Blind artist tattoo wows customers

Like a piano player climbing a scale, Igor Mikhaylov runs his hands with gloves along his client’s suspended arm, he feels exactly where his stencil has to place.

The 38 -year -old artist, who is legally blind, is in high demand.

“This is something that impresses you and excites you,” said a woman who only gave her name as Alexandra. He had just received a tattoo saying “Love” on Braille from Mikhaylov in a tattoo studio from Moscow’s Modern Novy Arbat Avenue last month.

Mikhaylov began to lose his eyesight at the age of eight, the result of a genetic disease. It can perceive gradations in light and can do the outlines of objects. He still remembers what the world around him looks like.

His customers find his tattoos fascinating because they require a fantastic leap of faith.

“The visual images I have today are completed in reality with the help of my imagination and my memory.

A trained classic guitarist and graduate of a leading Moscow College, Michalov approaches the art of tattoo with agile fingers and an open mind. There is no manual of instructions on how to tattoo blind.

Mikhaylov’s clients choose a word or phrase, which translates to Braille. Then tattoos The image on the skin using a single needle sinks into ink, known as a stick-and-poke tattoo.

“How to get a needle at this or this corner. How to find this midline. What way you can use to move a needle to the corners – all reminded me to work with a (guitar) where these small folds and peculiarities are important,” Mikhaylov said. “I had to develop my own technique.”

Among tattoos concerts and musical performances, Mikhaylov finds time to win the trophies of tournaments as a member of the Russian national ping ping group for visually reduced.

A neon sign hanging on the wall from his workstation in Moscow’s tattoo lounge could serve as a personal mantra of Mihagloff: “Your comfort zone will kill you.”