THE WARSAW TATTOO ARTIST DRAWING ON EVERYTHING
Mania Łukaszewska
Mania Łukaszewska
September 18 2026 | Edited by Kate Jacobs
This movement between surfaces gives the line a different status each time. On paper, it retains the immediacy of a sketch. Tattooed onto skin, it becomes permanent and particular to one body. Through screenprinting, the image can be repeated, worn and carried beyond the studio. The medium changes, but Mania’s hand remains recognisable throughout.
She is drawn to motivational quotes and romantic stock imagery, particularly to the moment realism begins to resemble its own glitch. These sources are designed to communicate instantly, yet Mania’s treatment makes their familiarity feel unstable. Recognisable forms remain visible, but their meaning becomes less certain.
At the centre of the work is a sense of play tinged with sadness. Mania brings sadness into contact with playfulness, the literal with abstraction, and simplicity with chaos. An image may appear direct at first before becoming stranger the longer it is considered. The result is a melancholic kind of play that is moving between paper, clothing and canvas, and increasingly turning up on the skin of Warsaw.