Sion draws her strong inspiration for tattoo culture from the influence of her mother, who’s also a tattooist. Since childhood, she loved watching her mom get absorbed by her art.

Sion says, “Also, the moment I realized how powerful the messages on the skin could be exhibited to individuals, I was so fascinated by it and decided that this was going to be my life work. This is because the act of leaving a mark on one’s body, even at the cost of having to endure the pain, is a noble spirit that can represent memory, friendship, love, or oneself, which are desired to be kept forever in one’s mind.”

There are quite a few things that make Sion’s creative spirit shine. She’s especially fond of traditional Korean beauty. She points out some symbols that are a real source of new tattoo ideas, explaining, “Out of this, the emotional beauty of daenggi (a ribbon), norigae, an ornamental silver knife, knots, and plum blossoms are what I would like to continuously express.”

Also, surprisingly, the artist gets inspired by the poetry, as it helps her create real body art masterpieces.

Sion is very fond of tattoos that display traditional knots. She explains that a Korean traditional knot symbolizes Korea’s native spirit of the tying and cutting of relationships between individuals.

She says, “Here, just like how the knots get more tangled once hastily untied by force, the relationship between individuals is something that cannot be broken by force. Yet, if necessary, it should be untied, one by one, slowly, so that the remaining affection between individuals is not harmed.”

When she’s not working, Sion loves to read books and learn new things. In addition to tattooing, she’s very interested in photo-related work. So on her days off, she experiments with photography.

Also, the tattooist loves to do collaborations. Sometimes she and other photographers do tattoo-related shoots, and she gets a lot of good ideas and learns a lot. She fell in love with photography because, in her opinion, it has a similar appeal to tattoos in that it can last forever.