by Sylvia Hagar Photos by Grabi
From the May 2007 issue of PRICK Magazine.
Fast cars, cuckoo clocks, and strong beer are just a few
great things that come from Germany. At a closer look
you might also notice beautiful tattooed women, and 19-year old Nadja is the perfect example. Nadja is currently up to
her nose in books, studying for her school diploma in July. For
us she pushed the books aside to chit chat about
future tattoos and her favorite German tattoo artists.
"It wasn't really hard to choose the right tattoo artist for my sleeve. I
wanted to have a Japanese sleeve so I searched for artists doing this style
very well. Three artists were on my shortlist, I asked other people about
their experiences, looked up a lot of pictures of tattoos, and finally decided
to go to Bernd Broghammer at Hautnah in Germany."
"Besides Bernd I really adore artists like Filip Leu and Luke Atkinson. I
like their Japanese styles, and above all the Tibetan mask of Filip Leu is
legendary. Another amazing artist is Marcuse at Smiling Demon Tattoo
in Germany."
Although heavily tattooed
women are still rare to see in
Germany, Nadja doesn’t
regret a thing. "Everyone
around me—my parents,
friends in school, and
teachers don't really
care about them. Some
people like them a lot,
while others don't
like tattoos in
general. But besides some strange glances at the
shopping mall, I haven't had any bad experiences.
More men chat me up now, even the ones without
any tattoos," she laughs.
"The biggest tattoo trend here in Germany at
the moment is the new-school stuff. It goes with
the rockabilly and emo scene that’s getting big
right now. I think many people don't think about
their tattoo motives; the essence is just to have
some tattoos matching their clothing."
Nadja elaborates on the culture of Germany.
"Piercings are definitely more accepted by the
general public over here than tattoos are. The
piercing trends came back with teenie bopper
bands that are trying to have a harder image.
Legally you can get pierced and tattooed by the age of 16 as long as you have approval
from your parents so you do see a lot of young girls that are heavily pierced. I removed
some piercings, and I have about eight right now but am already thinking about some
new ones."
"[At the] end of April I'll have my next tattoo session scheduled for my lower stomach.
It’s going to be a mix between new school and Japanese style, and I have drawn the
complete motive myself." Besides dreaming of more ink or cruising around in her Audi
A4, Nadja designs record covers, booklets and shirts for various bands. She says she
likes the harder music scene and listens to death metal, hard- and grindcore and also
has been working as a journalist for a metal webzine.
