Compelling, original, colorful – ranging from sinister, masked faces to a single rose, Juri Kling’s dark paintings line every available spot in his black-walled tattoo parlor. A large cut-out of a black panther sneers over its shoulder, as it seems to slink silently up the wall. A full-length mirror reflects a large painting of a hollow skull on the opposite wall. Kling’s artwork lines not just the walls, but also his left arm, the left side of his neck, and his right leg.
Just four months ago, Kling and his girlfriend, Monica Andrist, opened the Ink Bakery, a tattoo studio on Centralstrasse in downtown Interlaken, Switzerland. Kling is the artist, and Andrist handles social media and the merchandise.
Kling is charming, but shy, in contrast to Andrist, who is bright, confident, and dressed in black “Ink Bakery” merch. Her long, dark hair flows from under her black “Ink Bakery” cap and hangs loosely over her shoulders. She is half Swiss, with a broad face and a wide dimpled smile.
Kling heads back to a waiting client, and Andrist takes a few seconds to lower the volume on the heavy metal music that fills the lobby. She sits down on one of the elegant upholstered stools in the customer waiting area.
Andrist enthusiastically unfolds the story of Kling’s self-trained talent in both art and tattooing: “He started when he was really little. He was always artistically really good.” He began his tattooing career five years ago, when he bought a tattoo machine, and began tattooing his own leg. After that, friends volunteered to let him practice his craft on them. But at that time, it was no more than a hobby.
She points out a few tattoos that Kling has done for her, but she has many others. And she doesn’t plan to stop getting them any time soon. “I’m going to do the whole back of my leg – I have the front already.” Her left thigh displays the somber head of an Indian chief, which fades into the dark skull that covers her shin. “And probably the rest, too.”
When asked if she has ever regretted any of her tattoos, Andrist hesitates for a moment, then firmly decides: “No! No! I mean, I have tattoos from my ex-boyfriends … symbols that remind me of them, but I don’t regret it.”
However, there are many people who do regret their tattoos. Andrist explains that tattoo removal would be a good business, since “there are so many that don’t work out.” She describes how there are many people who attempt to tattoo themselves: “They just order a machine from Wish or wherever… It’s not as easy as you think.” The Ink Bakery is not licensed for tattoo removal, but while Juri doesn’t have the certification to do tattoo removal, he does regularly have customers who come in to have him fix their homemade tattoos.
Andrist got her first tattoo in Bangkok when she was only 14. “A random rose,” she says, discreetly placed to escape her parents' notice. The idea of the “randomness” of her first tattoo prompts the question of whether there is a meaning for the tattoos that most Ink Bakery customers choose.
“I think it depends, because I have some tattoos … where I just think, it’s really, really beautiful,” she explains. But other tattoos have meanings. The focus shifts to the large tattoo on her right arm, where she is wearing a scrunchie on her wrist, and the long sleeve of her sweatshirt is pushed up to just below the elbow. When people see this tattoo, she says, “they want it explained.” As she says this, however, she doesn’t remove the scrunchie or pull her sleeve up further to reveal her tattoo. Instead, she shifts a bit, and in a protective gesture, slightly shields her arm from view. “Sometimes you don’t want to talk about it. It’s really personal, but obviously, you are wearing it, so people ask.”
Andrist seems to recognize the tension of having a tattoo with a hidden significance. It is a public symbol of a private story. At the same time, she maintains that not every tattoo needs to have significance. She likens it to any other personal choice: “People don’t ask you why you color your hair red or something. It’s just, you felt like it at this moment, and it feels like this is you.”
Missy (Missy) Soltau is from Vienna, Austria. She attended WJI Europe 2024.
