Ukraine-born Tattoo Artist Stanislava Pinchuk Inks Her Friends With Minimalist Tattoos For Food, Lessons Or Books

Stanislava Pinchuk (aka Miso), a Ukraine-born artist that works in Tokyo and Melbourne, practices an interesting sort of bartering economics – when she does her trademark minimalistic and meaningful tattoos for her friends, they pay with goods or favors, not money.

Her home-made tattoos, which she currently only makes for “friends and friends of friends,” are exchanged for “what someone feels its worth – maybe they teach me a skill in return, cook me dinner, give me a book I would love, assistant work, whiskey. You never know, but everyone feels good about it, which I like. But more and more, I feel like it’s becoming a bigger part of my practice.”

She considers her tattoos “too important and intimate for me to take money for, at this stage.”