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- A Russian tattoo artist finds blind faith in his needle</p>
<p>Evgenia Novozhenina and Alexander ParamoshinSeptember 12, 2025 at 5:11 AM</p>
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<p>1 / 5A Russian tattoo artist finds blind faith in his needle</p>
<p>By Evgenia Novozhenina and Alexander Paramoshin</p>
<p>MOSCOW (Reuters) -Like a piano player moving up a scale, Igor Mikhaylov runs his gloved hands along his client's upturned arm, feeling out precisely where he should place his stencil.</p>
<p>The 38-year-old tattoo artist, who is legally blind, is in high demand.</p>
<p>"This is something that impresses and thrills you," said a woman who gave her name only as Alexandra. She had just received a tattoo saying "Love" in Braille from Mikhaylov at a tattoo studio off Moscow's trendy Novy Arbat Avenue last month.</p>
<p>Mikhaylov began to lose his eyesight at the age of eight, the result of a genetic illness. He can perceive gradations in light and can make out the contours of objects. He still remembers what the world around him looks like.</p>
<p>His customers find his tattoos exciting because they demand an imaginative leap of faith.</p>
<p>"The visual images that I have today are in fact being completed with the help of my imagination and my memory. In other words, what I imagine is much sharper than what I can see now," Mikhaylov explained.</p>
<p>A trained classical guitarist and graduate of a top Moscow music college, Mikhaylov approaches the art of tattooing with nimble fingers and an open mind. There's no instruction manual for how to tattoo blind.</p>
<p>Mikhaylov's customers choose a word or phrase, which he translates into Braille. He then tattoos the image onto the skin using a single needle dipped into ink, what is known as a stick-and-poke tattoo.</p>
<p>"How to take a needle to this or that corner, how to find this middle line, which way to use to move a needle in corners – it all reminded me of working with a (guitar) string where these small aspects and peculiarities matter," Mikhaylov said. "I had to develop my own technique."</p>
<p>In between tattooing gigs and music performances, Mikhaylov finds time to win tournament trophies as a member of Russia's national table tennis team for the visually impaired.</p>
<p>A neon sign hanging on the wall by his work station in the Moscow tattoo parlour could serve as Mikhaylov's personal mantra: "Your Comfort Zone Will Kill You".</p>
<p>(Reporting by Reuters in Moscow; Writing by Lucy Papachristou in Tbilisi; Editing by Patricia Reaney)</p>
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