For the past month or so, Turkish tattoo artist Nakkab has been tattooing at Fleur Noire Tattoo (439 Metropolitan Ave.) offering his unique signature style that he’s been perfecting since 2019.
The technique, which he’s dubbed “sernakkab,” was inspired by a Turkish marbling course he took in art school during a ceramics and glass program in Istanbul. During the course, he learned about the practice of using art as decoration, particularly in Ottoman traditions. He had also wanted to be a tattoo artist long before that, so he combined these traditional marbling techniques (also known as ebru) with his interest in anatomy work to create the style he’s known for today, marbled tattoos designed to flow with the body of the respective client, making every single tattoo he does completely unique. (His final project in school was a work centered on connecting the two.)
To create his tattoos, he designs the marbles by hand using special ink (“ocher”) and paper before scanning it and placing the design on clients’ bodies to get the correct flow.
“It’s like a puzzle,” Nakkab acknowledged.
He developed his practice more in Berlin, where he tattooed for years with collective-style studios and saw his technique grow in popularity, particularly via word of mouth and the club scene. However, he also had aspirations of coming to and tattooing in the U.S., though the process wasn’t necessarily easy.
Both being from Turkey, Nakkab also had a connection with Burak Noire, founder and owner of Fleur Noire (who moved to the U.S. in 2013 and started the studio in 2016). Once Nakkab decided to make the move to New York and take Noire up on his offer to work at the studio, he began the lengthy artist visa process (including a 900-page portfolio).
Fast-forward to now, he’s still settling in at Fleur Noire, but has made sure to stick to the parts of his particular process that he finds most important, mainly consulting face-to-face with potential clients rather than relying on forms. He’s excited about the possibilities of tattooing in Brooklyn versus Berlin and wants to continue to tap into word of mouth and the local club scene here, as well as do some collaborations with fellow artists at the studio.
And if you’re interested in a head or neck tattoo, Nakkab would love to see you
— he’s been dying to do more work on those areas.
To begin the booking process or just see more of Nakkab’s work, you can visit here or just walk in at Fleur Noire on Metropolitan Ave.