ARTISTS

Long Island based tattoo artist Stacey Sharp began her journey in tattooing on the outskirts of Pittsburgh, PA in 1992.

She had been expanding her art skills since she was very young, working with graphite, colored pencil, acrylic paint and ink. She knew she wanted to do something productive with her art, but being a free spirit, didn’t want to go into a (confining) commercial art field.

She was offered a non-traditional apprenticeship where she began learning from each artist she had the privelege to work with. Tattooing required her to draw a multitude of different ideas and themes, sometimes at a moments notice, to then be applied to the client.

In 1997 she relocated to Long Island, New York where the she found herself surrounded by art and artists with an amazing variation of styles and skills.  Drawing every day, she began to guide her clientele more towards the genre of fantasy, which she has always favored. She is well known on Long Island for her work with faeries, dragons, unicorns and all things mystical.

She thrives on freedom of expression and is able to capture most ideas and concepts easily. Her least favorite things to work with are designs without flow or depth. She concentrates her energy more towards the strange and surreal, myths and legends, intricate and flowing, rather than rigid objects such as bio-mechanical and technical drawings. Because of this, her designs tend to be more freeflowing (if possible) over whole limbs or areas to adapt the movement of the piece to the body.

Stacey’s favorite subjects to work with are creatures of myth, dragons, faeries and free flowing art, but also wildlife, animal portraits, and nature inspired ideas- pieces that compliment the body and soul. Art with feeling and meaning is more likely to inspire her. Symbolism rather than words. Working in black and grey or color, her personal art style tends to be elegant, detailed, swirly and fun. Stacey enjoys doing custom work, but is capable of working with almost any reference material a client may provide. She enjoys tattooing art reproductions, but avoids copying others tattoos outright. She finds covering and refurbishing/refreshing old tattoo work to be a challenge.

Stacey works well with clients who keep an open mind… those who have faith in her abilities and those who don’t stifle her creativity. (As well as those who don’t mind giving up a body part or two…)