Marisa Kakoulas
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In May 2005, she co-founded Needled.com with Josh Rubin of CoolHunting.com to talk about tattooing as a fine art and its surrounding culture. In 2006, they sold Needled.com to Rivr Media, and Marisa stayed on as editor until March 2009. In creating Needles and Sins, Marisa wanted to go further and explore, not only tattooing, but other underground art in various media, including music, film, and graffiti.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, Marisa first discovered tattooing as a fine art rather than rebellion after visiting an underground East Village tattoo studio at the age of 17 in 1990 (even though her early pieces were pre-legalization of the art in NYC). Since then, she's acquired two sleeves, a backpiece, rib and stomach work (among many other tattoos) from acclaimed blackwork specialist Daniel DiMattia of Calypso Tattoo in Belgium. Marisa also has art from Tim Kern, Anil Gupta, Mike Bellamy, Michelle Myles, Jacqueline Spoerle, and hand-tattooed Thai work from Lard Yao Tattoo. More to come.
Marisa writes for industry media including Inked mag, Suicide Girls, Skin & Ink, as well as mainstream publications such as Glamour, Salon, Bust, Budget Travel, among many others. She also holds an MS in journalism from Columbia University's School of Journalism.
She has been written about in Time Magazine, the NY Times, the NY Times Magazine, Philadelphia Inquirer, Denver Post, International Herald Tribune, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, San Francisco Chronicle, and many other popular newspapers, magazines, and online media. Moreover, Marisa has been profiled in almost every major tattoo magazine worldwide.
Marisa has authored three books published by Edition Reuss: "Black Tattoo Art," (September 2009), and "Black & Grey Tattoo (September 2010), and Color Tattoo Art (June 2011). These books are part of series she is working on, showing the very best of different tattoo genres. Marisa also edited the hardcover "Tattoo World" for Abrams Books, which will be released in October 2011. And her upcoming book, "Tattoo Law," on the laws affecting tattoo business and culture is also underway.
Her author copies can be purchased here.
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