Flash tattoo showcase features designs by Oakland high school students
on September 29, 2026
Kristie Le made a spontaneous decision last weekend to get her first tattoo. That it would be for a good cause made her more adamant.
At the Black Needle Tattoo shop near Lake Merritt, she scanned her options — flowers, animals, fish, a skeletal hand — all drawn by students from Oakland School for the Arts. Choosing a goat to match her Vietnamese zodiac sign, she mustered the courage to have a needle etch the design on her inner left bicep.
“I didn’t take any art classes growing up, and I really wish I did,” said Le, an acupuncturist. “I wish that more kids were more exposed to it.”
Amid the hum of tattoo machines and the strains of Green Day classics, about 50 people got new designs inked on ankles, legs and forearms at a flash tattoo fundraiser for OAS last weekend. Attendees chose from 60 unique flash designs — sticker-like art that can fit on the palm — each created by high school visual artists, under the guidance of Black Needle Tattoo owner Alex Glenard.
The event raised $1,150 for the school.
Glenard said the idea for the fundraiser came from one of the first flashes his shop did about five years ago. It was a celebration of a pie shop that brought 30 or 40 people in for tattoos.
“Because it is a charter school, they do get some public funding, but they’re also relying on donations to continue to expand this school,” said Glenard, whose son is an OSA student. “Then I thought, well, maybe I could do a fundraising event for OSA.”
Partnerships like these are important to fostering OSA and Oakland’s artistic community, said Sasha Pasupathy, associate director of advancement operations and community giving at OSA. They also give parents a hand in developing opportunities for students to take their art beyond the classroom, she added, because the partnerships often come through parents’ networks and workplaces.
For the school, she said, the question that is top of mind is: “How can students get more real world hands-on experience?”
To make the flash tattoo showcase and fundraiser a reality, OSA paired Glenard with students from the high school’s Visual Arts Department – around 60 in total. The department focuses on the basics of drawing, painting, sculpture, design.
Through one masterclass for each grade this semester, Glenard taught students the fundamentals of making flash tattoo art from scratch, and what it means to design for a live canvas.
“I talked a little bit about the history of tattooing, the process of tattooing, and exactly what’s happening when a tattoo artist is essentially using a machine to pierce the skin and deposit ink underneath the skin,” Glenard said. “I think we had a good spectrum of art come out of the students’ designs.”
Ara Kim, an OSA senior who designed lilies for her flash, said she drew from Pinterest and a friend’s tattoo. Kim said designing with ink in mind gave her a new challenge.
“You just think so much more graphically, especially for flash, because it has to be replicated in such a fast amount of time,” Kim said. “It’s a lot different from my more painterly style. That was a fun departure, actually.”
Crow Romo-Griffin, a junior who designed a flash inspired by the 1950’s pin-up girl era, said Glenard’s presentation and background gave him a new perspective.
“I thought you had to go to school to be able to put ink permanently on people’s bodies, but you can really cater the career towards what you want,” Romo-Griffin said. “This tattooing stuff has really intrigued me a lot. I think that it would be awesome to explore.”
Many of the attendees were educators or parents. Others came after seeing the event on Instagram. Some were passersby who stumbled upon it by chance.
Elise “Nic” Weber, one of the shop’s resident artists, said people loved that the designs were created by students.
“What a fun thing that you get to walk around and some high schooler’s going to be like, ‘That’s my drawing!’” Weber said.
Ashton Perfecto, a teacher at Coliseum College Prep Academy in Oakland, got fish designs at the flash event — one on his ankle, the other on his forearm. He had been wanting another tattoo but was concerned about the cost. The flash event, he said, enabled him to get two and support Oakland students.
“It’s a nice opportunity for the kids to show off their creativity and be valued and also bring value to their school,” he said.
(Top photo: Black Needle Tattoo artist Finley draws Ara Kim’s lily design.)
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