Meet NoseyPokey, a Handpoke Tattoo Artist Creating Safe Spaces in Art
Celestine Teo tells us the story of their all-inclusive tattooing journey at Funky Lane, a studio they run with three like minded artists.
Located on the second floor of the historic Pearl’s Hill Terrace lies Funky Lane, the second-home of four self-taught handpoke artists. Nestled at the front corner of their homey studio is Celestine Teo, better known as NoseyPokey to their army of devoted clients.
Handpoking – or stick and poke as others call it – uses a single, hand-powered needle. While the singular needle is less invasive, it takes significantly longer than a traditional, electric-powered tattoo to complete. “I’ve tried machine tattoos, but I still prefer handpoking because I feel more in control,” explains Teo. “Neither is better than the other though, it’s up to you to make the decision on which way you’d like your tattoo to be executed.”
Just a little shy of five thousand followers on Instagram, NoseyPokey has come a long way since tattooing friends in their bedroom. With over 250 people under their portfolio within the past year, Teo reminisced about the first person they tattooed outside of themself — this author. “I can’t believe how much trust you had in me,” they said. “I was using a contact lens case instead of a proper ink cap to hold the tattoo ink, which now that I think about it, was probably not the right ink either.”
An homage to growth, friendship, and their life, their tattooing moniker NoseyPokey on Instagram grew as a platform for Teo to feel completely themself. With comic strips revealing little crumbs of their life, their softness for life was what drew a lot of people to entrust them with their skin as their canvas.
The LaSalle undergraduate raised their arm, pointing to their wrist. “This little heart was the first one I did on myself, and soon I started having my friends over my place who volunteered to be my guinea pigs,” they say.
Staying away from the more elaborate, traditional style of tattoos, Teo focuses on only tattooing ideas following their abstract designs. A lover of storylines and mythical beings, Teo – along with the fans of their art – created an entire storyline to the characters they tattoo, named Mr Man, the TheyThem Fairies, along with the other funky residents of “Noobie Town”.
A crowd favourite – also available as prints for those who don’t wish to be tattooed – Mr Man tells the tale of a creature with two personas. Though kind and gentle when dark, he is judged and shunned by all in Noobie Town, and only celebrated when light. It’s a representation of mental health and the importance of having a community. “Because they’re all scared of dark Mr Man, he runs to the forest where he meets the TheyThem fairies. That’s the baseline of the plot I came up with,” Teo explains.
Teo cites the story of YN, a client that requested Dark Mr Man morphed as the shadow of a TheyThem fairy. “I found it really exciting because that particular tattoo opened up so many new layers to the story, and it felt collaborative and a lot of people related to Mr Man’s story,”
Representation of queerness is especially celebrated in Teo’s work.”It’s only recently that we started to talk more openly regarding queer and non-binary issues in Singapore. Being inclusive as a tattoo artist is important to make everyone feel welcome and safe and like they can talk about anything,” the 22-year-old explains.
With almost all of the artists in the Funky Lane collective identifying as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, Teo explains how coming out is a never-ending process for all of them: “Sessions with new clients always end up in both of us sharing our life experiences and making a new friend in the [LGBTQ+] community,”
Frequent client Richie Ang describes the experience of coming to Funky Lane and getting tattooed by Teo as inclusive: “I come to Funky Lane because I feel that this is a safe space for me to easily talk about topics and issues that I’m not comfortable discussing with other [heterosexual] tattoo artists, and the artists at Funky Lane have always made me feel welcome and included,”
In the studio shared by Teo and three other artists, a sixty-inch pride flag hangs from the ceiling, and is the first thing a client is greeted with when entering. Teo explains that the flag sets the tone of the studio succinctly: “I think it shows the client that [we’re] here, and you’re not alone.”
