THE STORY BEHIND CILE LAAK
Cile Laak is the artist behind all the art, creations and merchandise sold on this website.
It all started many years ago, somewhere in the magical land of Norway. When she was a little young one, she was very creative and loved to draw and write. One day the fascination for tattoos sparked after seeing an old sailor on television covered with tattoos all over his arms. That one could restore art on your skin forever was such a beautiful thing, she thought. It even sparked a little dream to become a tattoo artist in the future. Her father once said “please never get tattoos” - and with a heartbreak she said “ok”. Spoiler alert: She got tattoos later on, that also influenced her art style a whole lot. Her family thinks her tattoos is really cool now and some of them even want tattoos too.
In 2018 she traveled alone across the lands to visit her friend that had moved all the way to Seoul, South-Korea. Little did she know that this would be the beginning of something great in a life changing way. A real “pay it forward” moment, as you see in movies. The dream to become a tattoo artist was even stronger back then and she worked hard on a portfolio and tried to find her own style.
As it happens to be, her friend in Soul knew a tattoo artist that owned a tattoo studio called Bad Hands Tattoo. He gave her a practice machine and said “if you can put this one together the next time we meet, I can show you how to be an apprentice” - and so she did. This adventure is the inspiration behind the CILE LAAK logo, a little tribute to that incredible kindness. She have a 가자 tattoo on her hand as well, since this was the mantra back then and still is to this day. 가자 means “let’s go” and is a reminder to just keep going since you can make your dreams a reality, cheesy as is.
Back home in Norway, even though the motivation and dream was strong, due to some difficult physical health struggles from a lot of trauma and other difficult stuff growing up, the dream of becoming a tattoo apprentice as hoped, was sadly put on hold due to health.
In 2020 she jumped into another dream that was just on the “to do list” since 2012. She started streaming on Twitch after her friend helped build her a computer that she payed with credit in the hopes that it would be worth it. It was, She gained a lovely community with wonderful and supporting people. They called the stream The Realm.
The community seemed to like the art that she had made trough the years. Thanks to this motivation, she started to use the artwork and turned it into merchandise instead. This led to another good idea to sell some flash drawings that others could get tattooed from their favorite artist if wanted.
A lot of ideas and opportunities later, we are now here. She is still streaming, still drawing, ready to take on the world and the Realm. Legends says that even though after many hardships and the health issues still being a big difficult factor in her life, she is so grateful and content.
So a huge thanks to everyone that have supported me,
my heart is forever full.
