Hello, my name is Yanina.
I was born and raised in Donetsk/Ukraine. At 16, I made the decision to drop out of high school and go into an arts college, without any experience in drawing before that. After a few years of intense studying, I received basic knowledge of academic art and design. But I felt like continuing to study at a higher level would only limit my artistic views and perspective, so chose to seek out my own path.
For a few years, I worked as an interior and graphic designer in my city. In 2010, at 21 years old, I made the decision to move to Saint Petersburg/Russia.
By that time, I was tattooing for a few years already and had some level of recognition. So, after moving to a capital of art and culture, I pursued tattooing more seriously. Before long, I became internationally known for my individual and modern style.
But the love of classic art never left me, so around 2013 I began my first tentative tries with oil painting and realistic art. Since I studied art anatomy, I wasn’t completely at square one. But without any training with the medium, it took me a while to work on the first piece. From there, I knew that it is something I felt deeply passionate about.
Now, after working for 15 years in the tattoo industry, I feel like oil gives me a way to express my deep appreciation of the human body and its soulful expressions through our movements.
Throughout the years I also had the chance to live and work in Brazil for a while. In 2019, I moved back to Europe and, at the moment, am based in Lisbon/Portugal.