The women in Painted Idols
Tattooed and inked: the canvases where the ink is the subject
6 min read ▪ 30 August 2026
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In most paintings of tattooed women the ink is decoration. In two of these it is the actual problem, and solving it is what the weeks went on.
Where can I find oil paintings of tattooed women?
Here, in two canvases where the ink is not scenery. Not every painting in this series has tattoos in it, and saying otherwise to catch a search would be the first lie on the page. In Kayleigh (Tattoos) and Dailey (Illustrated) the drawing that was already on her skin is what the painting is about, and both exist as an original and as a signed print.
- Two originals, oil on stretched canvas, 100 × 80 cm each, one of one.
- Two signed prints at €35, in editions that are never reprinted.
- Painting existing ink is harder than inventing it, and section four is why.
The two canvases where the ink is the subject
Search for a tattooed nude painting and you will mostly find prints of somebody else’s photograph with a filter over it. This is a working studio with twenty-three original canvases in one series, and two of them are about ink.
| Painting | Size | What the ink is doing |
|---|---|---|
| Kayleigh (Tattoos) | 100 × 80 cm | It is the title of the work and the first thing you see. What the canvas is actually about is what sits underneath it. |
| Dailey (Illustrated) | 100 × 80 cm | A painting about lines that already exist, made by somebody else, following a body that moves. |
The rest of the series is not tattooed, or not in a way that matters to the painting. That is worth saying plainly on a page somebody arrived at by searching for ink, because the alternative is a page that promises twenty-three and delivers two.
Kayleigh (Tattoos): the joke under the armour
Kayleigh (Tattoos) is named for the ink and is not really about it.
She has a face that photographs as arrogant. That reading belongs to the photograph rather than to her, and this is the canvas where I caught the joke instead of the armour. I did not decide to. It happened somewhere in the second week and I only noticed afterwards.
So the tattoos are the reason you stop in front of it and the last thing you are still looking at. That is roughly what ink does in life as well, and it is one of four canvases of the same subject — the rest are on her page.
Dailey (Illustrated): lines that already exist
Dailey (Illustrated) is the one where ink is the whole problem, and it is the reason this article exists.
It is a painting about lines that already exist, which is a harder problem than inventing them. Get a line wrong where the body turns and the whole thing sits on top of her like a sticker instead of following the form underneath. That is where the weeks went, and it is the only part of this painting I would want you to look at twice.
Dailey Danique is also one of the few women in this series I have actually stood in front of. Almost every other subject arrives as a photograph and stays one.
Why existing ink is harder to paint than invented ink
If you invent a tattoo you can put it wherever it works. If it is already there, it is already right, and every one of your decisions can only make it wrong.
The difficulty is not the drawing. It is that a tattoo lies on a surface that curves, stretches and turns away, and it was made by somebody who worked on that surface directly. A painter is working from a flat photograph of a curved thing, trying to put a flat drawing back onto a curve that has to be reconstructed first.
Two things go wrong, and they go wrong in opposite directions:
| The mistake | What it looks like |
|---|---|
| The line stays flat where the body turns | The tattoo sits on top of her like a sticker. The whole figure goes stiff, and it reads as wrong before anyone can say why |
| The line is softened to make it sit | The ink turns into a smudge and stops being a drawing. The tattoo is gone and something vague is there instead |
The only way through is the slow one: get the form underneath right first, then let the line follow it. That is why a canvas like this takes weeks rather than days, and it is not the sort of thing that can be hurried by wanting it more.
The canvas with no layer at all
The clearest argument for what ink does in a painting is the canvas that has none.
Lindsey (White Blouse) is the one without a layer. Everything else in this series has something between her and you. Here there is none, and that turned out to be far harder to paint than any amount of ink or latex. There is nothing to hide behind, for her or for me.
Which is the useful way round to think about tattoos in a portrait. They are not surface decoration, they are a layer — something that stands between a person and the person looking. Take it away and the painting does not get simpler. It gets exposed.
Is this pin-up, alt, or inked art?
Those words all get typed into a search bar and they mean different things.
Inked means tattooed, which fits the two canvases above and nothing else here. Alt describes a look and a scene, and it fits the way these women work more than the way the paintings look. Pin-up is a genre with a set of props and a wink built into it, and this series keeps some of the props while dropping the wink.
All four words, including glamour, are unpicked in what the words mean. The short version: none of them is used as a category on this site, because every painting here carries a name instead.
What you can actually buy
| Work | Original | Signed print |
|---|---|---|
| Kayleigh (Tattoos) | 100 × 80 cm, oil on stretched canvas, one of one | €35, signed by hand |
| Dailey (Illustrated) | 100 × 80 cm, oil on stretched canvas, one of one | €35, signed by hand |
Both originals are signed, one of one, and come with a certificate of authenticity. The prints are hand-signed on the back in small editions that are never reprinted, which is a different promise from the usual one and is explained in what you get for €35.
The whole series, tattooed and otherwise, is on the women in Painted Idols, and all the paintings are in one place.
Questions people ask
Where can I find oil paintings of tattooed women?
Two canvases in this series are about ink: Kayleigh (Tattoos) and Dailey (Illustrated), both 100 x 80 cm oil on stretched canvas, one of one, and both available as signed prints. The rest of the series is not tattooed in a way that matters to the painting.
Why is painting a tattoo difficult?
Because it already exists and it lies on a surface that curves. Get a line wrong where the body turns and the tattoo sits on top of her like a sticker instead of following the form underneath. Soften the line to make it sit and the drawing turns into a smudge.
Is there a print of the tattooed paintings?
Yes, of both. Each is hand-signed on the back at 35 euro, in a small edition that is never reprinted. The originals stay one of a kind.
Is this pin-up art?
Some of the canvases borrow the vocabulary of pin-up, which is a genre of pictures made to be pinned up, with a prop, a look down the lens and a wink. These keep some of the props and drop the wink, which is what makes them something else.
