Channeling vintage cameos, a Swiss tattooer reconsiders the female archetype in tattoo art. The artist, who goes by Slumdog draws shadowy and empty-eyed illustrations of women’s faces. The incorporation of dark-void eyes was a means for the artist to equalize and temper any referential traits in his work. 

He explains, “The lady portraits and especially the black eyes, are just something I created because I didn’t want a specific epoch or time or expression in their faces. So not a regular portrait of a certain person, more neutral.”

Slumdog began tattooing in 2004, and before his current dark-beauty designs, his work focused on “very traditional tattoo work, tribals, old-school, Japanese kanjis.” Says Slumdog, “I never considered myself as an artist, but I always was into pencil drawing since kindergarten.” 

Take a look at a few of his hollow-eyed dark ladies below:

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