The Exquisite Surrealist Tattoos of Arlo DiCristina

Over the years, we’ve featured some exceptionally talented tattoo artists on Oddity Central, but when it comes to surrealism and face morph tattoos, few can match Arlo DiCristina.

DiCristina, who goes by @ArloTattoos on social media, has been practicing tattooing since he was a teenager, and now runs his own tattoo shop, Elysium Studios, in Grand Junction, Colorado. He rose to fame a few years ago, when one of his projects, a portrait of iconic Batman villain, Joker, with his face interwoven into a skyline of Gotham City, went viral on social media, gaining praise from both tattoo enthusiasts as well as other inking masters. The name Arlo DiCristina has been linked to surrealist and face morph tattoos ever since and he has accepted the association as a badge of honor, specializing in the the two tattooing styles.

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Young Artist Creates Impressively Detailed Illustrations With a Typewriter

At only 23 years of age, James Cook is already one of the world’s premier typewriter artists, and looking at his works it’s easy to see why.

The young architecture student got into typewriter art about five years ago, after reading about Paul Smith, another famous typewriter artist who couldn’t use a pencil or paintbrush to do drawings, because of his severe cerebral palsy. Cook was inspired by the story and intrigued about typewriter art, so he decided to give it a try. It was love at first sight, and after buying his first typewriter from an elderly couple looking to sell up their heap of antiques, James started using it to create illustrations and portraits.

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Self-Taught Food Artist Creates Tasty Works of Art on Slices of Bread

A talented Japanese food artist uses popular spreads like fruit jams, peanut butter and Nutella to create intricate artworks on slices of white bread.

Drawing inspiration mainly from popular anime like Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away or Dragon Ball, Japanese artist KU (@ken.tuchy) creates stunningly intricate and edible illustrations with breakfast classics like jam, peanut butter and cocoa spread. He is somehow able to keep all the different fruit jams and the other spreads from mixing, as well as the bread slices from becoming too soggy to work with, and the end result is always nothing short of breathtaking.

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Cosplay Enthusiast Turn Cats into Feline Versions of Popular Anime Characters

A Japanese cosplay enthusiast from Tokushima has been getting a lot of attention online thanks to his adorable collection of costume cat costumes inspired by characters in popular anime.

The talented artist, who goes by Yagyou (@YagyouNEKO) on Twitter, is the one-man-team behind one of the most adorable projects I’ve seen on social media in a while. After choosing a character from some of his favorite anime – he has an affinity for Studio Ghibli work- he starts working on the feline cosplay costume. He conceptualizes and designs the outfit, cuts and sews the material himself, dresses the felines and even takes the photographs himself. Looking at some of his costumes and the artistic photos he takes, it’s hard to believe he does everything himself.

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The Shockingly Realistic Porcelain Flowers of Olesya Galushcenko

Looking at the beautiful bouquets of Ukrainian artist Olesya Galushcenko, it’s hard to believe that all the flowers aren’t actually real but made of hard porcelain.

Olesya Galushcenko is a hydraulics engineer who got into porcelain flower making as a personal challenge. Seven years ago, during maternity leave, she decided to take on an artistic project that involved using her hands, and a decorative flower bouquet caught her eye. The artist was self-taught, so she refused to pay for classes and decided to learn the craft herself using free internet tutorials. But they only served to get her started, because she soon realized that polymer clay wasn’t the right material for the degree of realism she wanted, so she decided to experiment herself and soon discovered that cold porcelain met her requirements.

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The Photo-Realistic Portrait Tattoos of Oleg Shepelenko

Oleg Shepelenko, a talented tattoo artist from Rostov-on-Don, Russia, has been getting international recognition thanks to his insanely detailed portrait tattoos.

The self-taught artist who works out of the Lucky Style Tattoo Shop knew he had a talent for art when he began painting in school, but never got any formal training. He got into tattoos naturally, and used YouTube tutorials as inspiration, trying to imitate masters of the art and developing his own techniques along the way. Developing an interest in hyper-realism, Shepelenko channeled his entire ambition into producing photo-realistic portrait tattoos, and is now considered one of the top hyper-realist tattoo artists in the world.

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Spot the Not: Body-Painting Artist Blends Nude Models in Various Landscapes

German body-painting artist Jörg Düsterwald is a master of camouflage, taking nude female models and using body paint to conceal them in various environments.

Looking at one of Jörg Düsterwald’s signature camouflage pieces is like trying to solve a Where’s Wally’s puzzle, with some of the models blending so well into the background that you actually have to struggle to spot them. Düsterwald has been producing body art projects for the last 25 years, showcasing his body-painting skills in creative projects, including advertising and TV marketing campaigns, but it was his camouflage series that really made him internationally famous.

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Talented Artist Creates Beautiful Artworks with Hundreds of Strips of Paper

Bekah Stonefox is a 45-year-old artist from the UK who specializes in creating intricate works of art with hundreds of colorful strips of paper.

