“My life is a dream, I do what I like, I live in a beautiful place, I like simple things such as spend the day near the ocean and this is a real dream and what makes me feel peaceful and happy”.
She is Katya Krasnova, she lives in Los Angeles and cats are her passion. Her favourite artistic expressions are tattoos, drawings, ceramics, paintings and clothes, or as she tells us in this interview “any that makes me feel something”.
Hi Katya would you like to introduce yourself to our readers?
Hi! My name is Katya Krasnova, I’m an artist currently located in Los Angeles, I do tattoos, ceramics, paintings, I have my clothing line and I just opened the beautiful Puppy studio LA with my two friends.
We know a few things about you: you are a tattoo artist, you love cats and you love to travel. Is that right? How did these passions come to be so evident in what you do?
Yes, that’s right. I travelled a lot with my parents when I was a kid. Since I became a tattoo artist 10 years ago I started traveling even more, I was touring all over Europe, tattooing in all the big cities and combined it with hiking and backcountry camping. It was a real addiction, I spent years like that, and then I moved to US. During 4 years in the US, I did cross country more than 10 times. Cats are my passion, they surround me all my life.
How did you become an artist and what is your favourite artistic expression?
I always knew that I would be an artist. My mother is an artist and designer. I was surrounded by creative energy since I was born. She had to take me to the life drawing classes and plein-air when she studied at art institute. At 7 years old I became a student of children academy of arts in Kyiv, then I studied at art institute of decorative modelling and design, which I left to start doing tattoos. Another thing that definitely influenced me to become a tattoo artist is music.
As a teenager I always loved punk rock and all kinds of alternative music. I dyed my hair in different colors, wearing piercings and of course I loved tattoos! I got my first tattoo when I was 17. Then I started getting more tattoos and met the guy, a tattoo artist who had a studio, and he taught me how to tattoo. I started tattooing when I was 19 years old. My favourite artistic expressions are any that makes me feel something.
Do you have your own atelier? Where do you tattoo?
Yes, as I said earlier, two months ago me and two of my friends opened Puppy Studio LA in the arts district. I love this place so much and very excited to see how it will become the best studio in Los Angeles:))
After leather, paper, ceramics, there is now a clothing line, isn’t there? Would you like to tell me about it and give us some indication?
Actually I started my clothing brand many years ago, my latest passion is ceramics which I self-learned during quarantine. I started with small sculptures, then I made some plates and vases. Now I’m focusing on bigger sculptures and I love them because it feels like my cat characters are becoming alive and you can touch them.
In your style there is a mix of traditional and Japanese, your cats remind of those statues with the moving hand in Chinese restaurants! They are fun!
I know that my style is unique, it’s not traditional or Japanese, it’s Katya Krasnova’s cats style.
Let’s talk about you now: how and when did you come from Ukraine to LA? Where did you study art in Ukraine or in the US?
I visited US many times in the past and I loved it, but I never thought to move here, I felt that I’d be too far from my family and I love Europe too much. But something happened and I didn’t want to stay in Ukraine anymore. I moved to NYC when I was 24 and lived there for 4 years, last year I decided to move to Los Angeles because I felt that I needed some changes, also I wanted to be closer to nature.
Are you also a model? Are you followed on social media how you became so famous?
I’m not a model, I post my pictures because my Instagram page is not only about tattoos, it’s about my life, travels, art etc.
Many tattoo artists don’t post their pictures and you don’t even know how they look, for me it’s interesting to see a little bit more than just tattoos and flash.
I became who I am, not in a month or a year. It was a long way, hundreds of hours of tattooing, creating designs, drawings.
My style changed but it was always unique, I love my old designs as well as the new ones. I always put a piece of myself in my designs and I believe that some people feel the same way as I felt when I was creating the design, so they want to get it as a tattoo.
Last question: how would you describe yourself to our readers? What are your passions, your weaknesses, your dreams and the strongest aspects of your character?
For me it’s always really hard to describe myself. I think I just always like to be by myself. My passion is to always develop myself as an artist, I always like to learn and see something new. I’m very self-critical and exacting. My weakness is my work, I’m the person who is always thinking about work even on vacation. If I’m not doing tattoos, ceramics or any other things, I feel bad and empty. My life is a dream, I do what I like, I live in a beautiful place, I like simple things such as spending the day near the ocean and this is a real dream and what makes me feel peaceful and happy.
