While looking around the internet at various tattoo artists, I found a couple of websites that listed tattoo artist Andrea Ottlewski as one of the greatest female tattoo artists currently working. There’s no doubt that Ottlewski’s tattoo work is gorgeous: vibrant, clean, sharp – everything that you want in a tattoo as well as from a tattoo artist. The thing is, listing Ottlewski as a great female tattoo artist is too limited. Andrea Ottlewski is simply a great tattoo artist, period. Gender has nothing to do with it. Ottlewski’s abilities put her on par with all of the really special tattoo work that I have seen and when all is said and done, it’s about the art and the artist, not whether they are a male or a female.
Still, I do recognize the benefits of Andrea “representing” so to speak, and being a role model for other women out there who are working on their own tattoo careers. That’s great too, but I think there’s more than enough room here for Ottlewski to be an inspiration to anyone who values superb tattoo work.
Andrea Ottlewski grew up in what is in my opinion, one of the greatest cities in the world: Berlin, Germany. Berlin is a city brimming with talented, original and unique artists in numerous mediums. Growing up there undoubtedly had an effect on Andrea’s work, if not her artistic mentality. Soon enough however, the United States called. Andrea had a dream to work in San Francisco, California, and so in 1994 she left Germany for San Francisco, where she found work at a tattoo shop called Erno Tattoo.
In 2000, after a move to San Rafael, California, Ottlewski took over ownership of her very own tattoo studio, called Area 51. The extra work and pressure of owning a tattoo studio soon began to take its toll, and Ottlewski eventually decided that she didn’t want the management aspects of a tattoo studio taking away from her time to draw, paint and create. She ended up selling the shop and later settling down in Seattle, Washington, with a full time gig tattooing at Seattle’s Slave to the Needle.
Ottlewski’s work goes from Bettie Page to the Buddha to Super Mario, and no matter what it is that she’s tattooing, quality remains a constant. I’m very glad that Andrea works in Seattle because that’s not too far away from where I am. I’ll definitely be stopping by Slave to the Needle in the near future. If you’re also interested in getting work done by Andrea Ottlewski, you can get in touch with her at: 206.789.2618 or, you can email at slavetotheneedle@comcast.net.