At just 30-years-old, Karol Rybakowski is already one of the biggest names in the world of tattoos, and looking at some of his works, it’s pretty easy to see why. His portrait tattoos look as if a picture has been slapped on the subject skin, and in many cases they turn out even better than the photos that inspired them.
It won’t surprise you to learn that Karol Rybakowski studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts, in Warsaw, before becoming a tattoo artist, but while that explains his artistic style, I for one still can’t wrap my head around how a 30-year-old can create such stunningly-realistic tattoos. And apparently, I’m not the only one. About four years ago, just when his works started showing up online, people in the business who had never seen his tattoos in person actually thought that they were photoshopped. There was a particularly heated debate surrounding his tattoo of Bradley Cooper as sniper Chris Kyle in “American Sniper” with many people claiming that it looked too good to be true.
Photo: Karol Rybakowski/Instagram
It was only a matter of time until people realized the young Polish tattoo artist was just that good, but you’re still likely to come across online comments from people questioning whether his work is legit. I for one cannot blame them, some of these just tattoos look to be true.
Rybakowski is currently working at the Ink-Ognito studio in Rybnik, Poland, alongside fellow tattoo legend Tofi Torfinski, but also attends tattoo-related events all around the world. You can check out more of his impressive tattoos on his Instagram.
