The City: Eva Karabudak
“Six was afraid of seven because seven, eight, nine.”
Foreword
Founder of Atelier Eva. Tattoo artist. Intricate painter. Master of depth and dimension.
Preface
I grew up in a small Turkish town, spending most of my childhood drawing and coloring, pulling colors and patterns from my coastal surroundings, and the subject matter from my favorite Turkish fairy tales. After enrolling in the Academy of Fine Arts in Ankara and paying my way by creating street murals while expanding my skills, my visual aesthetic found its natural home in tattooing. Initially, I was designing tattoos for other artists, but eventually decided to take up the craft myself, which resulted in putting in years of hard work, working 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. When I was working at my first tattoo shop, I was constantly teaching myself new tattooing techniques while trying to push the boundaries of the genre, but all of that hard work has finally paid off and paved the way to Istanbul and, eventually, New York.
© Eva Karabudak | Vincent van Gogh, self-portrait
© Eva Karabudak | Andrei Tarkovsky, The Mirror (1975)
© Eva Karabudak, original artwork
Design by Hungry Studio @Atelier Eva
© Ali Dündar @Atelier Eva | Sandro Botticelli, The Birth of Venus
Atelier Eva | 29 Havemeyer St, Brooklyn, NY
Epilogue
My artistic approach varies depending on the medium, but I truly believe that drawing with pencil and paper is the best way to lay the foundation for tattooing as you learn to control pressure and fine-tune hand movements. My personal paintings and illustrations are much more inward focusing, and I generally prefer to keep them in an intimate setting. Studying fine art and technique is what helped me tremendously in experimenting with the subject matter as well as recreating famous historical paintings. Even today, I still get a lot of requests for fine art replication tattoos, but when I do my own designs, I always try to make them different from what I've done on previous clients while combining my artistic integrity with my client’s wishes. In the end, it’s not about my ego and showcasing my style, it’s about satisfying my client’s needs and capturing the emotional essence of the work. Mixing colors and creating the perfect shade for your client’s skin is very important. It's always a challenge, but creating the perfect hue is so satisfying.
I’m a strong believer in doing what you love and what you feel. You have to put your heart into your work as your clients carry a part of you wherever they go. It’s not just about social media. Promoting your art on social media is important, but you risk your mental health keeping up with the competition of the platform, so I chose to keep working and focusing on the craft, allowing my account to grow naturally and gradually – it didn’t just happen overnight. There are many people I’m extremely grateful for playing a part in my path, but I’d like to especially thank Doy (@tattooist_doy) for his patience, passion, and humble attitude.
Running my own studio in Istanbul helped me to refine my vision for Atelier Eva, a modern tattoo studio with a luxury look and feel, one-of-a-kind lighting fixtures, furnishings, and art. Most importantly, I wanted to create a safe space for people of all backgrounds, a proper atelier, where artists of all trades come to teach seminars and showcase their talents. The process certainly wasn’t easy, but it was so fulfilling in the end. After more than a year of construction, design, and hard work, it’s surreal to see it come to life. And, of course, I couldn’t make this beautiful and serene studio without my husband who spent many early mornings and late nights in the space to make sure it was perfect. His patience and calmness have helped smooth the ups and downs of starting a business, so I promised that he would be the first person to be tattooed in our studio. I can’t put into words how happy we are, and we hope that our artists and clients enjoy every little detail.
Bibliography
Patti Smith, a true conduit for expressing artistic emotion
The City
Favorite thing about living in New York ↝ You can never get bored, there are so many options, even in a pandemic!
One thing you can't survive without in the city ↝ Spicy peppers (I carry them in a tin whenever I go dining)
Three adjectives describing New York ↝ Cinematic, vibrant, culturally rich
The most inspiring spot in the city ↝ The Guggenheim
Current obsession ↝ As a creative, I draw pleasure from anything I come across, but lately I’ve been listening to a lot of classical music to set the mood. To me, it’s an endless well of inspiration and ideas.
