As our Resident Senior Artist and the driving force behind the studio Julie holds an unmatched level of authority within the New Zealand art sphere. Proudly affiliating with Ngāi Te Rangi (Tauranga Moana). 

Julie is celebrated as a pioneering wahine practitioner who helped lead the modern resurgence of tā moko. With 35 years of specialised skin-marking experience and post-graduate mastery in Māori visual arts, her highly sought-after design practice spans a diverse range of contemporary and progressive multimedia. 

Grounded in customary techniques like traditional uhi tools, Julie's vision ensures our studio stands as a culturally rooted sanctuary where mana and mauri of ancestral practices are brought to life through unique visual stories.

As a Resident Senior Artist at the studio, Banko is an award-winning force and a heavyweight in the New Zealand tattoo space. Renowned for his elite technical precision and high-calibre custom designs, Banko has solidified his industry authority as a featured talent at premier events like the NZ Tattoo & Art Festival. 

While he is highly accomplished across multiple styles, his true signature lies in his breathtaking realism and fine, precision ink work. Banko approaches tattooing as a master craftsman, possessing an extraordinary ability to capture hyper-detailed texture, depth, and emotion.

For Banko, a tattoo is more than ink, it is an uncompromising commitment to transforming complex personal stories into striking, permanent visual masterpieces that stand the test of time.

Kaiwhetu is an emerging multidisciplinary Māori artist whose creative practice is uniquely shaped by a lifetime of immersion within a premier family lineage of contemporary Māori art. 

Kaiwhetu has seamlessly stepped into her own artistic path while actively upholding her family's creative legacy. Her practice thrives on rich intergenerational collaboration, moving fluidly between monumental civic installations with her mother and highly detailed customary art within her father's carving studio. 

Kaiwhetu's meticulous eye for detail translates directly into her work as a Tattooist, specialising in a diverse range of modern and traditional styles, fineline, blackwork, dotwork, and sketchwork. Balancing technical precision with a warm, intuitive client interface, Kaiwhetu provides deeply attentive, meticulous care to every person who sits in her chair, ensuring a safe, supportive, and culturally grounded space. 

As a Resident Artist at the studio, Te Moa brings profound cultural grounding and ancestral connection to his practice as a Tā Moko practitioner. Guided entirely by tikanga and driven by kaupapa, his extensive expertise is backed by a Bachelor's degree from the prestigious Toihoukura School of Māori Visual Arts and Design and his enthusiasm for kapa haka. 

For Te Moa, the storytelling, rhythmic precision, and ihiihi (essential force) of performance art are deeply intertwined with physical skin marking. He channels these tribal histories and customary protocols seamlessly into his work, viewing tā moko as a living skin inheritance that reflects a person’s whakapapa, identity, and life journey. 

With a deep respect for traditional knowledge, Te Moa treats his chair as a safe, culturally rooted sanctuary where clients can transform their stories into sacred visual milestones and anchor their inner mana.

Whakaaio te pō, whakaaio te ao"

Bringing a powerful blend of technical mastery and heart to the studio, Resident Senior Artist Ness is an exceptional dual-talent celebrated as both a premier tattooist and professional body piercer. 

Ness’s practice is built on a foundation of incredible hand-drawn skill, allowing him to seamlessly navigate diverse illustrative styles from vibrant watercolours and bold New School to intricate blackwork and smooth black-and-grey. What truly sets Ness apart, however, is his profound compassion for the client. He is deeply dedicated to an ethical, comfortable practice, approaching every tattoo session and piercing with unmatched patience, care, and meticulous attention to detail. 

Whether custom-designing a fluid watercolour piece or executing a precise, flawless piercing, Ness ensures that every client feels safe, heard, and completely at ease in his chair.

As a Senior Artist at Art + Body, David brings a striking blend of structural brilliance and profound gentleness to our creative space. 

Originally from Chile, David holds a professional background in architecture, a discipline that heavily influences his impeccable sense of spatial balance, composition, and aesthetic beauty. He has channeled this unique expertise into becoming a true master of fine line tattoos, celebrated for his incredibly delicate lines, flawless precision, and perfect, smooth shading. He approaches every custom piece with the structural mind of an architect and the heart of a true caretaker, ensuring his clients feel completely safe, heard, and relaxed. 

If you are looking for a highly detailed, beautifully balanced piece of permanent art crafted by one of the kindest souls in the industry, David’s chair is exactly where you want to be.

Bringing a touch of magic and storytelling to the studio, Junior Artist Amie specialises in transforming delicate and edgy, narrative drawings into striking, permanent body art. 

