This isn’t just any street-side, spur-of-the-moment kind of shop - if you want a tattoo with Angelique, be prepared to fly to Amsterdam, make an appointment and drop upwards of one hundred and fifty Euros. “You get people with more of a purpose,” she explains. In return, they end up with a work of art on their body from a serious artist, rather than a color-by-numbers ink clone.
Appointment tattooing is more than just a job for this buoyantly beautiful and dedicated visionary; it’s a way to help people express something important to them, whether it’s a memory, a reminder, or a seductively potent design. “Some things in life are really important for people, so they want to emphasize that in their design…That’s what usually touches me, when you realise how important this is to a particular person.”
Input from the customer is obviously crucial, though Angelique creates all the designs herself. Her style is instantly recognizable for its darkly retro influences, goth’ glam and Jazz Age ladies. Buxom cowgirls wink at Voodoo Talullahs, finger-waved faces sit incarcerated in rose heads; skulls bust into flower…everything the modern sailor gal could want exists right here in Angelique’s imagination, and on the bodies of the many young women who line up for it...
"Traditionally, tattooing was a tough thing to do. Now I think it’s become more of an adornment…Women view it more like jewelry or clothing.” Emphasising this parallel between tattoo and art is Angelique’s imagery adorning clothing and accessories companies like Fornarina and Nookart, an Australian brand that sells belts, pins and bags. Even metal flasks get a witty makeover with a ‘drink to forget’ enamel tattoo.
The recent flare in tattoo art may well be attributed to this visionary grand dame, who realized the powerful distinctiveness and refreshing zeal of tattooing products rather than skin, transcending bodies to the outer- limits of the design world. Now a successful, full-time watercolour artist, her work sells feverishly in the States, Europe and Australia.
“The strange thing is that a lot of tattooers say my paintings don’t have that much tattoo, but people who are not tattooers recognize it straightaway.” Either way, her art is striking at first glance, and hypnotizing at the second, third, and fourth. Long may the lady save us from lame tattoos everywhere.
Find out more about Angelique at www.salonserpent.com
Words: Casey Acierno
Illustration: Angelique Hootkamp