Tattoos as a form of art growing in Kazakhstan

Art is everywhere. On walls, on floors, on furniture, on people. Tattoos express people’s style, their culture, their history. Tattoos are a snapshot into what a person currently, or did at one moment, care about.

Many cultures sneer or turn their nose to the permanent art put upon the skin. They are controversial in plenty of places, some even asking tourists and outsiders to cover them up as a sign of respect.

Throughout Kazakhstan, each region reacts to tattoos differently, the closer to the North or a major city you are, the more likely you are to tolerate tattoos. In Almaty, Kazakhstan, the largest city and the country’s cultural center, there is a growing popularity of tattoos among the younger generation, according to Dima Shott, a tattoo master in Almaty.

“I like when people come and I give them beautiful,” Ariana Zabara, Shott’s tattoo apprentice, said. “I like when they’re happy when they’re beautiful.”

Zabara has several tattoos, beginning her collection at the age of 14. She is working on becoming a tattoo master like her father.

Shott got involved in tattooing because he saw tattoos that other people did and didn’t like them. Even though he was going to school to become a clinical psychologist, he decided to go to art school and pursue a degree to help him become a tattoo artist, or as it’s known in Kazakhstan, a tattoo master.

In the United States, the most common tattoos are animals and flowers. In Almaty, it is no different, as Shott said he mostly tattoos animals, flowers and ornaments.

Ornaments are a unique part of Kazakhstan’s and the surrounding culture. They originate from hundreds of years ago, functioning as a way to interpret aspects of life through symbols. Ornaments conveyed several meanings—a common one being protection.

Now, people are getting them tattooed. Shott said they are some of his favorites to do as they are geometric and relaxing. Tattooing hasn’t always been an easy thing for him to do though.

His first ever tattoo was one he did himself, at the age of 14, it was a condom on his forearm. Currently, his arm is blacked out to cover that and other early bad tattoos.

Bad tattoos are a part of almost every culture, Kazakhstan is no different. Shott said many people who are tattooing don’t really understand how to do so as they were taught by someone who didn’t understand how and then passed along the poor technique to the next generation. It’s a never ending cycle of incompetence. To battle this, one day Shott wants to open a school of tattooing to show people how it is meant to be done.

Shott has clients each day, if there is an appointment for a large piece, only one to two customers can come in due to the amount of time the big pieces take. If it is a day full of small pieces though, he can have 10 to 15 people in his shop. These pieces range from 15000 ₸ for a small one and 95000 ₸ for a large one. That’s $30 to $190 for pieces that would cost a minimum of $100 and potentially more than $1000 in most places in the United States.

Tattoos are how some people express themselves. “It’s communication, you talk to other people” through tattoos, Zabara said.