Meet Ihor Kaika | Tattoo artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ihor Kaika and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ihor, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
Its the way i want to experience world and make my impact to it. Pursuing art showed me so many cool things to learn from, helped me with meeting awesome people and being able to collaborate something with them.
Im just trying to make something, I could gift to my next life here. No matter if reincarnation works or not (:

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My art was always a reminder to myself, that I couldve not been here. As many of us have these stories, when we survived something crazy. I was always following that though and wanted to express it. My life and experience – is what makes my art different. I guess I just live through and then express it on a canvas. Thank god there are people, that are interested in my art. Im very thankful to them and think they are the reason of where I am professionally today.
Was it easy? I dont think so today, its all relative. But i do think it was interesting! That’s probably why i still love doing it.
When you work on something for a very long time, you will learn new and better ways of doing things. It will trigger need to change. If you love what you’re doing, that change will feel like a step forward. Otherwise, you will consider it a mistake and quit at some point. I think loving what you’re doing is the most important thing in your career.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Theres only a few things i love as much as tattooing – museums, fragrances and coffee. The Met and Bergdorf Goodman are the must go places. Top tier inspiration and shopping.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Well, first of all, shoutout to my friends and family! You’re the biggest impact on who I am. I would love to give some love here, to my old friend – Kevin RC Willson @kevinwilsonnyc. He’s just a dope person and a really good photographer! I’ve learned so much from him, he’s really like a father to me.
Huge shoutout to Hope vs Cancer organization @hopevscancer. They collaborate with tattoo artists and do incredible stuff, just check it out. We are currently working on one big project too (:
Biiig love to Inked Magazine and Inked NYC @inkednyc for what they’re doing and how much they’re shifting tattoo culture! Ive learned so much working with them!
And of course, shoutout to all the people, that trusted me to do our collaborations on them!

Website: Www.escttt.co

Instagram: @dead.tattooer

Other: Tiktok: @dead.tattooer

Image Credits
Photo of me was done by @jade.thelizardqueen