I’m NailZ and I am a tattoo artist based in the outer suburbs of Southeast Melbourne, specialising in custom grey wash and colour realism. I first picked up a pencil and started drawing when I was 4 years old and never really put it down. On my 6^th birthday I got a Nintendo 64 and ever since then all I wanted to do was to make video games one day, designing characters and environments as a concept artist.

My family and I immigrated to Australia from the Netherlands in 2002, when I was twelve and at age 16, I was prepared to abandon game development for a tattoo apprenticeship opportunity. It turned out my mentor’s son was working as an animator in the games industry at that time and by his advice, and for fear of regret, I finished school and commenced studying the Bachelor of Interactive Entertainment (video game design and 3D animation) at Qantm College in 2009.

Although I enjoyed the course, I came to realise game development wasn’t what I romanticised it being as a child. Upon graduating, I had already taken steps to steer my path back towards tattooing. In early 2011, I started a new apprenticeship. Since then, I have worked in several shops, owned my own studio for four years and eventually scaled down to a much more intimate private studio setting.