From painting to hand-poke tattoos, Maca turns her inspiration into poetic, living art.
Based in Santiago, Chile, Maca (short for Macarena) has been on a journey with tattooing for over a decade. What began as a summer apprenticeship with a local artist grew into a lifelong practice that blends her background in fine arts with the intimacy of hand-poked tattoos. After experimenting with machines early on, Maca found her true calling in the silence, patience, and poetry of hand-poke — a technique she’s now dedicated herself to exclusively for the past six years. Today, as a resident artist at Yaya Tatu (yaya.tatu), she continues to evolve her style, shifting from realism to abstraction, always guided by curiosity, colour, and a painter’s eye.
How did you first get into tattooing and what drew you to this art form?
I learned with a tattoo artist, Marcial De La Fuente, from my hometown in Chile. He was looking for color theory classes, which is what I studied and taught while I was my professor’s assistant at the University. I didn’t know anyone doing it - I wasn’t living in the city anymore so my network was very rusty at that point - but I offered to do it during my summer holidays. He knew I was interested to learn tattooing so he offered me a trade - of course I said yes hahaha.
Three months after that agreement I was knocking at his door. I spent two months of my summer holidays being a full-time apprentice at his studio. He taught me to use a coil machine and also said “Hey, do you know about hand-poke? You should try it at least once”. I didn’t like it the first two or three times, but a year later I decided to give it another chance and I felt absolutely different. I loved it and I started my own path of research and practice, so here I am.
"I felt very attracted to the hand-poke technique because of the silence, the lightness of the needle in my hand, the slow and calm process"
What drew me? Curiosity and painting. I am a very curious person and I was obsessed with trying to understand “how to paint” with needles on the skin. I have a Bachelor in Fine Arts where I learned so many different techniques, a huge variety of materials, doing experiments all the time, but one of my specialities and obsessions was painting. So I was already experimenting with new surfaces and tools, because I see everything as a painting: embroidery, collage, knitting, ceramic, photography, my food, fashion, the city, etc.
That’s the real and only reason that I had to learn this technique and I’m very happy to be a full time painter (with painter I mean tattoo artist) and I’m very grateful to receive Marcial's knowledge. And while practicing I felt very attracted to the hand-poke technique because of the silence, the lightness of the needle in my hand, the slow and calm process.
How would you describe your personal style?
Abstract and experimental maybe. Poetic sometimes? It’s hard to describe my style because from inside it feels that changes and/or moves constantly. But abstraction is absolutely the spine of my current work since 2020. Originally I spent a few years working with figurative realism (it’s my natural way to paint and draw), but I was looking for something else in my creative process.
I left that style because I wasn’t super comfortable doing realism in tattoos. I put a lot of pressure on myself with veeeery high expectations and zero margin for error (too perfectionist) - people’s skins; it’s a huge responsibility, you know? So the sessions were absolutely stressful mentally, suffering in silence, with allergic reactions on my face as soon as my clients left, so I decided that wasn’t healthy or responsible with my mind and my body on any level.
"Synesthesia is about combining sensations from different senses, for example: sounds seen as colors, colors as shapes, flavours as textures"
Where do you draw inspiration from?
From life. My mind is never quiet, always thinking, focusing on so many details, talking to myself a lot and so many stimulus to observe to sketch and paint the ideas in my head. While I was writing my first thesis (2013-2014) I read [Russian painter and art theorist] Kandinsky. He has this whole explanation about synesthesia. Synesthesia is about combining sensations from different senses, for example: sounds seen as colors, colors as shapes, flavours as textures.
Synesthesia helps to describe things in a different way, a sensory experience, more intense probably, sometimes metaphorically. To me it feels like living life as poetry and I felt represented and understood after reading that book, everything made a lot of sense and it helped me to work more easily and understand where my inspiration comes from. So my inspiration is spontaneous but not random and never accidental.
I do get inspiration from anything, music, moments, walking on the street, being in silence or in a conversation… my brain is always working in the background, keeping a mountain of information and then I can take a look, taking things that I think could work together, converting them in lines, shapes, colors or textures.
"I get inspiration from anything, music, moments, walking on the street, being in silence or in a conversation…"
Can you walk us through your creative process, from idea to the finished tattoo?
My creative process is very open, fluid, versatile, but also methodic (too methodic and slow sometimes, but it’s fun for me!) and I have more than one way to develop projects. Normally I ask for a detailed description of your idea, two-three favorite references of my work, any other references that could help me to understand your needs and expectations. I provide technical feedback as appropriate and describe a proposal. We resolve any doubts, and once everything is 100% defined, we move on to the next step.
