Tamara Santibañez comes to tattooing from self-taught DIY beginnings, going on to gain over seventeen years of experience in New York shops, including the legendary Saved Tattoo. They are a co-founder and worker at the collectively run private studio Flower World. Tamara is author ofCould This Be Magic? Tattooing as Liberation Work (Afterlife 2021) and has contributed writing to Tattoo You: A New Generation of Artists(Phaidon 2024) and Human Marks: Tattooingin Contemporary Art (Hirmer 2025). Their research and practice focus on the intersection of tattooing and the prison industrial complex, recording a range of oral histories on the subject over the past four years.
Santibañez has taught as a volunteer arts instructor in tattoo drawing at Rikers Island and with Rehabilitation Through the Arts at Bedford Hills Correctional. They have worked with the Women’s Prison Associationand Resonance Tulsa to organize tattoo cover-up services for survivors of trafficking and women impacted by the carceral system, and with Personal Ink to cover mastectomy scars for breast cancer survivors. Most recently, they have co-authored a paperwith Scout Silverstein on tattooing’s positive impact on body image within recovery from disordered eating, supported the Rikers Public Memory Project through interviewing and audit editing for their archive, and completed certification as a provider of the NADA five-point ear acupuncture detox protocol pioneered by Dr. Mutulu Shakur and the Lincoln Detox Center.
To book: visit Co:Create or email santibaneztattoo@gmail.com
Tattoos are available by appointment at Flower World, a private studio in Brooklyn, New York. Please email for hourly rates and additional studio information and Covid safety protocols, as well as to inquire about discounted community rate sessions and pro bono tattoo availability.