Traditional Croatian Tattoos: Talented artist to do Croatia tour the traditional way
- by croatiaweek
- in Entertainment
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Tattooing was a tradition among Catholic Croatian women in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Ottoman rule centuries ago.
This tradition originates from the places once occupied by the Turks and its purpose was to prevent young, Catholic women being kidnapped and converted to Islam. Tattooing symbols on the hand however dates even further back than that period.
The traditional tattoos have become popular again today and one person who is keeping the traditional alive the old traditional way is Melissa, a talented tattoo artist based in Paris.
Born to a Bosnian father from Croatia and a French mother, whom he met whilst she was holidaying in Dubrovnik, Melissa grew up in the south of France. After studying applied arts and architecture for 7 years and working as a freelance architect for 4 years in Canada and Paris, she decided to change direction and become a tattoo artist.
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Passionate about ethnic tattoos, Melissa has been keeping the tradition alive the old traditional way, without using a machine but only needles. This technique is called “sicanje“ or “bocanje“ and by doing it this way Melissa is honouring her heritage.
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Melissa has developed a big following on Instagram and a reputation for producing some amazing work, and now she is coming to Croatia on a tour.
“I am happy to announce that I will do a tattoo tour in Croatia this summer. If you want to get tattooed by me, please contact me,” she says.
Melissa will be in Dubrovnik, Šibenik, Zagreb and Pula in July offering her skills.
If you are interested you can contact her on email at: [email protected]
In the title of your message put the city you will be in. You will also need to give your name, age, a short description of the project, reference pictures/screenshot, placement details, size in cm, and available dates.
“I will prioritise people who follow this process and arm/hand/fingers tattoos,” Melissa says, adding that she no longer tattoos ribs.
View this post on Instagram
You can click on the Instagram post above to find out more about the tour and to find out more about Mel you can check out this interview we done with her here.