The talented artist has been honing her quilling skills for the last five years, and has put together quite the impressive collection of artworks, from detailed portraits of imaginary human characters, to animals like dogs, cats and even gorillas. Bekah’s most remarkable skill is using various quilling techniques to depict various textures, like the fur on mammals, the feathers on birds, or the skin of reptiles. It almost seems like there is nothing she can’t recreate from tiny bits of paper.

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Art With Salt – The Granulated Artworks of Bashir Sultani

It’s safe to say that Toronto-based artist Bashir Sultani isn’t the superstitious type, as he has no problem spilling the salt to create some of the most amazing temporary artworks we’ve ever seen.

Afghan-born Sultani originally rose to internet fame about nine years ago, when photos and videos of his early celebrity salt portraits went viral online. They’re still impressive after all these years, but the talented artist has come a long way since, taking his salt art to a whole new level with a life-like food portrait series. Instead of sticking to pure salt on a black canvas, Bashir Sultani now uses colored salt as well to create convincing representation of various foods solely by sprinkling it on a dark plate.

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Teen Allergic to Touch Uses Her Own Body as Human Etch-a-Sketch

An 18-year-old girl suffering from a skin condition called dermatographia, which causes her skin to swell up when touched, is using her own body as a canvas for playful doodles.

18-year-old Emma Aldenryd creates her very own type of body art by running a pencil over her skin, which causes the lines she traces to swell and redden, leaving behind temporary doodles that fade after about 30 minutes. The Danish teen discovered that she had dermatographia three years ago, after a friend noticed that her arms turned red and swollen. Instead of hiding away her skin condition, Emma decided to embrace it and use her own body as an artistic medium.

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Japanese City Installs Country’s First LED-Powered Manhole Covers

Authorities in Tokorozawa, a Japanese city located north of Tokyo, recently unveiled a total of 27 high-tech manhole covers featuring LED displays inspired by popular anime.

In an ingenious attempt to improve the image of the local sewer system and also hopefully prevent nighttime crime on the main boulevard of Tokorozawa, the city’s Waterworks and Sewerage department recently installed a total of 27 new manhole covers illuminated by solar-powered LED lights and featuring anime-inspired designs. The new manholes were laid on August 1, 2020, and are the first manholes in Japan to feature LED lighting.

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Talented Confectioner Creates The Most Amazing Wedding Cakes

If you’re looking for a way to add that wow factor to a special event, take a look at the amazing cakes of Los Angeles-based confectioner Julie Simon, they’re really something else.

When it comes to floral-inspired cakes, there’s just no one better out there than Julie Simon, and after looking at all the intricate cakes below, I’m pretty sure you’ll agree with me. Most often than not, her delicious masterpieces look like carefully arranged vases or bouquets with real flowers sticking out of them. Only those vases are actually cakes and the flowers are made of sugar. It’s hard to believe, but only because the LA-based confectioner is so exceptionally good at her job.

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Widower Has Ultra-Realistic, Life-Size Sculpture of His Late Wife Installed at Family Home

An Indian man melted the hearts of millions in his home country after unveiling a life-size and almost lifelike sculpture of his late wife during a house-warming party.

Srinivas Gupta, a businessman from Karnataka, India who lost his wife in a tragic car accident three years ago, wanted his life partner to be physically present at a recent house-warming event that he had a life-size silicone statue of her made by a local artist. Madhavi, Gupta’s late wife, had always wanted to own her own bungalow, so after her death the businessman decided to honor her memory by building one in her honor. A year ago, he commissioned a local sculptor to make an ultra-realistic statue of Madhavi, so she could be with him and their two daughters when the new home was ready.

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The Intricate Pumpkin Sculptures of Angel Boraliev

When it comes to artistic pumpkin carving, Bulgarian food artist Angel Boraliev is a cut above the rest. From fine details like feathers to intricate motifs, there is nothing he can’t carve out of a pumpkin.

Boraliev, who works in the hotel and restaurant industry showcases his amazing sculptures at various events, but he has also been featured by several online outlets, and has a decent following on social media. He started pumpkin carving almost 7 years ago, and has apparently honed his skills to the point where he can carve realistic birds, feathers and everything, out of one or several pumpkins. Boraliev also carves watermelons and bars of soap, but it’s his pumpkin sculptures that really take people’s breath away.

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Self-Taught Indian Artist Carves Tiny Sticks of Chalk Into Detailed Sculptures

A trained software engineer, Sachin Sanghe spends most of his free time sculpting sticks of chalk into beautiful artworks, from portraits of celebrities, to depictions of Hindu gods.

As a high-school student, Sachin Sanghe was  always called to the front of the class to write notes on the blackboard, so it’s no surprise that he formed a special connection to the humble chalk. He started carving sticks of chalk with his geometry tools as a hobby, and as time went by, he got better at it. But then he got into an engineering college, and his art had to take a backseat to his academic responsibilities. However, after finishing school and getting a job, Sachin was free to return to his special hobby again. He did so, and became so good at it that the self-taught artist is now being hailed as one of the world’s best chalk sculptors.

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