Nippon Paint x Naive Flora Tattoo: My First Commercial

Colourful flower tattoo on an upper arm, from the Nippon Paint commercial

In May 2024 an email landed that rearranged my whole week. It invited me to stand in front of a camera for a Nippon Paint commercial, playing a tattoo artist, which is to say playing myself. 🌷

I went as Portjolio and as our own little studio, Naive Flora Tattoo. It was the first time I had been part of a film production like this, and honestly I was more nervous than I get before a big piece.

What the film is about

The campaign is built around the line "colour made for you". The heart of it is the idea that colour is not only decoration on a wall, it is one of the ways a person says who they are.

Scene from the commercial, a studio surrounded by flowers

Reading the script, it felt very close to what I already do every day. The flowers I draw for people work in exactly the same way. They are small shapes and colours that someone decides to carry for the rest of their life.

How the shoot went

The crew built a whole tattoo room and then filled it with real flowers until there was hardly any wall left. I walked in and just stood there for a moment, because it looked like the room in my head had been lifted out and set down in front of me.

Tattooing a flower design on the actress during filming

The tattooing in the film is real, by the way. No stickers. I worked on the actress while the camera was rolling, which made it the strangest working day of my life: staying focused on one small line while thirty people hold their breath around you.

The director behind it

The film was directed by Wasakorn Khumklaowiriya, known as Boss, a fashion film director whose images always have a very particular softness. He also made GO GIRLS for Wacoal x Post-Thesis. There is a full interview with him at The Portfolio on Portjolio.

Wide view of the set, tattoo table and vases of flowers everywhere

Watch the full film

The film is called "Nippon Paint, colour made for you" and you can watch it on the Nippon Paint Decorative YouTube channel. When you see a hand holding the tattoo machine in frame, that hand is mine.

If you want flowers like these

The design in the film is the kind of flower we draw at the studio every week. If you like that style, have a wander through the whole flash catalogue. Each design is tattooed once and then retired forever, from ฿1,500.

The studio is on Phahonyothin 32/1 in Sena Nikhom, Chatuchak, open daily from 10:00 to 20:00. Book a slot or just come and say hello first, on @naive.flora.tattoo. 🌿