Her unique style is deeply anchored in classic, illustrative line work, a beautiful reflection of her lifelong love of illustrative fairy tales, fables, and folklore. This she reflects in fine-line etching, cross-hatching, and sketch work, expertly balancing rich, detailed textures with a timeless, storybook aesthetic. Her creative process is entirely centred around genuine, interactive collaboration; she guides her clients through a personal design journey to blend her whimsical, narrative expertise with their unique visions. 

By treating every session as a collaborative chapter, Amie ensures that each final piece is a beautifully crafted story that lives forever on the skin.

As a talented Junior Artist at the studio, Te Kawari brings a vibrant enthusiastic energy and a profound respect for heritage to his practice as a Tā Moko and Tatau practitioner. 

Proudly of Māori and Samoan descent and raised in the Bay of Plenty, with his whānau based in Te Puna, Te Kawari is deeply grounded in Te Ao Māori and firmly connected to his wider Polynesian roots. Drawing was his very first passion, and he views creativity as his greatest purpose in life—a devotion that shines through in his striking, culturally blended designs. 

Te Kawari’s ultimate mission is to grow not just as an artist, but as a master storyteller, intentionally creating custom pieces that hold deep meaning, individual identity, and mana for everyone who wears them. Learning alongside our senior masters, he offers a culturally rich, welcoming space for clients ready to wear their cultural stories on their skin.

"My goal is to grow not just as an artist, but as a storyteller — creating pieces that hold meaning, identity, and mana for those who wear them."

Stormy Kara is an internationally travelling kaitāmoko, kaiwhakairo (carver), and master tātatau practitioner from the Cook Islands and New Zealand who frequently visits Art + Body Creative Studio as an acclaimed guest artist. 

Stormy is permanently based out of Te ’Are Tātatau (located on the main road in Panama, Rarotonga), a collective studio and gallery space she established to showcase Pacific Ink tattoos alongside culturally inspired apparel and gifts from emerging indigenous artists. Approaching her craft with deep ancestral purpose, she works entirely freehand and custom, matching complex geometric lines and protective patterns to the individual life stories of each client to honour the sacred, shared threads of wider Polynesia. 

“... now, it’s more to do with understanding the bigger picture, which is the restoration process...It’s essentially a lifetime devotion to that.”

Paolo is a multitalented graphic designer, illustrator, and guest tattoo artist who splits his time between Auckland and Tauranga Moana. With over 20 years of experience in the advertising industry, Paolo works full-time as a Studio Creative in Auckland, using tattooing as a profound artistic outlet and visiting Art + Body as a highly anticipated guest professional. 

Deeply inspired by his childhood love for American comic books and Japanese culture, his tattoo practice leans heavily into bold, eye-catching blackwork, neo-traditional, and illustrative newschool styles. Seamlessly translating his technical precision as a senior designer into precise skin art, Paolo brings a humble, meticulous, and deeply passionate energy to the studio, crafting striking custom pieces that range from intricate fineline florals to cohesive, large-scale graphic pop-culture narratives.

"There's something exciting and humbling about putting a piece of art on someone's body permanently. And seeing it come to life is nothing short of mesmerising."

Claudio is an exceptionally talented Chilean guest tattoo artist who brings over 14 years of international tattooing experience to his residency stints at our Studio. A versatile digital creator and master of the craft, Claudio is widely celebrated for his incredible versatility and striking artistic precision. 

While he welcomes all custom styles, his true passions and technical strong suits lie in hyper-detailed black and grey realism, vivid full-colour realism, intricate fine line work, traditional Japanese compositions, and meticulous geometry. Known for his capability to transform simple client concepts into breathtaking, custom-tailored skin art, he seamlessly blends complex storytelling with precise line work and smooth shading. 

Whether composing a highly requested, lifelike pet portrait or engineering a massive, multi-session custom chest or back piece, Claudio's meticulous eye and collaborative approach ensure every piece is an uncompromised masterpiece.

Linda is a multi-faceted contemporary Māori artist and activist whose creative practice directly reinforces the principles of tino rangatiratanga (self-determination). Her extensive body of work utilizes ancestral knowledge to explore the metaphysical and spiritual aspects of Māori cultural life, working dynamically across canvas painting, sculpture, and uku (clay). 

Shaped by her foundational involvement with the Black Women’s Movement and historical Māori land rights campaigns, her artistic passion centres on political resistance, community empowerment, and the protection of women and children. Most notably, Linda’s spatial precision and creative draftsmanship gave final form to the iconic Tino Rangatiratanga flag in 1989. 

As the sole surviving co-designer, she functions as the ultimate kaitiaki (guardian) of this profound national symbol, spearheading modern initiatives alongside the Art + Body team and Te Tuhi Māreikura Charitable Trust to legally secure its intellectual property. Through her art, she deliberately fosters Māori development by ensuring the kara (flag) is shielded from commercial exploitation and misappropriation, keeping the flag's benefits anchored entirely within the grassroots communities it was stitched to protect.