Meet the artist,
Cíntia aka Espirro
We teamed up with the multifaceted Lisbon-based artist, Cíntia aka Espirro, the most enigmatic tattoo artist, who has an unmistakable way of turning real-life references into surreal, colourful, abstract scenes. Espirro designed our collab while travelling through Asia, mainly inspired by the glittering stimuli of the neon lights in Japan sneaking up on everybody.
Cíntia Coutinho, also known as Espirro, grew up among cuddles and Barbie houses. She has her studio, Fiasco, and spends her days in paintings, drawings, and tapestries whenever she is not tattooing.
When she finished her Fine Arts course at the Faculdade de Belas Artes in Porto, Cíntia Coutinho returned to Figueira da Foz, where she was born, and started a clothing brand with the help of her mother and grandmother. She only sold unique pieces printed with bright colours, faces and pompoms. She called it Espirro to reflect her fun, cheerful personality.
She discovered tattoos by chance, looking for an artistic career that would give her a certain freedom. So she enrolled in a course with a tattoo artist in Lisbon and fell in love with the process from start to finish. But people also fell in love with her, and her followers quickly built up online.
Photography by Frances Rocha
