What  began as an interest grew into a love and has become a profession. Karl Erik Juthans has weaved his way through different walks of life, getting tattooed more and more along the way and eventually dedicating himself to the art of tattooing.

Hand-poked and tapped tattooing techniques trace their roots through many cultures. Polynesian traditions use tapping techniques to place pigment into the skin, while traditional Japanese tattooing developed its own methods using long hand-held tools. American hand-poked tattooing takes a different approach, creating an image in the skin one deliberate dot at a time.

For Karl, art is a way of reshaping the world beyond its factual forms. The artist takes elements of the world before him and brings them together with a coherence and unity they may not otherwise possess—capturing a perspective that might otherwise disappear in the constant movement of life.

Tattooing gives that idea permanence. Each piece becomes a collaboration between artist, individual, and experience, transformed into something that can be carried for a lifetime.

Karl has spent more than a decade developing his craft and continues to explore the possibilities of American hand-poked tattooing.

Karl will be working at Voodoo Tattoo on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi.