Kozik has been tattooing for over twenty years, and in that time, he has developed an impressive reputation and portfolio. His work merges botanical and animal imagery with dramatic macabre themes, creating unique and compelling tattoos that are intricate, dark, and beautifully considered. Today, he runs his private studio, Sanctum Studio, in Melbourne, Australia. Vault Editions caught up with Kozik to find out more about his career in tattooing and his creative process.
Hi Kozik, you’ve been tattooing for over 20 years. How did you first get into tattooing, and what drew you to it as a creative path?
I’ve always been drawn to art and creating, I feel that most people start out that way anyway and then other things steer you along a different path. I’ll skim over a few of the earlier narratives but it’s one of my better stories, so let's truck on.
Basically I struggled with my body image as that small nerdy weirdo, and I had no concept that it was anything I would ever be able to change about myself. Being the 90’s, there wasn't exactly a barrage of information about body image, and our home library of Encyclopaedia Britannica from the dawn of time didn’t prove much insight for me either.
So fast forward a couple years and I’m a 13 year old kid walking home from the bus stop, and these kids from another school are following me home and tossing the odd rock in my direction… one of them clocks me right in the back of my head and I go down like a sack of shit. I’m okay but a bit shaken. Anyway, it’s out front of a house I walk past every day and this guy I’ve never seen before walks out and tells these kids to F-off. He helps me up, invites me in and offered me a beer (it was 1999 so it was the style of the time) So this guy who’s probably done one of the nicest things for me is covered in tattoos, now I’ve seen tattoos before but mainly in cultural books, which were beautiful, but they were pretty far removed from anything I could access, and then it just hits me. This guy has been able to make his own choices to look how he wants, because he wanted. So I ask him how they were done, he tells me “with needle and ink, little dude”.
So I go home, crack open a biro, rack one of my mother’s sewing needles and get to work on an aptly chosen lyric from ‘Alanis Morissette’ on my ankle. Right then, I knew I wanted to tattoo, I didn’t care how much work it took to get there, but the dream of being able to tattoo people became everything to me. That little kid is still in there somewhere, and never has a moment passed that I’ve taken the privilege of being a tattooer for granted.
Tattoo by Kozik at Sanctum Studio, Melbourne, Australia
Your artwork is often influenced by a range of eclectic influences, from delicate butterflies and orchids, macabre themes like memento mori, and ornate medieval weaponry. What appeals to you about these subjects and themes?
I’m a tattooer first and foremost, so a lot of what I do comes from the array of ideas people want on their bodies, which is great for me because I can find the beauty that appeals to me in most things. That being said, I feel as though there is, or at least can be, a mood to almost any subject matter.
You get the obvious ones that don’t require any nuance to get the intention, but then there’s something special about adding a little extra. Like tattooing a Wendigo that seems to look fierce and scary, but a slight shift in his brow, and you know there is a deeper pain and narrative to the design.
You’re right, though I am drawn to macabre, medieval, and even mythical creatures, but I think it’s because the idea of them all ebb and flow between a sense of beauty and melancholy, and that’s essentially my appeal.
You get the obvious ones that don’t require any nuance to get the intention, but then there’s something special about adding a little extra. Like tattooing a Wendigo that seems to look fierce and scary, but a slight shift in his brow, and you know there is a deeper pain and narrative to the design.
You’re right, though I am drawn to macabre, medieval, and even mythical creatures, but I think it’s because the idea of them all ebb and flow between a sense of beauty and melancholy, and that’s essentially my appeal.
Tattoo by Kozik at Sanctum Studio, Melbourne, Australia
Tattooing is such a collaborative process between artist and client. How do you approach translating someone’s story or idea into a design that still feels true to your own style?
Everyone is different, and the approach needs to reflect that. You can tell a lot about what someone is going to want from the first correspondence. I feel most people who are looking for specifics let you know the specifics, and if they’re shortly worded, often they’re pretty open to my interpretations.
My first thought is, how will this compositionally work on this person's body, which lets me know the shape it needs to be, and then I can start imagining how I would like to see it, what position would be interesting, and show their idea in the best possible way. Sometimes I can picture the design I hope to do immediately and go from there. Other times it takes a while, and that’s fine too —you can’t force an idea, but you can help it develop. There’s times where I will draw someone’s concept up a few different ways just because I want to see what will translate better. If I’m thinking of drawing a client's idea a little different to what they may expect, I’ll always run it by them first and make sure we’re on the same page with the direction and how it will work on their body.
Composition is key to any design process, especially tattooing. You can have the best design in the world but if you place it terribly on the body there’s going to be a dissection between the person wearing it and the design. So I always make sure I offer suggestions on how this would suit the body best and show examples to them which feels true to my style. Ultimately though these are only suggestions, if somebody wants it on their own body a specific way, that’s their choice to make and I’ll do my best to facilitate that.
Tattoo by Kozik at Sanctum Studio, Melbourne, Australia
You’ve shared a few brilliant tattoo cover-up processes on your Instagram. This type of work must feel rewarding, but it also has its own unique design challenges. How do you approach redesigning or reworking an existing tattoo so it feels cohesive and true to your own style?
Cover-ups are amazing in my book. This is going back to my ethos as a tattooer and the reason I wanted to do it in the first place, as it helped with my personal body image negativities. To have the privilege of being able to help someone feel more comfortable in their own skin is one of the most beneficial things I can do as a tattooer, this isn’t just limited to tattoo cover-ups, either.
Not everything can be covered, so working out what problems you may face early on is key, that way you can mitigate them if possible. There are essentially two types of cover ups I do; the first being, the existing tattoo is small and/or quite faded and their ideas are great and I can just start working on it.
The second type is much more involved, I’ll find out what their hopes are for an end result first so I can make sure that’s a possibility or let them know if it isn’t. I’ll consider how the existing tattoo sits on the body and if I need to shift the shape of the overall design to work better with their body.
Then I’ll compare what the tattoo they have with their ideas to work out if there are shapes I can work with and still allow a level of contrast in the piece so it doesn’t look like an obvious cover up. 9 times out of 10 I’ll speak to whoever wants a cover up either in person or FaceTime and see what are all the ideas of things that would be happy to cover up. I’ll then do a few mock ups for them showing what the end result could look like and make sure they’re happy with that direction and go from there.
Tattoo Cover Up Process by Kozik at Sanctum Studio, Melbourne, Australia
You run your studio, Sanctum Studio, in Melbourne. What kind of environment or vibe do you try to create there?
I co-own Sanctum Studio with Russell Winter, and if it wore glasses and was missing a few teeth, it’d actually be our baby. I’ve been working alongside Russell for over ten years now, and we share the same vision for what makes a good studio dynamic.
I feel really lucky to work with such amazing people at Sanctum. We’re all friends, and everyone helps each other out like a harmonious share house. Our main vibe is simple: treat people with the respect they deserve, communicate well, do better, and be better.
We’re also fortunate to have an incredible client base. It’s common to see clients chatting with each other, offering someone a candy snake, or just being comfortable sharing the space with the artists. I’m really proud of that, I never want to work in a shop where someone is made to feel anxious to walk in or where a colleague feels nervous to speak up.
I make an effort to check in with everyone emotionally, and they do the same for me, which I deeply appreciate. We try our best to facilitate a space where everyone truly feels welcome, where they know they can ask for anything, and it will always be met with kindness and respect.
Tattoo by Kozik at Sanctum Studio, Melbourne, Australia
You were fortunate enough to be tattooed by the legendary artist Apo Whang-Od. Can you tell us about the experience?
This woman is beyond a legend, I was in the Philippines, maybe 2016/2017 and some lovely person on Instagram gave me a bit of insight on how to get to Buscalan to see her. At the time there wasn’t much written about how to get there, so this was really helpful.
After a 22-hour bus ride from Manila, I find myself in Bontoc, where I’m told to wait for a Jeepney. I climb onto the roof with 8 or 9 other guys and settle in up the front, just above the windshield really. Anyway, this young woman, maybe 15 years old, sits next to me and strikes up a conversation. She was studying English and going back to visit her mother in Buscalan. She wanted to practice her English. I was grateful for someone to ask questions about how to respectfully meet Whang Od. So about an hour into the ride, while trying my best not to have a roof rack permanently lodged in my ass, this massive flying insect, literally the size of an open hand, thuds onto this girl's chest. Straight away I jump into action and try to carefully usher it off her, and she slaps me away. I sit there and I watch as she delicately scoops it up, faces it to the wind, and just waits for it to ever so slowly fly out of her hands. I lead with this story because I feel people from Buscalan have a greater sense of care than I’ve seen in the Western world, and this lady sets the tone for everyone in the village. She offered to introduce me to Whang Od and translate for us. My intention truly was to just have the opportunity to meet her, I had no other expectations.
So we hike for about an hour up to the village from where the Jeepney drops us through some really beautiful forest, and finally come to the village entrance which feels like it’s sat on heaven's seat with lush greenery as far as the eye can see. She takes me straight through the village to Whang Od's house, it’s beyond humble, and she’s chilling with her daughter but seems pretty welcome to the idea of talking to me. Straight away she asked if I had my nipples pierced as well as some more risqué areas, I think she was 99 at the time and still so funny and sassy. Here I am meeting an actual tattoo god, trying to be respectful and she’s just laughing away like someone you meet at a pub. I had brought one of my tattoo machines to gift her and after I did, she offered to tattoo me, she said come back at sunrise the following day.
The rest of the day I explored the small village and met a family who welcomed me into their home for the night. I get up at the crack of dawn and walk on down to Whang’s house, the village faces the sunrise and you could see all the mountains in the distance just shining with the morning light, seeing this and knowing I was about to go and get tattooed by her just didn’t feel real. So I get to her house and there she bounces on over full of life. She has a little flash sheet of around 6 or 7 designs which she chooses from, and I chose a design supposed to depict a scorpion. Usually I’m someone who can dive deep into a situation so I ask her to tattoo it in the centre of my forehead, which her response was that I was too pretty to put it on my face haha. So we ultimately decided on the top of my chest. We sit down on the front stoop of her house and she’s binding a pomelo thorn to a piece of wood getting ready to tattoo. She puts two folds in a long blade of grass to make a triangle and while holding the two ends together, dips the flat centre side into her home made ink and stamps the design onto my chest with a series of lines. Right there and then on the doorstep to her house she just starts tapping away with this pomelo thorn and does the tattoo.
The rest of the day I explored the small village and met a family who welcomed me into their home for the night. I get up at the crack of dawn and walk on down to Whang’s house, the village faces the sunrise and you could see all the mountains in the distance just shining with the morning light, seeing this and knowing I was about to go and get tattooed by her just didn’t feel real. So I get to her house and there she bounces on over full of life. She has a little flash sheet of around 6 or 7 designs which she chooses from, and I chose a design supposed to depict a scorpion. Usually I’m someone who can dive deep into a situation so I ask her to tattoo it in the centre of my forehead, which her response was that I was too pretty to put it on my face haha. So we ultimately decided on the top of my chest. We sit down on the front stoop of her house and she’s binding a pomelo thorn to a piece of wood getting ready to tattoo. She puts two folds in a long blade of grass to make a triangle and while holding the two ends together, dips the flat centre side into her home made ink and stamps the design onto my chest with a series of lines. Right there and then on the doorstep to her house she just starts tapping away with this pomelo thorn and does the tattoo.
After this I got a great photo with her where she’s pinching my nipple but unfortunately it’s been lost to the ages, I still have one photo left of her tattooing me though. This woman has defined a culture of tattoos way beyond her shores and does it with a smile on her face and a happy go lucky attitude, zero ego and always present. I learned a lot about how to hold myself as a tattooer from her.
Kozik receiving his tattoo by Apo Whang-Od, Buscalan, Philippines
Alongside your tattoo practice, you’re also a painter. I love how you manage to convey an eerie and beautiful sense of atmosphere and depth when painting with ink. Can you tell us about how you create an ink painting?
I’ve done a few ink paintings recently with Yasutomo Sumi which has a neutral undertone so I feel it has an essence of that haunting beauty I’m looking for. I start with blocking in my dark tones first and leaving the negative space to make sure the contrast and lighting is how I want it, then work on my mid tones. Once they are all in place, I will just layer over layer to build depth and tone and enjoy the way the ink washes over the paper. I find the repetition of it therapeutic. There’s nothing quite like spending hours on one small fold of a robe just to get that subtle shadowing correct, hard work for a perfect result no matter how small is something I really value. I paint for myself, it’s my time to feel at peace.
Painting process and final artwork by Kozik8. Running a creative business and producing your own personal projects can be taxing. What do you do to feel creatively recharged?
I have quite a few people who rely on me; running a busy studio and managing all our guest artists, keeping the studio clean, organised and stocked, clients having their designs drawn with the care they deserve and tattooing full-time. Also being present with my incredible partner and daughter at home. So it means any moment I have outside of that, I want to be creative. I usually manage this between about midnight and 4am most nights with a whole lot of Red Bull.
I don't do anything else for a recharge, I just dig into that bottomless pit and keep going. If you want it bad enough you’ll find a way.
I don't do anything else for a recharge, I just dig into that bottomless pit and keep going. If you want it bad enough you’ll find a way.
Kozik painting in his studio
9. You have a ticket for the Vault Editions time machine, which allows you to have a conversation with any artist in history. Who would you choose, and what would you ask them?
I would like to go back to speak with Da Vinci and ask him how much math, hidden meanings and focus he put on the Golden Ratio with his paintings or is this predominantly others' interpretations of his work. Particularly 'Annunciation' and 'The Last Supper'.
Tattoo by Kozik at Sanctum Studio, Melbourne, Australia
10. Finally, is there a book (art-related or otherwise) that’s had a lasting impact on you or your creative process?
The Eleventh Hour or Animalia, both by Greame Base. The paintings and illustrations in both of these books take you to a world similar enough to our own but with a sense of magic so relatable. Every inch of each page is so carefully curated with intent for both the story and to capture your imagination. This was something I admired as a child, I still have a copy of both, which I keep in my studio and flick through them often. These books are the epitome of diligent attention to detail, I appreciate that so much.
