Crafting a Signature Tattoo Style and Achieving Success
Seattle-based tattoo artist Kate Perets has made a name for herself with her unmistakable style. In just two years, she grew her Instagram following from zero to over 67,000, proving that originality and dedication pay off. Now, she takes center stage as the cover artist of Ink Legends Magazine’s February issue, where her own article is featured inside.
In this exclusive piece, Kate shares her journey of developing a unique tattoo style, offering insights into what it takes to break through in the industry. From mastering technique to building an authentic brand, she reveals the key steps to turning passion into success. Whether you’re an aspiring artist or a tattoo enthusiast, her advice is one you won’t want to miss.
Hello, reader!
My name is Kate Perets, and I’m a tattoo artist from Seattle, Washington. Originally, I’m from Russia. I received my formal art education in Russia, both in college and university, as well as my tattoo education. Since then, I’ve traveled a lot and worked in various studios around the world, participated in different tattoo festivals, and had the honor of being a judge at many of them.
I’ve been in the tattoo industry for almost 11 years, and for more than half of my career, I’ve been doing black-and-gray projects, as this style is, in my opinion, more popular. But a few years ago, I started thinking about developing my own style in tattooing.
I decided to do bright, colorful tattoos with lots of details, mixing various styles, incorporating stickers, graffiti, and many other elements of street culture. And today, after about 4 years, I receive messages every day from clients saying, “I want a tattoo in your style.” These are magical words — the best part of my work. But, of course, I didn’t arrive at this style overnight. I used to think that choosing just one style was very risky for many reasons. This is what I want to talk about today in this article. If you’re unsure whether you should choose your own style, by the end of this article, you will likely have your answer. Let’s begin.
Is it dangerous to have your own style?
Definitely yes! But risk is for the bold. It’s dangerous for several reasons. First, there’s the commercial side of things. It’s no secret that, in the beginning, being a versatile artist is much more financially rewarding. You can easily take on any project. Second, by having a specific style, you limit your clients. Perhaps they like only part of what you do and would like to combine it with something else, but you have clear boundaries of what’s acceptable for your style. In this way, you drastically reduce your target audience. However, at the same time, this audience becomes more focused on you and more involved in the process. Third, it’s difficult to predict what will be popular and what won’t. For example, when selling soda, you don’t need to introduce the product to the world again. You simply add a new flavor or brand. If we apply this to the tattoo world, while you’re not introducing tattoos as a new concept, creating a new style is like offering a fundamentally new product. People have to like it. You may need to tweak your style and perfect your skills until your “diamond” becomes a perfect jewel. In other words, until it takes its ideal form.
How not to be afraid?
Don’t think that one of those popular tattoo artists, whose accounts you follow on social media, immediately became successful. Don’t think that this artist never doubted. Just like you, they started with an idea and weren’t sure if it would succeed. But this person truly wanted it, and their idea burned in their eyes. Maybe one of their friends even said, “That’s a dumb idea,” or maybe someone tried to convince them to abandon that style and do something more popular. But if they had listened to those people, the tattoo industry would be like a swamp, where everyone’s stuck in boring tattoos and nothing new ever happens. This has always been the case, not just in tattooing. If you look at the history of art, every artist has a page in their biography where someone tried to convince them their actions were absurd, that they had no talent, and that they wouldn’t succeed. I believe that any artist—whether a tattoo artist or anyone else—has a sense, an instinct. It’s not knowledge or belief, it’s just a feeling. Like an animal instinct, it doesn’t require confirmation or theoretical justification. And those who genuinely follow this inner call will get results.
Where does your own style come from?
If you’re already an experienced tattoo artist, you know that your expectations of preferred styles at the beginning of your career are very different from what you’re doing now. For example, 90% of my students say they want to do realism, and almost none of them end up doing it for various reasons. So, when searching for your style, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer. I have a method I used to develop my style. It worked 100% for me, and I got great results. I call this method the “folder method.” I spent an entire week saving anything I found inspiring into this folder, and at that moment, I didn’t need to think about how to apply it to tattoos—just focus on saving, saving, saving. The further the images were from tattoos, the better. I ended up with a huge collection of random pictures—makeup, clothes, graffiti, cars, cities. Once I finished saving, I tried to look at these photos as if I was seeing them for the first time, playing a game: “What connects all these things?” Then I sat down and made a few sketches, and I was very happy with the results. But no one around me appreciated them. I was upset that they didn’t understand, but that meant I wasn’t explaining it well enough. I sat down and drew again. After five attempts, I asked people around me to take another look, and someone gave me some advice. I kept trying, and after ten attempts, I realized it was time to turn it into a tattoo. Because by then, these attempts already looked really good. I posted the sketches online and offered to do them for free. People didn’t quite understand how they would look on the skin. It was hard to “sell” my new style to the public—kind of like the soda example I mentioned earlier. After I did the first tattoos, people started becoming interested in my style, and I started charging a little and doing more work. It was hard, because by that point, I was already earning very well as a versatile artist, and it was difficult to choose creativity when I also had to think about money. Nevertheless, I tried to maintain a balance. And here’s the result: in two years, on a new account from scratch, I gained 67,000 followers. I don’t do anything special for this; people simply like my creativity. Does that mean success? It means I fought for my idea, and now I receive admiring messages, I win festivals, and I’m invited to be a judge at tattoo festivals in the U.S. This is a great honor for me. And if I had stayed in my city doing simple tattoos, maybe I would’ve been happy too, but my temperament doesn’t allow me to stay in one place. For me, movement is life; I love exchanging energy, meeting new, interesting people, and challenging myself!
Article written by Kate Perets
