Tattoo Artist Rit Kit Uses Actual Leaves And Flowers As Stencils For Her Amazing Floral Creations

When it comes to tattoos you want to get something that's unique, not another Celtic band or Chinese lettering going down your arm. One tattoo artist has an interesting way to achieve this. Rit Kit (aka Rita Zolotukhina) uses leaves and flowers as stencils to create what she calls her "botanical fingerprints."

The idea came because Kit is a nature lover and most of her tattoo designs are floral, but just drawing the flowers freehand didn't quite feel enough, so she thought up the idea of using real plants.

“The more I drew, the more I wanted something fresh and native, to feel the plants without any steps in between.” Kit tells Illusion Magazine.

To create the designs Kit, from Kiev, Ukraine, dips flowers in tattoo stencil ink and then places it on her client's skin. That then becomes the basis for the artwork. Colors of the tattoos are inspired by the naturally occurring colors in the plant, even if it's starting to decay, and naturally occurring patterns are kept as much as possible in the final design. Plants used can vary from fern fronds to jasmine leaves to wheat buds.

"We don’t know the definitive look when we start, just the colors, the mood and basic shape." explains Kit. "It’s my favorite way to make tattoos, and I think the most natural. They’re like botanical fingerprints on the bodies of other brave nature lovers."

You can check out some of her designs below. And head to her Instagram page for more.