A girl dressed in a puffy maid’s uniform sits with forlorn body language, a cigarette poised between her black-painted fingers and long nails. A spiked leather choker lays at her feet and ribbons are stitched into the picture frame behind her. A boy poses with a large cross in his arms, a crown of thorns placed delicately over his mourning veil. Ribbons are stitched into his neck and a rough tattoo streaks across his upper cheeks and nose bridge. These are the intricately detailed characters of noirphetamine, a Thai illustrator fond of blurring her interests in and experience with different creative mediums.
Noir is heavily inspired by Japanese culture and cites gothic lolita and visual kei fashion (basically Japanese glam) as genres she follows closely. She first was drawn to the culture when she started listening to J-rock and visual kei in high school and after a few years her style really fused into the clear, consistent aesthetic she’s known for now. She’s also drawn to Yami-kawaii (which translates to “dark and cute”) and dark romanticism or Victorian Gothic, which is where all the Christian symbolism in her work comes from. She visits Tokyo once or twice a year for vacation to engage directly with these subcultures and is learning to speak Japanese.
The characters that Noir draws are always dripping in fashion that she’s personally interested in. One of her characters has the same piercings on his left ear that she has in real life. Occasionally she even dresses up in the ornate, frilly pieces that they wear but generally wears black, toned-down gothic-style clothes with silver accessories. She also has a group of friends here in Bangkok who all enjoy the same style and get together to host tea parties. Noir studied fashion design and pattern making at an art school so the overlap in disciplines makes sense. Sometimes she even brings the pieces her characters wear to life, but usually her design sketches are rougher and more about directly communicating a design idea.
These characters are often recurring and have names, like Ayasa, who is the purple-haired boy with the piercings. Noir created him as a model for flamboyant and androgynous fashion, mixing the styles of musicians that inspire her. The twin girls are called Sherry and Syaro, and they’re based on the twins from horror landmark The Shining.
Many of Noir’s illustrations feature ornamental designs that draw on common tattoo aesthetics like tribal designs and barbed wire or rose stems. She had actually begun a tattoo apprenticeship but had to take a break from it when the shop she was training at closed because of COVID. She also has about 15 tattoos herself and is building out her sleeve with an artist she works with closely.
All of these elements are combined to create maximalist pieces with seemingly endless details. Brocades and bracelets, text and tattoo designs, frilly accents and leather straps, wallpapers and picture frames. It’s all piled on top of each other, transforming simple character sketches into pieces that beg for deep exploration—all of which is made comprehensible by a stripped-back monotone theme. noirphetamine will definitely keep you guessing.
