My Dear Friends of Inked I was on vacation and I was like 16 or 17. it might have been the first real beachy vacation I had with friends and I saw this picture and I’m just like what is that like oh it’s me it was like a black blob amongst all the white bodies because you don’t really see yourself you know you see your tattoos.
Every day so it’s just your skin um but yeah then I also when I see another girl walking by me now who’s fully tattooed I also look so yeah you don’t really have that distance from yourself to realize that it’s kind of eye-catching.
My name is Cleo Kinnaman I am a painter a tattooer and a creative director for a mister I grew up all over the world I was born in Brussels in Belgium and then I moved to Germany where I started school then to Malaysia and then I came to Sweden where I had my formative years and I was there for about eight years and then I.
Moved to the states growing up traveling has definitely shaped me and my art because I was always a little bit scared that I would forget people or experiences so I started keeping a diary I started photographing them doing sketches I’m very sentimental and I want to keep it with me because every time I would go somewhere it wouldn’t take long.
Before I left I feel like it did suit my personality because I’m a little bit of a thrill seeker and I like to be stimulated so moving around fit my personality but in another regard I am very sentimental and I love keepsakes and remembering special things about people or things that stand out to.
Me so it’s a double-edged sword because I was constantly moving so much being younger maybe I really wanted to hold on to a memory or something and maybe therefore tattooing really appealed to me being able to keep something really special with you forever that nobody can.
Take or move around felt really unique and different to me so that might be part of it I felt like very much of an outcast when I moved to Sweden I couldn’t really relate to a lot of people my age my parents were in their 50s when they had me and I kept moving around so.
When I started becoming a teenager nobody back then really had tattoos it was mostly like punk rockers and I don’t know adults but I the moment I became an apprentice is just naturally when I started getting tattooed there was no premeditated idea of what I wanted to look like or what I wanted to be like.
And even when I say Apprentice it was not a real apprenticeship it wasn’t a pretty part of town in a dungeon with a dude that absolutely does not know did not know what he was doing artistically he did not care about people or clients or what looked good or didn’t or how to develop he had no interest in that he.
Just wanted money my first tattoo is just a tiny text I have here it does still exist I’m not gonna say but my first big one was um pretty much my whole thigh which was the second one I got which is of a cobra it’s like a Japanese big cobra with big flowers friends a baby.
Friends were a little confused by it just because we didn’t have anyone in our group or Circle or anyone our age at that point that had tattoos but I feel like people generally knew that I always kind of did whatever I wanted so they weren’t that surprised either and the same goes for my parents.
They have always been supportive in whatever I want to do although of course they were concerned that maybe it would you know impact my future somehow I started tattooing when I was around 14. um but my apprenticeship like I said wasn’t.
Legit so I would say I started working in a real shop when I was 1617. and it was not okay nobody should let it 14 15 year old tattoo them in my opinion at least not in the capacity that I was doing luckily I really paced myself the guy I was working under really.
Pushed me and wanted me to do everything that came in but I was very stubborn and took my time because I was terrified of doing a bad job on anybody so I really you know did things in the order I felt I was capable and I do not regret starting that young.
Because it it led to such crazy experiences and a crazy career Journey for me that I just can’t imagine my life without it it really shaped me even such a thing as um I don’t think I’m a patient person by Nature I suspect that I’m not I don’t feel like it’s my personality type but tattooing I wanted to be good so bad.
That you have to take your time it’s going to take time and I feel like if I didn’t have the discipline that tattooing gave me I wouldn’t have been able to pursue a lot of other things I’ve done in my life I got tattooed really quickly so by the time I was 18 I was pretty much covered I almost looked the way I do now.
So for me I looked this way for so long I don’t really identify with my tattoos anymore that sounds strange but if I didn’t have any today I’m not even sure I would get any maybe like a few small ones but there wasn’t like an aesthetic I was chasing I know it sounds insane because it’s so much like effort and pain and you know.
To go through to be this covered but I’m I don’t think I thought about it that much I think I was on the path of tattooing and I wanted to be good so bad in conjunction with meeting lots of tattoos and traveling I just wanted to collect but I didn’t I don’t remember having a clear thought as to why was.
There like a point where you know start noticing your tattoos so because I didn’t really think this through I remember the first it was winter in Sweden and during that winter I got my neck and I got my hands and then summer came around I walked with my mother in the city center I remember catching everyone’s eyes and I could tell that.
They all had been staring at me and I told my mother like I need to go home like it’s too stressful because I wasn’t counting on the attention and she just looked at me and was like okay what were you expecting it took years for me to feel comfortable because people stop you people want to talk a lot of people don’t know what.
They want to talk to you about so the tattoos are the first thing they come up with a question about to try and stop you and I really like I like people but I also like Myspace and being alone and if you’re walking around summertime lightly clothed being a girl.
It’s just inevitable that you’re going to get stopped every few minutes I like doing what I want when I want and if you get a lot of attention if you have a lot of tattoos people are going to pay attention to you you kind of lose your anonymity a little bit and that’s something I also have to have.
To learn to be comfortable with but I think it’s all healthy because it just makes you more of a flexible person I realized that if I was going to keep getting annoyed every time someone stopped me and that person didn’t know that another person stopped me three minutes ago the person who was going to have a bad day is me.
So I’ve definitely grown more patient and um yeah now I don’t have an issue with that anymore at all you recently on your Instagram posted a photo so you got no tattoos what was that experience like.
Um well I covered my tattoos for a project I was doing and then I just happened to film it as well and put it on my Instagram I was also curious about how I would feel looking at myself without tattoos at first I honestly felt a little bit sick because it’s like I don’t really.
Remember what my skin is to be honest so I made me a little bit sick and then two seconds later I felt like myself again that’s what I was saying before I don’t know if I necessarily would be tattooed if I didn’t have any today um I still feel like myself.
I liked it it’s such a it’s such a drastic difference but I didn’t feel that different which is strange you got so tattooed so early on have you continued I’ve gotten a few tattoos I’m actually now I’m now I’m covering stuff which I feel like a lot of tattoos do.
So I have this sleeve for example that is not exactly the way I want it to be and I’m very much into ornamental and lack work now which wasn’t it was more of a niche thing when I started tattooing versus now it’s more prevalent and I love the way it looks so I’m going to cover this arm apart from that I’m kind of over it it.
Sucks just hurts like I can’t do more than three four hours I can’t believe I used to sit for 10 hours two days in a row crazy I mean I’ve discussed this with a couple other tattoos I don’t know what happens I don’t know if his age or if it’s the motivation of why to get.
Tattooed but you kind of kind of lose it after a few years you know so if you could go back all the way back to uh would you do things the same way that you could get yeah I think I would do things the same.
It’s really hard to like I said I was so young and it’s part of my journey so yeah I could sit here all day and say yes I wish I had these Perfect Tattoos but I don’t think that would be a true description of who I am or the journey that brought me here so now I’m fine with it the way it is.
Born in Brussels, raised in Sweden and living in Los Angeles with 10,000 stops in between, Cleo Kinnaman is always on her way to the next adventure. The painter/tattoo artist/creative director has never stayed in one place for very long, and as such she was always trying to find a way to make sure she held on to each and every experience she’s had in her travels. Journals were her first method, but tattoos would soon follow. We spoke with Cleo Kinnaman about how her tattoo journey and much more in this episode of Heavily Inked.
Presented by Mad Rabbit: https://www.youtube.com/c/MadRabbitTattoo
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Cleo Kinnaman: https://www.instagram.com/cleokinnaman/?hl=en
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