Maria Mukhina shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Hi Maria, thank you for taking the time to reflect back on your journey with us. I think our readers are in for a real treat. There is so much we can all learn from each other and so thank you again for opening up with us. Let’s get into it: What battle are you avoiding?
The battle I’m avoiding right now is the battle with myself.
As a creative person, I sometimes fall into melancholic states, that’s just how my mind works and how I see the world. So at the moment I’m trying to focus on finding balance and holding onto it. I’m learning to move through my inner world, to look for calm, and to feel more connected to everything around me.
It’s not always easy, honestly. Sometimes it takes a lot of effort, but it’s an important part of my life. I’m learning to be a friend to myself instead of a critic who pushes me down. In the creative field, things like imposter syndrome are very common – this habit of being harsh, critical, and even merciless toward yourself.
My inner battle is not becoming my own enemy, but being a supportive ally to myself. And that’s exactly what I’m trying to live through right now and what I’m paying most attention to.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Maria. I’m a tattoo artist and painter based in San Diego, California. I work mainly in black and grey, sometimes adding small touches of monochrome color. My style is dark realism: emotional, moody, and a bit dramatic.
Before tattooing, I worked with traditional painting and design, and now I bring that background into my tattoo projects. I put a lot of focus on the design process and on building pieces that feel personal and intentional.
My brand is basically an extension of how I see the world – I’m drawn to complex, emotional, dark imagery. I love creating large-scale pieces for people who connect with that same dark aesthetic. Every design I make is unique, I never repeat my work. For me, tattooing is just another form of painting, only on a living canvas.
Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
Before the world tried to tell me who I should be, I was exactly who I still am now – someone who naturally gravitates toward art. I went into the creative field right after school, almost instinctively, because that was the only place where I ever felt free.
I have two art degrees, and for many years I painted traditional artwork and worked on commissions. My path has never been about stepping away from art, it has been about letting it transform with me. Eventually, circumstances pushed me toward tattooing. At first it happened simply because life unfolded that way, but I fell in love with this profession.
Tattooing is complicated, more demanding than traditional painting, and it has an incredibly high ceiling. There’s no limit to how much you can grow, and that’s what keeps me here.
So who was I before the world told me who to be? Honestly, the same person – an artist. I’ve just gone through different stages of becoming one.
When did you stop hiding your pain and start using it as power?
Dark realism, for me, is a way to shape my inner shadows into something meaningful. It’s not that I was hiding anything – it’s more that I found a way to channel my inner aggression, sadness, and darker emotions into art instead of keeping them inside. It feels almost like a form of therapy.
I’ve always been drawn to dark stories and imagery: vampires, gothic aesthetics, moody atmospheres. There was even a period when I was part of the goth subculture, and it felt completely natural to me. Those influences stayed with me and shaped how I see and express things.
As we grow older, we soften, we become calmer, but our inner world doesn’t disappear. In my case, it transforms into this gothic, dark ambience that naturally shows up in my work. It’s simply the form of expression that comes to me the most easily and honestly.
So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. Is the public version of you the real you?
Honestly, the public version of me doesn’t really match the real me. A lot of clients and friends have told me that if you look at my work, you’d never guess what the person behind it actually looks like. My dark realism, the aggressive, vampiric imagery… and then there’s me in real life, more of a nerd, a quiet geek. People often say I look shy and innocent, which is kind of funny. A little goofy, even.
And I’m actually glad no one expects me to look like the queen of darkness, with black eyeshadow, black lipstick, corsets, long gloves, all of that. I appreciate that people don’t demand that I match the aesthetic I work in.
I don’t really put much effort into my personal “look”; I put it all into my art instead. So yes, sometimes there’s this strange imbalance, my appearance says one thing, but my work says something completely different. But I’m comfortable with that. It’s a little bit of dissonance that feels natural to me.
Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. What is the story you hope people tell about you when you’re gone?
The story I’d like people to tell about me when I’m gone is that I did leave a mark in art. I have a long-term plan to return to painting, and I’m slowly moving in that direction. I’d love for my paintings to find their own kind of immortality and keep living after me.
It also means a lot to me that my art already lives on people. These aren’t random images- they’re unique designs created for each person individually. And it makes me genuinely happy to know that my work becomes meaningful for them.
So I’d like to leave a trace in this world as an artist, and maybe become a symbol of the dark style that I love. It would be really flattering for me to become a recognizable voice in that aesthetic.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.tzimisk.art
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tzimisk_tattoo
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tzimisktattoo
