By: Ravi Rajapaksha
Most people don’t worry about getting a tattoo. They worry about getting a bad one. Maybe that’s why many people travel to NYC to get tattooed by Mikhail Andersson at First Class Tattoos.
We all know the excitement of getting a new tattoo. We think about the design, the placement, and all, but somewhere along the way, it hits that this is permanent. What if the lines are crooked or the colors are off? That’s where Mikhail Andersson comes in, known for his precision and attention to detail.
Because fixing a bad tattoo is harder than getting a good one in the first place.
New York has no shortage of tattoo studios. You can walk into dozens of them on any given day.
But people still book flights.
They come from other states and other countries, sometimes after months of research, just to sit in Mikhail’s chair. Through his reputation, Mikhail has become a tattoo artist with a loyal clientele willing to travel for his work. His focus on customized tattoos sets him apart in a crowded industry.
Take a quick scroll through Mikhail’s Instagram feed, and you’ll see why his work draws an audience. His attention to detail and artistic vision come through in every piece he creates.
Many of his clients return years later for touch-ups and new work.
But his background isn’t limited to tattooing. It’s rooted in classical art, with formal training in painting and drawing that gives his tattoos a distinctive aesthetic. This foundation allows him to blend traditional art techniques with modern tattoo styles, resulting in work that draws from both worlds.
Mikhail Andersson has been working professionally in tattooing since 2008, which puts him at 17+ years of experience in the field as of 2025–2026.
In 2011, he moved to Miami, working across different tattoo studios. A few years later, he moved to New York, and in 2016, he opened First Class Tattoos on Canal Street.
At the time of opening a studio, there was a risk. Manhattan already had more tattoo shops than anyone could count, and talent alone wasn’t enough to separate one from the next. You needed a reason for people to remember the name, then come back to it later.
Nearly a decade on, First Class Tattoos has managed to do exactly that. The studio kept growing quietly while trends, artists, and entire waves of tattoo culture moved around it. A lot of that staying power traces back to one thing: what Mikhail actually does with a needle.
Mikhail is most widely known for color realism, but calling him a color realism artist is like calling Caravaggio a guy who liked contrast. Technically accurate. Completely insufficient.
What Mikhail does is build visual worlds on skin. He takes color realism and pulls surrealism into it. He’ll reference Van Gogh and land somewhere new.
He’ll work classical motifs into abstract geometry and make the whole thing feel inevitable, like it couldn’t have looked any other way.
The First Class Tattoos studio itself is at 52 Canal Street in Manhattan, and it doesn’t feel like a typical New York tattoo shop. Mikhail built it to be a place where serious artists could develop, and he recruited talent from around the world to fill it.
The crew at First Class Tattoos covers the full range: black and gray realism, color realism, neo-traditional, Japanese traditional, watercolor, fine line, surrealism, anime, abstract, and trash polka.
They also offer services like piercing and laser tattoo removal, making it a one-stop shop for all things body art.
Another thing that Mikhail prides himself on is the welcoming and inclusive atmosphere at the studio, where clients of all backgrounds feel comfortable and respected.
Mikhail Andersson and the team at First Class Tattoos approach the craft with a focus on artistry, customer experience, and individual creative expression. More information about the studio and its artists is available at www.firstclasstattoos.com.
