and getting that balance wrong is what makes a watercolour piece age badly. she spends real time at consultation getting the subject's linework locked down before any colour gets discussed, because that's the part that has to be right first, and colour placement gets built around it rather than the other way round.

florals and animals make up most of what she's asked for, usually with colour breaking outside the lines on purpose — the hardest part to get right, and the easiest to spot when someone hasn't.

she moved to america in september 2026, and comes back to shade regularly to guest — the work carries on, it just needs planning further ahead than booking with the rest of the team. pieces that need multiple sessions get scheduled around those visits from the start, so nothing is left half finished between trips.

if you want colour that doesn't look like a colouring book — something looser, more painted — karolina is who you're looking for. enquire and she will let you know when she is next in the studio.

see karolina's work in colour realism.