Neko Tattoo & Art Studio/ Serra Sönmez

A graduate from the Art Department at Mimar Sinan University, Serra’s tattooing began in Bebek at Red Cat Tattoo. Serra’s parents are both academicians and at first the thought of tattooing as a profession seemed strange to them but later on they became very supportive. Her dad wanted her first tattoo at her own shop to be done on him; it was her signature that she places on the bottom of her oil paintings. Serra, who has been in this business for 4 years, says being a good artist isn’t enough to do tattoos; you also have to know how to communicate with people. She only has 1 tattoo and that was done by Danny Garcia, saying, “I think I like doing them more than getting them done”. She likes to work on large parts of the body and thinks the hardest areas are the parts of the body where the skin has let itself go, making it hard to stretch out. Serra prefers to work for a maximum of 3 ½ hours in one sitting and finds women have a higher pain tolerance than men.