Katie Mizuno grew up in Boulder, Colorado surrounded by the lush and forested beauty of the Western United States, a motif she would return to in her tattoo work. She first experimented with applying art to skin as an undergraduate at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she worked as an SFX Makeup Artist. After moving to San Francisco, Katie was a blackwork apprentice under world-renowned tattoo artist Brucius Von Xylander. She specializes in dot work, blackwork, and blast-overs and has tattooed at various shops throughout the Bay Area, including Black & Blue Tattoo , and Black Serum. When guest spotting in Austin or South Carolina, you can find her at Fragment or Just Another Hole in the Wall. Stay tuned or reach out for future guest spot requests.

Katie now leads her own tattoo shop, Dark Water, in nestled in Poet’s Corner in Berkeley, California.

While Katie has lived in such teeming metropolitan centers as New York City, Tokyo, and San Francisco, it was visits to the desert that inspired her recent fascination with biophilia. This human affinity for the natural world is one that more people are embracing as a means of escape from the alienation of urbanization. Katie’s pioneering biophilic style draws from the fluid lines and feathery textures of flora and fauna, which she then mutates into abstract geometric designs. Suitable for all genders, these ornamental pieces reflect the delicate and sometimes feminine patterns found in nature, as well as in all people. Katie appreciates that geometric tattoos flatter the contours of the body and age well over time. She likes how these shapes can be expanded upon until one moves from a “person with tattoos” to a “tattooed person.” It is through this metamorphosis that tattoos transform from individual, self-contained artworks to fashion pieces that sit like armor upon the skin.