I like to leave the idea open, so I will take all the instructions that you gave me to create your design, but always open to use and add my perspective. So, on the day of the session, I would show you at least one design, sometimes with options. You can choose your favorite and also make corrections in that moment if you think it’s necessary.
As I said before, my mind is always drawing/painting, so I often have a very clear sketch in my head after reading your idea. Sometimes I need a few days to reflect on certain details before I send you the feedback and proposal(s).
I also love to try different things, changing and making mistakes sometimes, learning and mixing them. Sometimes it’s about theory and concepts, science, maths, life. The last step before tattooing is to check if you have any doubts or concerns about the process, color inks, color theory, skin reactions. I set my work station, we put the stencil on, and sometimes we try more than one placement. And that’s it :) Depending on the project we can spend the whole day working. On average I work 3-4 hours in a project, but some ideas need a whole day so I work 5-6 hours.
"The quality of your pigments is by far the most important thing"
What are some unique challenges of working with dots and colour compared to other tattoo styles?
Oh, this is a hard one. I don’t wanna say patience because you need it in any style, but it could be a very important factor. These are my personal opinions, but I think if you don't know how to use color, it doesn't matter if a tattoo is well composed and well-made (and vice versa).
The quality of your pigments is by far the most important thing, knowing how each brand of ink and each color heals, knowing the flow of each pigment, finding the right flow for your work and your tools. And my nerdy brain thinks that if you don't know your materials inside-out, the path is a little more complex and sooner or later your work will show it to you.
"...if you don't know how to use color, it doesn't matter if a tattoo is well composed and well-made"
You travel across the world to work. Can you share any experiences from these trips that stand out?
I definitely have a few very important experiences traveling, but I think China has been by far the most amazing trip that I ever had and I still don’t have the right words to express and describe the gratitude and happiness about that visit.
In 2023 I received an invitation to visit the studio of one of my greatest tattoo inspirations, Chen-Jie. I’ve known her work since I learned to tattoo. I’ve always admired her immensely, and I never imagined in my life that I’d be fortunate enough to meet her, much less receive an invitation to come to her studio and, if that were not enough, tattoo her.
Chen-Jie is an exceptional artist, as well as a charismatic, kind and supportive person. She welcomed me with open arms, as did her entire team. It was my first time traveling to a country where language could have been a barrier, but it wasn’t. The people are wonderful, open to communicating with you, and everyone is very welcoming.
I took this opportunity to invite my mom to travel with me; she had never left the country or flown before. Her fascination with Asia and its culture made my decision easier, more sensible. It was a beautiful, exciting trip, amazing food, nice people, filled with joy, happy tears, gratitude, and learning.
In addition to meeting one of my favorite artists, I also allowed my mom to experience my work up close. This time, after spending time with the New Tattoo team, visiting the studio, and seeing my daily routine while traveling, she told me “Now I understand why you love doing this. If all the people you meet when you travel are just as incredible as all of them, I’m glad you’re still doing it, and I’m not worried that you’re alone, because you are not”.
Do you collect tattoos yourself? Who has done these, and are there any that you'd like to share?
Yes, I do! And I still have a long list of artists that I can’t wait to have in my collection.
I have pieces from different artists and some of them are very good friends now. Most of them are Chilean artists but some of them are not.
A few of them are @marcialdlf, @m_pescador, @keekee.kookoo, @yalabes, @sketchupandfries, @wichypokes, @museoambulante, @zik_tats, @european.son.222.
Oh, so hard to pick one! I would share a lot of them but this time I’ll pick the one from Marcial. Very symbolic because he made it while I was doing my apprenticeship with him at his studio. It’s a heart of stone on my wrist (second tattoo that I got).
How can people continue to support you as an artist?
In the same way that they have been supporting me for years, spreading the word, sharing my work. Getting tattoos or not. If they talk about my work that helps too!
Giving me feedback about their perspective of my work is very important - I can improve if they are open to sharing their thoughts.
Any final words?
I can't wait to keep traveling, to show you new ideas I've been working on for a while, side projects I'm struggling to keep secret out of pure excitement. I think in 2026 I'll be visiting places I've never been to, and for that reason, I invite people to help me choose new destinations, yay!
And of course, thank you so much for all your support. Tons of love for everyone!
See more from Maca @blekanddots