Colorful Hoop Art is Infused with the Influence of Traditional-Style Tattoos

Inspired by tat­toos, artist Natal­ie Sedgewick trans­lates this influ­ence into her embroi­dered hoop art. The eye-catch­ing designs fea­ture a smat­ter­ing of sub­jects craft­ed in bold hues. They are rem­i­nis­cent of tra­di­tion­al-style body art; one exam­ple is the way she stitch­es flow­ers. The blooms are sim­i­lar to man­dalas that have petals radi­at­ing from the cen­ter and leaves to off­set them. Addi­tion­al­ly, the wrap-around ban­ners and serif typog­ra­phy are often found in tra­di­tion­al tattoos.

Although Natal­ie infus­es her work with an old school tat­too aes­thet­ic, there are ele­ments of her hand embroi­dery you’d nev­er find inked on the body—she incor­po­rates bead­ing and sequins for an extra bit of flair and daz­zling texture.

Natal­ie shares her embroi­dery inspired by tat­toos on Insta­gram.