As part of its 2025 Craft of Adornment: Philly Artist Workshop Series, the Hurford Center at Haverford College invited Philadelphia artist Josey Lee to lead a workshop on tattoo design and hand-drawn stencils. The event took place on Wednesday, Oct. 22 in the VCAM Maker Arts Space, to the enthusiasm of many students.
Lee began the workshop with a brief presentation, during which she explained her art and tattooing background. Lee herself is first and foremost a multidisciplinary artist. Her paintings, installations, and sculptures have been exhibited all around Philadelphia and Kansas City. In 2022, Lee began experimenting with hand-poke tattoos, in which ink is applied onto a single needle and stippled into skin by hand. She has been working as a freelance tattoo artist ever since.
Lee went on to showcase some of her own work, including both 2D flash sheets and final results on skin. Her designs, which frequently featured motifs of animals, plants, hands, and the sky, evoked the whimsy and mystery of folklore. Lee concluded by giving a step-by-step demonstration of the stenciling process, thus commencing the hands-on portion of the workshop.
Students got started by brainstorming designs with pencil and paper. After refining their sketch, students copied the finalized design onto a sheet of tracing paper. This copy is placed on top of a special transfer paper coated with ink and gets traced again, this time with a ballpoint pen. The pressure of the pen nib imprints the ink from the transfer paper onto the master sheet beneath, which is trimmed and becomes the final stencil.
Students then worked in pairs to apply their stencils onto skin. To do so, they would first wet the targeted area with green soap before carefully laying down the stencil, patting it down and letting it dry. The stencil is reusable and very forgiving, so when students made mistakes, they could just scrub the marks off with soap and try again. Lee was also a very active presence in the room, providing much-appreciated assistance and clarification whenever needed.
After the stenciling session, students were encouraged to free draw on one another using Sharpies. They also had the option of tracing and/or coloring their stencils for a bolder look. People got real creative and had a great time with this activity, doodling funny images and intricate patterns all across their limbs. It was very heartwarming to see everyone helping each other out and being creative together.
While documenting this workshop, I also got to experience the stenciling process myself. Tattoo art has always been an interest of mine, so getting this opportunity to learn from Lee and practice hands-on has been invaluable. Overall, this workshop really fostered an environment for artistic collaboration and participatory learning, bringing back a sense of childhood wonder through uninhibited expression.
Photos by Chloe Sun
