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&rsquo;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&nbsp; &ndash; or stick and poke as others call it &ndash; 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. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve tried machine tattoos, but I still prefer handpoking because I feel more in control,&rdquo; explains Teo. &ldquo;Neither is better than the other though, it&rsquo;s up to you to make the decision on which way you&rsquo;d like your tattoo to be executed.&rdquo;

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 &mdash; this author. &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t believe how much trust you had in me,&rdquo; they said. &ldquo;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.&rdquo;
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. &ldquo;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,&rdquo; 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 &ndash; along with the fans of their art &ndash; created an entire storyline to the characters they tattoo, named Mr Man, the TheyThem Fairies, along with the other funky residents of &ldquo;Noobie Town&rdquo;.

A crowd favourite &ndash; also available as prints for those who don&rsquo;t wish to be tattooed &ndash; 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&rsquo;s a representation of mental health and the importance of having a community. &ldquo;Because they&rsquo;re all scared of dark Mr Man, he runs to the forest where he meets the TheyThem fairies. That&rsquo;s the baseline of the plot I came up with,&rdquo; Teo explains.&nbsp;

Teo cites the story of YN, a client that requested Dark Mr Man morphed as the shadow of a TheyThem fairy. &ldquo;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&rsquo;s story,&rdquo;

Representation of queerness is especially celebrated in Teo&rsquo;s work.&rdquo;It&rsquo;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,&rdquo; the 22-year-old explains.&nbsp;
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: &ldquo;Sessions with new clients always end up in both of us sharing our life experiences and making a new friend in the [LGBTQ+] community,&rdquo;
Frequent client Richie Ang describes the experience of coming to Funky Lane and getting tattooed by Teo as inclusive: &ldquo;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&rsquo;m not comfortable discussing with other [heterosexual] tattoo artists, and the artists at Funky Lane have always made me feel welcome and included,&rdquo;

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: &ldquo;I think it shows the client that [we&rsquo;re] here, and you&rsquo;re not alone.&rdquo;
<h6 style="text-align: center;">Header photo credits to&nbsp;@zalindrome.</h6>

Meet NoseyPokey, a Handpoke Tattoo Artist Creating Safe Spaces in Art

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