It’s the blue butterfly beside his Instagram handle – @dshewaspretty- that provides the insight into a man who prefers to communicate through arc and line, ink and flesh. The 24-year-old tattoo artist has a portfolio of celebrity clients just aching for his needle. Take a scan and through his feed and you’ll see why. Interspersed between icons like Steve McQueen and Humphrey Bogart are images of Snoeks himself. A rockabilly throwback with a distinctly 2019 aesthetic fueled by motorbike exhaust and crisp selvedge. The combination of Papa New Guinean and Dutch heritage lend an aesthetic that channels a South Pacific Elvis with the manual dexterity of Rembrandt on a parchment of skin.
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Snoeks chooses to work out of South Korea, a nation both at the cutting edge of cool and still bound by a conservatism where his art form is frequently shunned by the establishment. And still by force of magnetism, talent and ambition, he is an emblem of aspiration in his adopted homeland. Even hosting the acclaimed Saturday Night Live television show and racking up a slew of music video appearances.
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If his presence can imbue a sense of cred, one can only wonder what his work on your person might engender. And like a butterfly itself, it’s the transformation that continues to enthral and fascinate in equal measure.
