The Tattoos of NikkieTutorials
In our last post, we put the spotlight on one of the ink-covered stars of last week’s Eurovision Song Contest. And while Damiano David may have stolen the show, and a heart or two, Rotterdam presenter/glamazon Nikkie de Jager, better known to her 13 million followers by her YouTube handle NikkieTutorials, is no stranger to a good tattoo. The Dutch makeup artist and vlogger’s arms and ink were on full display during last Saturday’s final event, and we couldn’t help but want to take a closer look at just what is going on with her ink.
Don’t spend your life hiding
Many of the tattoos are related to Nikkie’s journey as a transgender woman and the makeup that has made her career. The very first tattoo she got in 2011 was lettering on the inside of her left arm, reading ‘never give up’. On her right arm, there is a quote that says ‘don’t spend your life hiding’, very likely celebrating Nikkie’s official coming out as transgender in January last year.
On her left arm, she also has a zoologically themed piece with small, realistic depictions of a wolf, a panda, an owl, and a baby penguin. They all sit within their own geometric shapes. On her other arm, there is an eye of a tiger, the stripes created using negative space and looking quite effectual hanging in ‘empty air’.
The eye theme runs through many of Nikkie’s pieces. She has a pair of fake eyelashes on her left wrist and another eye tattoo on her right back upper arm. Her left upper arm sports a fully made-up eye, complete with brows manicured to perfection and lashes to die for.
Hawkmoth and freedom
However, there is also a couple of tiny and really cute dinosaurs on her left lower arm. While they are a little blurred, at least one of them is a triceratops. She has a heartbeat with lines on her right wrist, and a death’s-head hawkmoth, also known as the Acherontia atropos from the Silence of the Lambs, which is reportedly Nikkie’s favourite movie, on her right lower arm.
She also has a tattoo of a world map on her right upper arm. On her Instagram, Nikkie explained the tattoo with the caption,
“7 years ago I started this journey as an insecure girl who felt like she wasn’t good enough for the world. I could never truly be myself. Until you showed me that it’s okay to be me. That you love me for who I am and never judge me. There isn’t a day where I take it all for granted. Because of you I have the ability to travel the world and experience freedom. But it isn’t just that.. you let me be my true sparkly self, and I feel your love, warmth and support all over the world. Because of you, I feel confident and loved. And that, to me is total freedom. I love you!”
There is also a rose, Michelangelo’s Sixtine Chapel hands, and an old-school video camera wrapped in sacred geometry shapes. And we doubt this will be the last of Nikkie’s tattoos. We know an aficionado when we see one.
