Needles and Sins Tattoo Blog

Marisa Kakoulas

Marisa Kakoulas, formerly Marisa DiMattia, is a New York lawyer, writer, and tattoo nerd.

In May 2005, she co-founded Needled.com with Josh Rubin of CoolHunting.com to talk about tattooing as a fine art and its surrounding culture. In 2006, they sold Needled.com to Rivr Media, and Marisa stayed on as editor until March 2009. In creating Needles and Sins, Marisa wanted to go further and explore, not only tattooing, but other underground art in various media, including music, film, and graffiti.

Born and raised in Brooklyn, Marisa first discovered tattooing as a fine art rather than rebellion after visiting an underground East Village tattoo studio at the age of 17 in 1990 (even though her early pieces were pre-legalization of the art in NYC). Since then, she's acquired two sleeves, a backpiece, rib and stomach work (among many other tattoos) from acclaimed blackwork specialist Daniel DiMattia of Calypso Tattoo in Belgium (her former husband and lifelong friend). Marisa also has art from Tim Kern, Anil Gupta, Mike Bellamy, Michelle Myles, and hand-tattooed Thai work from Lard Yao Tattoo. More to come.

Marisa writes for industry media including Inked mag, Suicide Girls, Skin & Ink, as well as mainstream publications such as Glamour, Salon, Bust, Budget Travel, among many others. She also holds an MS in journalism from Columbia University's School of Journalism.

Considered an expert in modern tattoo culture, she has been written about in Time Magazine, the NY Times, the NY Times Magazine, Philadelphia Inquirer, Denver Post, International Herald Tribune, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, San Francisco Chronicle, and many other popular newspapers, magazines, and online media. Moreover, Marisa has been profiled in almost every major tattoo magazine worldwide.

Her book, "Black Tattoo Art," was published by Edition Reuss in September 2009, and her upcoming book, "Tattoo Law," on the laws affecting tattoo business and culture is underway.