Rita Zolotukhina, a renowned Ukrainian tattoo artist who works under the name Rit Kit Tattoo, has been developing her Live Leaf Tattoo technique since 2015. The process involves stencilling live and real plants onto bodies she will tattoo, before then rendering them as tattoos with as much detail as possible. This process creates hyper-realistic tattoos of plant life on her clients' bodies.
As a nature lover, Zolotukhina aims to promote a closeness between people and plant life through her tattoos. Zolotukhina believes this is a necessity since plants are not only a key part of Earth’s biodiversity and are often overlooked, but philosophically, they have much to teach humankind through their stillness in today’s fast-paced world. Rit Kit Tattoos' work is hence related to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of Life on Land.
Zolotukhina shares her tattoos and her processes to half a million followers on her Instagram account @rit.kit.tattoo. Her soothing reels, often accompanied by the sound of singing birds, showcase how she begins her process by first selecting a certain plant’s parts or having her customers bring them for her. She then tapes and stencils the plant parts on her client, before proceeding to tattoo them with hyper-realistic details.
This process allows her to capture a certain plant’s natural form through shapes and lines and its natural colours. In an interview with Scene360, Zolotukhina shared that she prefers this technique over traditional tattooing methods, where stencils are prepared beforehand. This is mainly because this method allows her to experiment more spontaneously.
She also finds the process to be more naturalistic since what she is doing is essentially an elevated process of drawing from nature. Unlike drawing or painting, tattoos feel more permanent; artists cannot erase a single mark once it is made.
“They’re like botanical fingerprints on the bodies of other brave nature lovers,” says Zolotukhina, as quoted by Huff Post.
Despite how challenging it is to tattoo from real plant stencils, Zolotukhina is determined to continue to redefine her Live Leaf Tattoo technique. She also frequently travels, which allows her to tattoo not only people from different parts of the world but also plants from different corners of the world.
Her practice is infused with her love for nature, something that her clients, social media followers, and viewers of her tattoos can resonate with. She inspires others to appreciate the rich diversity of plant life and gives normally quiet lifeforms a chance to bravely stand out.
Zolotukhina’s tattoos inspire a sense of environmental awareness and connection with plant life in her viewers. They encourage audiences to pause, appreciate, and celebrate their beauty while also reminding the wider public that humankind and nature are one and the same. They are part of a delicate, singular whole that humankind must protect and preserve for future generations.