About Me
Hello, Julia here :3 welcome to those reading this. I'm a Sydney (Eora)- based hand-poke tattoo artist. I grew up in Canberra surrounded by gum trees and kangaroos, drawing horse after horse from the age of about 4. Real horse girl tings. No ragrets. I moved to Sydney with my family when I was 14, delighted by the sweet humid air and more tropical plants of Sydney. The horse drawings stopped (they should really start back up though), and plant/fairy/magic/abstract drawings took place. In 2019 I got into handpoking with my friend, where we’d tattoo our mates (and ourselves for fun). It turned out to be really fun and such a special interaction. 6 years later I’m still at it and now get to tattoo at Kaya Garden Tattoo Studio in Dulwich Hill.
I feel really lucky and honoured that people wanna get tattoos from me, I mean it’s super special when someone wants your art on them for life. So respecting the special-ness of this interaction is really important to me, thus respecting the client is key. This involves things like providing a safe, welcoming, non-judgemental space for every client, charging fixed rates based on time estimates so there's no decision time pressure during session, allowing as much time as needed to get the stencil right, being understanding if the client gets cold feet, + more. To me it’s not just about the art, but the experience and memory behind the tattoo and I wanna make it as warm n fuzzy as possible!
My tattoo style uses soft stippling to lean into the magic realm yet is deeply rooted in nature. Nature is magic I guess! Theres fairies and trees and mushrooms, stars, animals and flowers. I also really love also doing flowy freehand pieces where the design is drawn on the day in pen and then tattooed. It’s made to fit the person and their form the whole time. It celebrates their shape and is oh so fun! We get to create the entire piece together.
So what is "it was the fairies"? Hehehe in the same way of there being cheeky goblins that steal our socks and undies, I think there's lil fairies that guide my hand when I draw sometimes. I guess its this feeling that I'm not the only creator of my art, that there's some cosmic guiding force that drops down from above, showing me the way. So who did your tat? It was the fairies :)
<3 from Julia Goodnow, 2026