Raigen Curtis is a tattoo and visual artist whose character-driven fantasy style has allowed her to carve out her own path in the industry. Based in Bellingham, Washington, and the co-owner of Prism Tattoo with her husband Neeko Giffin, her work has become synonymous with bold, illustrative storytelling that blends color, illustrative, and neo-traditional elements with surreal, animated characters and richly saturated color palettes that feel as much at home on skin as they do on paper or apparel.
She tells me she has always been an artist and has wanted to be one for as long as she can remember. When she turned 18, Raigen began her own tattoo journey, which then inspired her to seek an apprenticeship just a year later. She officially started tattooing at 20. One look at Raigen’s tattoos, and it’s clear that much of her work is character-driven, often featuring elements of fantastical realism. When asked about her influences, she pointed to cartoons and video games, shaped early on by growing up playing alongside her brothers. Her style pulls from that foundation, blending those formative interests with a background in realism and portraiture to create something distinctly her own.
Raigen prefers clients to come in with a character and background element in mind. From there, she uses the consultation to refine the idea, account for the realities of tattooing, and plan how it will sit on the body. She builds the piece as a standalone image first, then translates it into a tattoo.
When asked how her approach differs for apparel or canvas work, Raigen explained that all of her art shares “a similar flow and shape.” The biggest difference, she says, is the level of freedom. Unlike tattooing, paintings and t-shirt graphics aren’t constrained by the contours of the human body. Still, elements of anatomy and muscle structure continue to influence her work, appearing naturally in her fluid style.
Raigen’s approach to color is heavily influenced by the world around her. She tells me that not only do natural colors look the best on skin, but much of her inspiration comes from her time spent outdoors in the PNW, hiking and exploring. She starts most of her color work with earth tones, then adds a pop of bright color that draws the eye and serves as the design's centerpiece.
When it comes to choosing her subject matter, beyond her love for video games and cartoons, Raigen looks to nature, often drawing inspiration from birds, plants, and animals she sees while hiking.
Raigen was first introduced to Fingers Duke through a former coworker. When she was looking for someone to print her Lilith t-shirt collection, she reached out. “It was pretty cool that I was able to support a local artist,” she says. She also praised the brand’s artist-first approach, adding that Finger Dukes does “a really good job picking artists and making the art the main focus of the apparel.” Rather than relying on heavy branding or slogans, she feels the brand puts genuine effort into finding artists whose work speaks for itself.
That balance between fantasy, realism, and illustration is what makes Raigen’s work instantly recognizable. Whether she’s designing a large-scale back piece, painting, or creating artwork for her next apparel line, her style carries a clear personality and is an element of storytelling throughout. In an industry often driven by trends, Raigen has built something distinctly her own, translating the worlds that inspired her growing up into artwork that feels equally at home on skin, canvas, and clothing.
