Beyond Skin: Why Art Is Still the Soul of Tattooing

Hi, I’m Sakshi — tattoo artist, illustrator, and someone who believes that art is never just decoration. Whether it ends up on skin, a sticker, a canvas, or your iPad screen, art tells stories. It connects, comforts, and confronts. And for me, the design process before the tattoo needle touches skin is where all the magic begins.

The Canvas Isn’t Always Skin

At Morphology Tattoo Studio in Galleria Market, Gurugram, I spend hours sketching, layering, erasing, and rebuilding ideas. Not every drawing becomes a tattoo. Some become wall art. Some become stickers. Some live only in the pages of a sketchbook. But every single one helps me grow as an artist.

Because for me, it’s not just about what gets inked. It’s about what gets imagined.

The Emotional Weight of Unseen Art

Some of my most meaningful works are not tattoos. A pet portrait that never made it to skin — but sits framed in someone’s home. A handwritten quote I turned into a sticker pack that now lives on laptops across India. These moments matter just as much.

As tattoo artists, we’re trained to create permanent marks. But the truth is, some of the most powerful art lives in temporary, quiet forms. It still heals. It still speaks.

From Digital Sketches to Soulful Stories

Every fine-line tattoo, every illustrative piece at Morphology, begins with hours of drawing — digitally. I use Procreate on the iPad to create layers of meaning, detail, and precision. It lets me test flow, scale, emotion — and gives the client a true sense of how it’ll live on their body. But even before that? It helps me explore the story.

Why Art Will Always Come First

I don’t just design for skin — I design for people. I consider posture, scars, movement, emotions, identity. Whether I’m tattooing a minimal line piece or illustrating a bold flash design, I think about who the art is for — not just what it looks like.

And that’s why the art matters — before anything else.

🫂 Join the Morphology Art Collective

Art deserves community. That’s why I’ve started the Morphology Art Collective, a space for artists across disciplines — tattoo artists, illustrators, photographers, ceramicists, sketchers, and creatives of all kinds.

Inside the group, we share work, find inspiration, collaborate, and simply exist in a space where art feels safe and celebrated. There are no rules about how “good” your art should be — only that you care about what you create.

💌 Want to be added?
DM me on Instagram — I’ll send you the invite!

Final Thoughts

If you’re an artist, collector, or someone who just loves the process — know this: tattoos are just one form of art. At Morphology, the art always comes first — whether it ends up on your skin, your laptop, or in a sketch that never gets tattooed.

Because at the end of the day, art is how we make sense of ourselves — and I wouldn’t have it any other way.