This Tattoo Artist Immortalizes People’s Beloved Pets by Creating Funny Cartoonish Tattoos

Jiran is a South Korean tattoo artist famous for her imaginative approach to representing people’s cherished pets. Her clients come to her with one wish: to make their pets live eternally by depicting them directly on their own skin. And the result always looks like someone’s beloved pooch or kitty just came from a cartoon. The tattoos range from hilarious portraits to comical scenes, and they are made to show that each pet has a unique personality.

Jiran is an avid animal lover and her art only highlights it.

Apart from being a talented tattooist, Jiran is a nature and animal whisperer. She has her own pets that she can’t imagine her life without.

Hyeogi the cat helps the woman get through so much by always being by her side when she feels sad or lonely. She says, “Whenever I have a hard time and cry, he would come near me and look at me while he scratches my arms — that gives me a lot of consolation.”

In Seoul, 3 rats and one hamster also await her at home. The artist shared that the rats are actual “rats.” Many people seem to fear them, but to Jiran, they’ve got a lot of charm.

Animals inspire the work she does.

Jiran shares that she has always loved all kinds of animals, not just domesticated ones. Before becoming a tattoo artist, the woman worked as a nurse at a veterinarian’s office. She naturally adored drawing animals, and she then started her career as a tattooist after getting her cat, Hyeogi, tattooed on her own body.

In her interview, she said, “I have more than 10 tattoos of him now, and the most recent one is of Woni, Hyeogi’s younger brother who passed away unexpectedly in 2015. I was too worried about getting sad before, actually. But now that I’ve done it, I know it was a good decision — I think of good memories rather than getting sad whenever I look at the tattoo. Even if Hyeogi passes away before I do, I think I’ll be able to remember and cherish the love.”

The tattooing process itself is a huge event for the artist.

Jiran is very responsible about her work and approaches each client personally. She always has conversations with her clients before starting the whole process.

She describes the approach, saying, “I look at pictures of their companion animal, and ask them about their personality. Sometimes, objects that are meaningful for the companion animal, like favorite toys or food, for example, go into the tattoo as well. I think it’s also cute to dress the pet in a style of clothing the client likes.”

The artist has a lot of stories to tell about her work.

Just like any other professional artist, Jiran has some really memorable events that have occurred while she was working. One of those had to do with a client who had 7 cats.

She explained, “They were all siblings, so they all had similar appearances and personalities. But when I was done, she could tell which one was which! I was very happy about that.”

Jiran has a special message for all pet owners.

In her interview, Jiran shared a personal story about her pets, stating, “There are times when I struggled economically when Hyeogi got ill and even lost him outside once. Now, I feel frightened to be without him at home, and I feel so bad to leave him in Japan. And...I had such a difficult time after Woni passed away.”

The woman treats pets very seriously, and she gives a piece of advice to all people, saying, “My advice is to make sure to be responsible, if you’ll be able to manage the worst of times, before deciding anything. For the pets, the owner is their life — I hope the owners do their best to take care of the animals.”