"Motion Tattooing" Is About To Be Your New Obsession, Thanks To This Hungarian Tattoo Artist

    "With motion tattoos, you walk out with a deeper connection to the ink."

    Syd Robinson
    by Syd Robinson

    BuzzFeed Staff

    This is Hungarian tattoo artist Balazs Bercsenyi.

    (Odds are you've seen some of his wildly intricate work on Instagram.)

    Well now, the talented tattooer is trying his hand at what he calls "motion tattooing," and his latest project, A Life of a Rose, is pretty mesmerizing.

    Varai Eniko

    The basic concept of motion tattooing is to use individual tattoos to create a larger stop-motion story on many different bodies. But for Bercsenyi, it's so much bigger than that.

    "The difference between motion tattoos and regular tattoos is the lasting outcome of being part of something bigger than the individual," Bercsenyi told BuzzFeed. "You walk out with a deeper connection to the ink."

    For A Life of a Rose, he decided to document the life cycle of a rose from the moment it sprouts until it shrivels and dies.

    Varai Eniko

    Bercsenyi said: "I wanted the story to evolve around a rose because it is such a beautiful symbol and metaphor of love. It represents the cycle of life — from when the rose sprouts, to how it's used as a tool to uplift and inject expression for a human being. The rose is a perfect example of how we should live our lives, to bloom and give our gift away."

    But to do so, he needed to round up 70 people willing to be part of it.

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    "All participants were Hungarian natives as one of the main purposes of the project was to go back to my roots and unite Budapest through art." Bercsenyi said.

    Over the course of a week, 70 participants — randomly pulled from a pool of 600 applicants (!!!) — were each assigned a still from the cycle to get tattooed.

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    "The participants were each given a vague context of the story and were asked to book a time and date to get their tattoo. However, they didn't know that each time slot corresponded with a specific page in the story." he said.

    Overall, Bercsenyi said that the feedback on A Life of a Rose can be summed up in one word: Happiness.

    Varai Eniko

    "Every participant loved which part of the story they were," he said. "The project culminated with a gathering where the majority of the group was able to meet each other. In that moment, I realized we had created something very special. We created a sense of oneness, and that is the energy we need to spread."

    To keep up with Bercsenyi and his tattoo projects, be sure to follow him on Instagram.