{"id":823988,"date":"2026-07-26T01:26:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T01:26:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/823988\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T01:26:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T01:26:17","slug":"diversity-of-tattoo-culture-on-display-at-gold-coasts-made-to-suit-exhibition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/823988\/","title":{"rendered":"Diversity of tattoo culture on display at Gold Coast’s Made to Suit exhibition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Benji Tobin’s career as a tattoo artist began in 1993 with a bottle of liquid courage and a few scribbles on a mate’s leg.<\/p>\n

“We made a tattoo machine out of an electric shaver [but] my lines were way off and I said, ‘Mate, this isn’t going to turn out the way we thought,'” he said.<\/p>\n

“Unfortunately, all my mates I grew up with have got the worst tattoos I’ve ever done.”<\/p>\n

Now Tobin has co-curated an art exhibition called Made to Suit, which reflects how much the art form has transformed since tattoos became mainstream.<\/p>\n

“It was the bikies, the crims, the naughty boys,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Now you can go and get a coffee and the barista has a face tattoo.”\"A<\/p>\n

Benji Tobin says there is a huge diversity of styles in the tattooing world. (ABC Gold Coast: Dominic Cansdale)<\/p>\n

‘I have to nail this’<\/p>\n

Tobin started Made to Suit five years ago as a way to bring the “cliquey” tattoo community together and highlight the vast diversity of styles.<\/p>\n

“What I tattoo isn’t what I get \u2014 what I like and what I get are two different things,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I’m covered in black and grey but I tattoo in colour.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Dan Johnston with his piece for the Made to Suit exhibition. (ABC Gold Coast: Dominic Cansdale)<\/p>\n

The exhibition recreates more than 30 full-body tattoos on canvas.<\/p>\n

Co-curator Dan Johnston submitted his own canvas this year, which demonstrates of how tattoos reflect the artists who draw them.<\/p>\n

“After the last Made to Suit, my wife found out she has brain cancer,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

(ABC Gold Coast: Dominic Cansdale)<\/p>\n

Johnston’s piece shows 13 samurai-inspired crabs climbing up a body, united in the fight against a symbol of cancer.<\/p>\n

“I tried to make it a little bit about a journey that’s happening in my life,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It was personal and I thought, ‘I have to nail this and get it out.'”<\/p>\n

‘A bottomless pit of styles’<\/p>\n

Stephanie King says she has seen trends come and go since she started tattooing 14 years ago.<\/p>\n

“There’s trends at the moment, like the fine lines, sticker ones \u2014 I feel like that’s boomed,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Stephanie King says the tattoo business is very different to what it once was. (ABC Gold Coast: Dominic Cansdale)<\/p>\n

King has built a reputation for creating hyper-realistic black and white tattoos but has changed up her style for Made to Suit.<\/p>\n

“You used to walk into a shop and you picked a design off the wall. The people doing the tattoos were probably pretty scary and fitted into a stereotype,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It’s changed quite a bit, there’s a lot more women in the industry now.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Tony Nguyen says he feels relaxed when he is under the needle. (ABC Gold Coast: Dominic Cansdale)<\/p>\n

King’s work in last year’s exhibition was found online by New York lawyer Tony Nguyen, who wanted to get a full bodysuit for his first tattoo.<\/p>\n

“I was really picky about who my artist was going to be,” he said.<\/p>\n

“When I first dipped my toe into it, it was a bottomless pit of styles, regions and histories \u2014 I got lost in it.”<\/p>\n

Mr Nguyen said King’s art spoke to him so much that he travelled all the way to her Gold Coast studio.<\/p>\n

“It was very fluid, there was something not strict, or an airy feel about it,” he said.<\/p>\n

‘A way to tell a story’<\/p>\n

It has taken King 12 days to tattoo Mr Nguyen’s torso and she has his arms and legs still to go.<\/p>\n

But he has no thoughts of turning back.<\/p>\n

“It makes me feel at ease. It makes me feel the way I feel inside but it’s on my skin and I can see it,” Mr Nguyen said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Stephanie King has been tattooing Tony Nguyen in her Gold Coast studio. (ABC Gold Coast: Dominic Cansdale)<\/p>\n

Tobin says people get tattoos for different reasons, but more customers are choosing artists for their distinctive style and giving greater thought to how one tattoo complements the next.<\/p>\n

“They don’t just go, ‘Give me this, give me that’ and [I] think, ‘Shit, what am I going to do with all this?'” he said.<\/p>\n

“They’ll come in and go, ‘Hey, I like your work, I want to get a sleeve’, and that will extend into something bigger.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Lost Woods Tattoo by James Wood is on display at 2026 Made to Suit exhibition. (ABC Gold Coast: Dominic Cansdale)<\/p>\n

King said there was more freedom than ever for tattoo artists to be creative and evolve.<\/p>\n

“You go for a walk and you see things in nature that inspire you \u2026 I love going to galleries and museums,” she said.<\/p>\n

“People see it as art. It’s a way to tell a story.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Benji Tobin’s career as a tattoo artist began in 1993 with a bottle of liquid courage and a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":823989,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,397970,397971,134,397974,397969,397973,397972],"class_list":["post-823988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-benji-tobin","tag-dan-johnston","tag-entertainment","tag-gold-coast-tattoo-artists","tag-made-to-suit","tag-made-to-suit-tattoo-exhibition","tag-steph-king"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=823988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/823989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=823988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=823988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=823988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}