Women and Ink Stories by Reka Nyari

“I am really interested in shooting women who are very extensively tattooed and are interested in telling their life stories through my art”.

From this motivation arise the refined art photographs of Reka Nyari, part of the “Ink Stories” project.

The bodies of six tattooed women (six up to now, but in expansion) are the subjects on which her lens rested, not interested in the body itself, but in the history intimately enclosed in the tattoos that cover it, as Reka tells us in this interview in which she says: heavily tattooed women wanted!

Hi Reka welcome to Tattoo Life. First of all could you please give us a short presentation of yourself as an artist and photographer?
I am a NYC-based fine art photographer. I was born in Helsinki and grew up between Finland and Hungary. I came to NYC at the age of 17 to study painting and have lived and worked here ever since. For the last 5 years, I have been working on my “Ink Stories” series, which captures extremely tattooed women from around the World, telling their life stories through the ink on their skin.

I recently started “puncturing”, or almost tattooing and scarifying my art pieces, creating a 2-dimensional effect that adds yet another narrative to the artwork. I also create video work that I release as limited edition fine-art NFT’s.

Recently you have exposed in Milan after a series of international exhibitions – I believe the first one in New York in 2017– where you presented your project titled Ink Stories. Would you like to talk about it? How did it start, how did you get close to tattoo?
I had an exhibition at the DART Dynamic Art Museum from Nov 2021 till Feb 2022. It was really amazing to have my pieces next to one of the great masters of classical art like Caravaggio, as well as some of the biggest NFT and digital artists in the World, like Beeple. Quite a juxtaposition. I love Italy and Milan… It was great visiting the city again for my live art performance in December 2021.

I have been working on my INK STORIES project since 2017. So far I have shot 6 women from around the World, and the number is growing.

I have always loved shooting portraits of women and have been interested in the art of tattooing.

Tattoos are such a beautiful, final, artistic, and rebellious way of claiming back one’s body, often working as a therapy to transform a person’s life as well as appearance. They can be emblems of strength, reminders of courage, and guides to a better path in life. The series has been shown in NYC, LA, Miami, Hong Kong, Paris, Milan, Venice, Toronto, Istanbul, Johannesburg… really, all over the World.

How did you choose the subjects of your photographs? Following which aesthetic criteria?
I find sometimes my subjects online, on social media, and out on the street… People send me recommendations and messages from all over the World. I am really interested in shooting women who are very extensively tattooed and are interested in telling their life stories through my art.

For each photo you also give a text story?
Yes, the images are a lot more than beautiful photos of tattooed women. All of the tattoos are real, and each series tells the intimate true-life stories of my subjects. I get to know each one of the women quite well before we shoot.

I think of the shoots as a collaboration, as a transfer of energy between me and my subject.

My artist statement for each series covers the intricate stories of my subjects. I view myself as a storyteller.

What do these Ink Stories represent?
Each series/woman has a unique narrative related to their life and tattoo stories that come across in the symbolism of the images. For example, the young woman in GEISHA INK had her entire body tattooed by her lovers as a rebellion towards her conservative and traditional upbringing.

At the time of the shoot, her parents still had no idea that her body was completely tattooed. The whole project is really about transformation, overcoming our fears and obstacles, and taking back our lives and bodies. Women are so incredibly strong and beautiful.

I have read one of the interpretations you gave is: Intimate studies of self-identity and female empowerment. Is that correct?
Yes. The women that I portray have chosen to transform and claim back their bodies, in one of the most rebellious and visual possible ways. I am a woman, see me roar. They are unapologetic, brave, kick-ass.

In your nudity there is no erotism but rather awareness of our own body. Do you agree?
Absolutely, you have it 100% right. My photos are not eroticism, which is meant to arouse. The women are sometimes nude, but their purpose is not to turn on the male (or female) viewer. They are pleasing themselves, telling their stories. I am a firm believer that nudity does not mean sexuality, and vice versa.

Are you planning to expand the project to new chapters which will add to the existing ones?
Yes absolutely. I have already shot a few more women, and plan to have at least 10 in the collection. I am planning on releasing a large coffee table book, and looking forward to exhibiting my work in more galleries and museums around the World.