Misaki’s Inktober Journey (English)

What is Inktober?

If anyone has ever been on the artsy side of Instagram, Facebook, Deviantart or any other platform; you’ve surely heard of Inktober.

Inktober is a yearly art challenge based around the premise of doing a daily drawing for the month of October sometimes centered around Halloween or other fun art themes.

The Early Years

To be honest, I’ve never been able to successfully complete all 31 days of Inktober but oh have I tried and have been trying for years!

2017 was the closest I ever got to a traditional, fully fleshed out and carefully curated collection of drawings. I decided that year was my year of witchifying people on Instagram which made it easier on my brain but alas I only got a few days in before throwing in the towel. (peep those botched hands pre-AI)

And 2018, the last official Inktober (or Pinktober in this case) I participated in before beginning my tattoo journey. This was the year I got my first ipad and I figured having a portable drawing device always on me would be a shoe in to me actually sticking to Inktober but alas, I only made it to cursed day #5.

Do I feel like I failed?

The quick answer, no; the nuanced answer, I don’t feel like a failure as an artist but I was disappointed in myself for never being able to finish a series of something, which is a feeling I still struggle with today, and it made me wonder if I lacked the drive and skill to actually be considered an artist seeing as I couldn’t do the basic of what I’m supposed to be good at doing, which is drawing.

The rise of social media truly put an emphasis on the visible results of an artist and sometimes feeling that exposed to others and that ready to be made comparison looming over your head really puts a damper on your self esteem as a creative.

So what happened?

I started my tattoo journey in October of 2018. Finally sick of always pining for it, I took the jump by completely immersing myself into tattooing and as a consequence Inktober became a part of my past.

March 2019 I finally announced to my friends, followers and community that I was embarking on this journey.

As my focus completely shifted to tattooing, traditional illustrations transformed into digital ones and eventually into tattoo flash.

Tattooing + Inktober =….?

And so for Inktober of 2019 I did a collection of flash as a way to desperately hang on to my illustrator roots and I can finally say that I completed an Inktober (sort of?)

Guess I just needed to age a few years and start tattooing for me to finally be able to achieve the maximum level of online artist. Hahaha, jokes aside, I haven’t thought of facing the monster that is Inktober anymore, I think I’ve come to peace with the fact that keeping up the daily drawing habit isn’t ideal for my brain.

But every year, as October approaches, I am infected by the need to create something Halloween, be it just a habit or a conscious decision, I guess Inktober somehow lives on in the form of my october tattoo flash.

Flash-tober 2026

2026 has been a year of artistic recovery for me, I’m finally picking up my pencils again.

This year’s October flash started out the way it used to, on paper and with pencil sketches. And though I decided that the best medium to finish them in was digitally, the flash to stencil pipeline is always much simpler that way, I believe that the fact they were born traditionally, gives them a heart that my flash haven’t had in many years.

Funnily enough, this flash drop was considered a “flop” so to say; as none of these have been adopted yet (2019 flashbacks ensue) but that doesn’t make me feel sad in any way. My personal satisfaction and the emotional connection I am re-building with my art is rewarding in itself.

Although if any of you want to adopt one of these and carry a piece of a human’s story and emotional struggle and turmoil to feel like a creative; I’d be stoked to do it on you.

Every piece of art I make holds the weight of my human conscience and soul, no matter how cute and silly it may seem. That is the importance of art that is made by a human carries.

Well, that’s all for this month’s ramble. I hope you all have a lovely fall and spooky season. Now I’ve gotta go set up my Day of the Dead altar which is a whole other part of my human story but we’ll talk about that another day.

Signing off, Misaki.