Niki Norberg is a Swedish born in Rävlanda, and has been tattooing since 2001. In 2007, Norberg began working alongside renowned artist Heidi Hay at the Heidi Hay Tattoo studio in Göteborg (or Gothenburg), and together they organized the Gothenburg International Ink Festival. Finally, in 2012, Norberg moved to another highly reputable studio, Carl Löfqvist's Wicked Tattoo. His realistic work can be described as amazing to say the least!
Ironically, Niki did not consider a career as a tattoo artist, despite the urging of his friends in the 1990s. At the time, there were only two studios in Gothenburg, but he didn't want to become an apprentice because he believed that his clientele would consist of metalheads, prostitutes, and criminals. Although his friends offered to buy the material and be his guinea pigs, the artist preferred to continue making his paintings while taking drawing classes for comic books.
Most of Niki's paintings were realistic and this was the style he would like to tattoo, but, according to him, photo tattoos did not achieve the same result as he was able to achieve in paintings.
Everything changed when he met Paul Booth's work; his level of shading and the way he used shades of gray reflected what Niki would like to do with the tattoo machine. However, for the first five years, Norberg tattooed more stars, tribals, and letters in order to learn the technique and be able to put his ideas into practice on other people's skin.
Looking for the opinion of a more experienced tattoo artist, he then sent photos of his work to Heidi Hay to give a feedback and, in response, the tattoo artist offered him a job in her studio, asking when he could start. Three months later, Niki was tattooing at Heidi Hay Tattoo, where he stayed for five years.
Although his specialty is clearly realism, the tattoo artist says he doesn't mind tattooing other styles, and even has a group of steady clients who only ask for tattoos old school.
Original by Francine Oliveira at the late Tattoo Tattoo
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