Stanislava Pinchuk (aka Miso), a Ukraine-born artist that works in Tokyo and Melbourne, practices an interesting sort of bartering economics – when she does her trademark minimalistic and meaningful tattoos for her friends, they pay with goods or favors, not money.

Her home-made tattoos, which she currently only makes for “friends and friends of friends,” are exchanged for “what someone feels its worth – maybe they teach me a skill in return, cook me dinner, give me a book I would love, assistant work, whiskey. You never know, but everyone feels good about it, which I like. But more and more, I feel like it’s becoming a bigger part of my practice.”

She considers her tattoos “too important and intimate for me to take money for, at this stage.” For more comments about her work, read Stanislava’s answers to Bored Panda’s questions below.

More info: m-i-s-o.com (h/t: thisisnthappiness)

“Since I only tattoo friends, and it’s so intimate – it just doesn’t feel right to take money for it,” Stanislava told Bored Panda about her choice to barter for her tattoos.

Stanislava explained that she usually sees her tattoos as “a mapping – usually of geographical places and travels.”

When asked about who comes up with the designs, Stanislava said, “that’s the really nice thing about tattooing – we always meet halfway on a design, push each other, develop it together. It’s a really good challenge.”

She responded to detractors of her work by saying, “My hygiene and equipment is impeccable, and it’s something that I take really seriously.”

Thank you, Stanislava, for answering Bored Panda’s questions! Good luck with your work.