Most tattoo artists expect to spend their working days in studios, convention halls, or private workspaces. On June 5, however, tattoo artist and Monolith Studio founder Okan Uçkun found himself setting up his equipment in a place few people in his profession will ever experience: the Starship Gallery at Space Center Houston, surrounded by spacecraft, flight hardware, and artifacts that tell the story of human space exploration.
The location alone was unusual. The clients made it extraordinary.
Among the people sitting in his chair that day were NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman and Howard Hu, the Orion Program Manager whose team helped develop the spacecraft that carried astronauts around the Moon. The tattoo session took place just weeks after one of the most significant milestones in modern spaceflight: the successful completion of NASA’s Artemis II mission.
