This weekend marks the 7th annual London Tattoo Convention. Going by the guest list alone, it looks to be one serious gathering of tattoo talent. So, because I’m not fortunate enough to be at the convention in person, I decided to pick an artist to profile who is in attendance at this weekend’s convention, Sweden’s very own Daniel Ekdahl.
Ekdahl does a whole host of styles, though he mainly focuses on Asian art: Japanese, Chinese, Tibetan – he does it all and he does it well. His sleeve work is particularly impressive as well, but if you ask me, one of Ekdahl’s truly impressive abilities is his placement. A great tattoo artist knows how to use the human body’s numerous twists and turns, bulges and bumps to their advantage and to incorporate them into the tattoo itself. Ekdahl does this quite exceptionally and I particularly appreciate that in his portfolio his work is highlighted by the fact that he has tattooed a wide variety of body shapes and sizes and with each of these tattoos, he has made the bodies as much a part of the art as the actual art itself.
Not to sell his other work short, Ekdahl also has some really superb portrait work, though he claims he doesn’t typically do too many portraits anymore. Too bad because from what I can tell, he’s no slouch with what is arguably one of the toughest types of tattoo to pull off.
Ekdahl has been tattooing since 1997 and can currently be found tucked away in his hometown of Strängnäs, Sweden is his tattoo studio, Daniel Tattoo, which he opened in 2005. So far, things look to be going smoothly for Daniel Ekdahl and I’m sure that the best is yet to come. I wish him all the best and I really hope that one day soon I’ll make it to Sweden!
