Mirko Sata (@mirkosata​​)

Mirko Sata is known for his snake tattoos. He has hundreds of snake designs each one is unique and beautifully proportioned and detailed. Look up snake tattoo and most of the good ones are his. He has the skill and talent to create intricate, intertwined snakes look beautiful and not like a jumbled mess of lines. The tattoo on my back is inspired by some of his pieces, however, I worked with my artist to create a new original design. I really love my snake tattoo and would consider another one thanks to this artist.

Kelsey Brown (@kelseyknown)

Kelsey Brown is a tattoo artist in Colorado. She only has a few thousand followers on Instagram, but all of her tattoos are really pretty. She had this really light feminine style that is designed to fit and flow with the body. Take a look at her Instagram if you are interested in watercolor tattoos. I almost got a crane like this on my back but then I decided I didn't even want a crane.

Janice BaoBao (@soso_ink)

Janice BaoBao is based in Canada and has a really bright, colorful and often times whimsical style. She has really adorable portraits of animals and some very beautiful flower tattoos. All of her tattoos have almost no outline and a really graphic way of shading that define her style. Her flower tattoos are her most acclaimed work. She doesn't have a collection of her tattoos work on her Instagram so I linked an article profiling her.

Ryan Flaherty (@ryanflaherty)

Ryan Flaherty is based in Chicago and does absolutely insane paintings on people. All of his tattoos are masterpieces with thousands of little details. His talents also seem to range. While his style is recognizable the types of things he chooses to tattoo have no common theme. His more popular tattoos are large sleeves depicting outer space scenes. My favorite, however, is this impeccable tattoo of a head of lettuce. There are actually several different vegetable tattoos on his Instagram and they are all impressive even next to a tattoo that looks like a picture of space.

Corey Correia (@coreycorreia) (@isthmustattoo)

Corey did my snake tattoo and he is the owner of Isthmus Tattoo & Social Club, a tattoo shop in my hometown. He's a really cool guy who to me embodies the kind of person I trust to tattoo me. His shop is practically brand new but me and my friends who have gotten tattoos there have been happy with our tattoos and the experience as a whole. Corey immediately was very welcoming and excited about my tattoo. As the artist, he was as invested as I was in making this tattoo really great. I want to feature him here as an extra thank you because I really love my tattoo but also to show that getting a tattoo that makes you happy doesn't mean you have to go to a fancy tattoo shop with a world-famous artist.