It’s been a busy year for 27-year-old designer and tattoo artist Laura ter Veer, AKA Star Bunni, as she’s known on social media. In January, she graduated from the Amsterdam Fashion Institute, where she spent six years studying fashion and textiles. She moved to Paris soon after and landed a job at Margiela as a textile assistant, before leaving the role just a few months to focus on tattooing full-time. 

With the help of social media, Star Bunni is booked and busy for the foreseeable future. Why? Because she’s turning rare pieces from fashion’s most treasured archives into permanent body art. Can’t afford or don’t have access to vintage Margiela, McQueen or Galliano? No problem: this tattoo artist will recreate it for a lower price, in a way that will last forever. 

Born and raised in The Hague, it was ter Veer’s mother who got the ball rolling, gifting her tattoo supplies for her 24th birthday. While studying, she practised her first-ever tattoo design on herself: an intricate freehand drawing on her foot. By the time she came to her graduate collection, she’d built up enough confidence to feature tattoos as the focus of the final project. She permanently tattooed four of the six models, with the clothes designed specifically to showcase the artwork. 

As she leaves her job at Margiela to dive feet-first into her own business, below, we speak to Star Bunni about her journey so far, and why she’s dedicated to giving people a piece of fashion’s most exclusive archives. 

Hey Star Bunni! Where did you get the idea to start creating tattoos based on pieces from the Margiela archive? 

Star Bunni: One of the first flash-books I ever made was a couture flash-book, where I translated runway looks by Margiela and McQueen into tattoo designs. Shortly after, I released a McQueen-only series. They were simply my favourite designers, and I liked the idea that someone could carry a fragment of their world on their body.

At Margiela, saying yes to that position also meant saying yes to a system I had already tried to reject. The secrecy, the gatekeeping, the idea that you need to know the right people just to get in – I despise all of that. There is also something frustrating in the inaccessibility of fashion at that level. The archive becomes sacred, untouchable, reserved for a very small circle. With these tattoos, I wanted to imagine another kind of access. The idea that you could carry a fragment of a garment, of a history, permanently on your body.

Has anyone booked in with you to get a Margiela tattoo yet? 

Star Bunni: Yes, the response has been crazy! The lace pieces are the most popular, which is funny because Martin Margiela was not someone who often worked with lace. My personal favourite from the flash comes from the 1994 collection, but another notable one is a piece I did last week inspired by the final look of Glenn [Marten]’s most recent collection. The colours and texture really spoke to me and my client, and out of that shared passion, my first colour tattoo was born. 

How long is your waiting list? 

Star Bunni: I’m almost scared to answer that because I don’t fully know myself. Let’s just say that if I were to tattoo everyone currently on my waiting list back-to-back, five days a week with no holidays, I’d probably be done sometime next year.

What do you love about Margiela? 

Star Bunni: What drew me to Margiela from the start, is the way his work speaks without needing explanation. There is a kind of deconstruction in his work that does not just exist in the garments, but in the way they are placed, shifted, and displaced from what they once were.

Beyond Margiela, what other designers inspire you? 

Star Bunni: John Galliano and Alexander McQueen. Galliano is you during the seventh heartbreak of the month, cheeks still flushed from the sprint you took to your next romantic escapade. Lee [Alexander McQueen] is you sitting on your bedroom floor, having conversations with your demons over a glass of red wine while wearing a trashed evening dress.

What was the first tattoo you ever did?

Star Bunni: It was on my own foot. I thought, let’s not ruin somebody else’s body with my first try – better to start with myself. I was 24, and a week later, I was already tattooing my first client. I was scared to death!

What’s your favourite tattoo you’ve ever done? 

Star Bunni: If I had to pick just one, it would be a tattoo I did on myself and have never posted. It’s an Alexander McQueen sketch – one that the public has never seen before. I got hold of it through someone whose mother worked for McQueen as a seamstress, and who spent time around the atelier as a little boy, when McQueen personally drew it for him. I’ll reveal that one when the time is right, especially since there’s more where that came from.

Do fashion and tattoos go hand in hand? 

Star Bunni: Completely. What matters most to me is that I work with the body, rather than just placing something onto it like a sticker. I look at everybody individually – the curves, the corners, the moles, the muscles – and use that anatomy to create something that flows with it. A garment can frame the body, change it, protect it, or give it a role to play. A tattoo can do something similar, except it's forever. What interests me most is when the two stop being separate disciplines. That is the space I want to keep exploring. 

Do you think your tattoos should be styled in a certain way?

Star Bunni: I’ve been thinking: what if garments were made to measure specifically for tattoos? You could call it tattoo couture. I honestly believe it might be the highest level of sustainability in fashion, because who would ever throw away a custom-made jacket that perfectly frames their favourite tattoo? For me, the ultimate creative freedom would be to design tattoos and clothing simultaneously, the tattoos being an extension of the body.