Self-determination and bodily autonomy feel more meaningful than ever in an era when reproductive rights and transgender rights are being challenged, an era when women and gender nonconforming people are being told what they may or may not do with their own bodies. Increasing restrictions are tighter than many of us have experienced in our lifetimes, and the ability to permanently adorn our bodies feels more empowering than ever.
Local tattoo artists Lin, who works as Fairy Spit Pokez, and Lu, who works as Softly Sticks, are passionate about making body modification accessible, especially to clients who might not feel comfortable in masculine spaces. Situated in a private studio in the Highlands, Lin and Lu are intent on not offering a walk-in space. Appointments can only be made through their Instagram accounts: Lin is @fairyspitpokez and Lu is @softly.sticks.
Both artists specialize in the hand-poke method of tattooing. Also known as stick-and-poke or machine-free, hand-poked tattoos are created without a machine. Instead, the tattoo needle is dipped in ink and then poked into the skin, dot by dot. The technique is both rustic and artisanal.
Lin explains that a tattoo machine has a rotary, and the rotary is what picks the needle up and drives it down into the dermis. "Instead of having a rotary, I am the rotary. So I pick up the needle and bring it back down constantly." Tattoo machines have a distinctive sound because of the motors they use. "But hand poking has a whole separate sound, to where it sounds like these little pokes, little pops that break your skin."
Meet Lin Of Fairy Spit Pokez
Lin is a BFA graduate of the Hite Institute of Art and Design at University of Louisville and began self-teaching the hand poke method in 2019. She did her first tattoo in her private studio in October 2023. Lin’s work ranges from fine line renderings of Studio Ghibli character designs to a nuanced tonality that evokes the pointillism of Georges Seurat.She describes her passion for tattooing as a lifelong experience. The first time she asked for a tattoo was when she was five or six years old. Her mom had been in the U.S. Navy and stationed in East Asia, where she got a tattoo on her upper back. It was hand-poked with a bamboo shoot. "So I’ve always known about hand-poking, and I've always thought it was really cool and really interesting."
One of her sisters had tattoos too, so the progression from appreciation of body modification to developing her own craft was organic: "I just got more and more into tattooing as I grew up. I think I got my first one when I was 17, and then I realized you could teach yourself."
Rites Of Passage For Aspiring Tattoo Artists
Then the COVID-19 pandemic began. While still at home, and isolating from the world outside her social pod, Lin started tattooing her closest friends. "It's kind of a rite of passage for a lot of us tattoo artists to hand-poke our friends." The more she worked, the more her craft developed, and eventually, other friends became interested.
While still perusing a degree in a painting program, Lin would barter her hand-poked tattoos for crochet pieces or other art her friends made. She began taking her work more seriously, going through bloodborne pathogen training and testing in 2023.
Administered by the Kentucky Department for Public Health, bloodborne pathogen training must be completed and approved by the Cabinet for Health and Family Services before tattooists or piercers can work commercially anywhere in the Commonwealth. Lin has officially been a tattoo artist since October 2023.
Finding A Niche In Hand-Poked Tattooing
Although she has not yet found an aesthetic niche, Lin says, "The things that are most exciting for me are abstract, fluid, large pieces that flow with a body's composition, like muscles and tendons and the way the bones are all laid together."Gesturing with graceful yet strong movements, she says, "I love making something that is really fluid and wraps around body parts. I've only been able to do a few of those, but I really love doing everything."
Even as she aspires to larger, more complex pieces, Lin is still available for "sweet, tiny, little precious things," because what makes the art of tattooing most exciting—and most validating—for her is that she gets to help clients "customize their Sim." For her, that means facilitating body modification for clients who are free to decide how they look beyond the body they were born into.
"Even though everybody's body is beautiful, I think being able to have the power to customize it is really cool." When she realized that she could make that possible for other people was for her the most exciting part. "I love that. Mhm."
Meet Lu Of Softly Sticks
Lu graduated with a BFA from Kentucky College of Art and Design in 2017 and began self-teaching in 2018. She got serious about this area of her artistic career in 2020 and officially began as a body modification professional in January 2023.Lu's designs recall the illustrations of Aubrey Beardsley: open forms counterbalanced with areas of solid black. Her use of line suggests Art Nouveau motifs reconfigured for the 21st century. What excites her about hand poking is that it is yet another medium she gets to experience as an artist. Her work in tattooing both informs and transforms her work in painting and drawing.
Being a woman or femme-presenting artist in a traditionally masculine profession is consistently challenging. Lu says she thinks "the most powerful thing about being a female in this industry is knowing that I am bringing my clients a really warm and safe space that they've maybe never experienced before."
Lu says this is her (and Lin's) safe space too. "This is our home away from home." With a client base that is feminine people of all ages, but especially young queer femmes, intentionality about maintaining that feeling of home is essential. "We have walls and we have incense and candles and music and chill vibes."
The Challenges Of Being New Artists In The Scene
In contrast to her cultivation of cozy supportiveness, Lu is unflinching in description of her experience as a woman tattoo artist: "I haven't had a whole lot of camaraderie. I feel like it is a little cliquey in Louisville."She describes how challenging it is to earn respect form other tattoo artists, especially because she and Lin are self-taught: "People assume you have to have an apprenticeship. But you don't need that to excel as an artist." In Kentucky, a tattoo artist is not required to have an apprenticeship before becoming a professional.
A moment later, Lin walks into Lu's studio space and says, "We don't gatekeep each other. There's definitely some artists who who are gatekeeping, but that's on them. I walked into a shop a little while ago and I mentioned that I'm a hand-poke and the vibes just totally changed."
A Hybrid Approach To Stick-And-Poke Tattooing
The challenges—of bringing gentleness to an art form known for its intensity and of building a clientele—might persist. But Lu says that what she looks forward to in the future is the exploration of a more hybrid approach to her work.She hopes to allow herself time to learn how to use a machine so she can tattoo on a larger scale, while still incorporating hand-poke details like stippled lines and shading into the strong, fluid line work that machines provide.
With her delicate and spacious illustration style, Lu she has to edit her designs so they will heal cleaner and more beautifully when hand-poked. But with a hybrid approach, she would not have to take half a day to execute a single design on a client’s skin.
What the future will bring women in a world saturated with patriarchal beliefs is not yet entirely known. But women artists like Lin and Lu will continue to color our existence with steady hands.
To view portfolios and schedule appointments on Instagram, follow Lin at @fairyspitpokez and Lu @softly.sticks.
