AKILLS Tattoo Collection-Innovative & Luxurious Jewelry as Ink
AKILLIS unveils tattoos-as-jewelry. With Tattoo, Akillis continues its exploration of ethno-rock, enriching the unique, unexpected, and innovative field of jewelry-as-ink in homage to the tattoo artistry of the Maori.
Encounter and Fusion
Treating the body as a canvas and conceived of as a second skin, the new collection from Caroline Gaspard - infused with the spirit of the tribal warrior - marries oceanic lines with Akillis’s signature style. Offered in Black & White, this line plays with a palette as bold as it is pure, as masculine as it is feminine.
The Tattoo collection - which offers everything from pieces for everyday wear to spectacular high jewelry - is designed for anyone and everyone who want their jewels to dazzle in the morning, the evening, and back again - without even having to think about it!
Moral foundations and a creative adventure
Maori warriors defined themselves by acts of bravery, which translated into social status. Tattoos - a symbol of prestige - bore witness to their endeavors, forming a record of important events. The artistic director was captivated by the commendable courage and strength that inspired the inkings, just as she was inspired by the heroism and mindset of the legendary Greek, Achilles, who has lent his name to the Akillis brand for over 10 years.
Gripped by the spirit of faraway clans, Caroline Gaspard experienced this creative undertaking as a kind of initiation into a brutal and savage terra incognita. Her goal is to pinpoint the intersection of two similar, yet distinct aesthetics, joined by a common moral foundation.
A world of shapes
The authentic Maori style, curved and pointed, highlights the lines and muscles of the body. The jeweler injects her own graphic rock style into this timeless aesthetic.
Caroline adds a new seductive dimension to the established Akillis stylebook of python scales and steel triangles. She forces contrasts into conversation, clashing and melding the swells, slits, soft curves and keen points of waves, harpoons, spirals, and arrows. The triangle, for example - an Akillis calling-card - symbolizes tenacity among Oceanic people and crops up in black diamond and hollowed-out shark teeth motifs.
Tattoo high jewelry: innovative and luxurious jewelry-as-ink
As always with Akillis, concept rules - no matter how challenging to manifest.
To create the necklace - the rich and complex lynchpin of the whole collection - the French savoir-faire of Akillis studios adopted cutting-edge feats of engineering.
This fruitful partnership made possible what, yesterday, was unthinkable, pushing the boundaries of creation.
Conceived from countless sketches, born of an arrangement of lines and figures where every element depends on the one before and after it, the never-before-seen geometric calligraphy of stands out on the skin.
Its enmeshed joints guarantee flexibility and comfort. The latticework supports both upward and downward motion, while the fine vanishing points and dramatic angles deliver a “punk rock” sensuality to the necklace.
Its curves and swirls come and go, like a wave alternating between frozen crest and sudden crash, plunging from the base of the neck to the shoulders. Other parts dwindle to thin wires.
Akillis dares to marry white and black gold forged using traditional techniques. And since Caroline Gaspard loves the unexpected, she electrifies this piece with black diamonds. These high-quality gems are tailored in a painstaking process - the mark of true luxury - with each of the 71 jewels fashioned in unique triangular forms to create stunningly precise mirrored surfaces. The necklace appears to levitate.
The Tattoo collection consists of some 20 references in 12 bold models. Akillis offers this collection in a wide range of materials and prices to represent all the factors that go into the creation of a real tattoo: one’s desires, one’s tastes, critical life events, and each person’s unique selfhood.
The titanium pieces - whether cords, pendants, earrings, rings, or bracelets - are highly affordable. Even though it is harder to work with than gold, AKILLIS uses titanium for the same reason aerospace engineers and fine watchmakers do: for its
strength, its modernity, and for its diversity. A coating of black DLC - a patented technology mixing the structure of carbon, diamond, and a trace amount of hydrogen - making the metal colorfast. Crafted in titanium with a touch setting of black diamonds, a pendant and a pair of sharp-edged earrings evoke the shape of a precious-finned shark.
The creations set in DLC black gold, whether encrusted with black diamonds or not, play with variety. Depending on the polishing, faceting, and gem-setting, these creations toy with light - at turns raw, matte, satiny, silky, metallic, and more. The material makes these pieces vibrate. Through white gold and black diamonds, these “tattoos” are sassy classics - a concept never before seen in the world of jewelry. The flexible choker, half-open bracelet, and matching ring even pretend to be reserved. You can place or remove these “tattoos” whenever and wherever you like! You can complete your collection - or not - over the course of years, or on a whim, or to commemorate an event, or as a symbol of friendship or love. Bridging the permanent and the iconic, Tattoo is for lovers of body art and for neophytes alike.
