Manuela “Manu” Grajales in Envigado: A Better Way to Get Tattooed in Medellín

• 🎨 If you care about color tattoos, you should pick the artist first, then pick the neighborhood, and that usually points you away from El Poblado.

• 💸 Manu’s typical range runs from 200.000 COP to 1.5M COP, which often beats “location pricing” without cutting corners.

• 🧼 Ask basic hygiene questions confidently, because tattoo infection risk is real and good studios welcome smart clients.

• 🗣️ English matters more than people admit, and Manu’s strong English plus collaborative sketching lowers regret risk.

• 📍 Taller Creativo in Envigado gives you a calmer, more local experience, and you still stay close to Medellín.

People say a diamond is forever, but those people want to sell you a rock that is useless other than the artificially inflated value they've placed on it to sell you an image. Don't buy into that nonsense. I'll tell you what's forever, a tattoo. Tattoo culture here in Medellin is HUGE, I've gotten 3 of my tattoos done here and I have to say, the care and art put into the work here is on another level.

When people come here to get inked, they tend to go to places that are trendy, have cool Instagram pages, or because Ryan Castro went there and did a video about it. The other thing is that they go to one of the places in either El Poblado or Laureles because it's easy.

The Zona Rosa is easy, but easy is rarely fairly priced, and “cheap” is not the goal anyway, because tattoos are permanent, and you should never hunt for the lowest price, ever. But you also should not donate extra money to a neighborhood zip code when what you really want is clean work, real collaboration and an artist who treats your idea like a joint project instead of a transaction.

Much like medical tourism, tattoo tourism isn't only about the price. It's more about getting a better price AND getting a better service than you can back home. If you've ever seen the tattoo shops on Calle 10, they are more about the location than they are about the art. If you want real art that will be placed on your body and don't want to pay for the location, get outside the tourist bubble, like Envigado, where the work still is more important than capturing impulse foot traffic.

That is where Manuela Grajales, better known as Manu, comes in. She is an award-winning tattoo artist who works out of Taller Creativo, a collective space in the heart of Envigado, and her specialty is color, the kind that pops in photos but still looks intentional when the novelty wears off and the tattoo becomes part of your real life. She speaks English well, which sounds like a small detail until you realize that most tattoo regret starts with communication gaps, and those gaps grow fast when you are explaining body placement, size, and color choices in a second language. I couldn't imagine getting a tattoo where you have to use Google Translate to talk to your artist.

Here is what makes Manu a smart booking for travelers and expats who want a better process, not just a cheaper price. She treats your tattoo as a collaboration, meaning you do not just hand over an image and hope for the best, because she sketches with you, refines the concept, and makes sure you approve the direction before anything becomes permanent. Her pricing typically ranges from 200.000 COP up to 1.5 million COP depending on size, complexity, and whether you are doing an all-day session, and that range matters because it gives you a realistic budget window without the guessing game that catches a lot of newcomers.

Tattoo travel is not some fringe idea anymore either, and the reason this matters is simple: people want souvenirs that mean something. Hostelworld reported that 38% of surveyed young Americans had gotten a tattoo while traveling, which lines up with what you see in Medellín now, where travelers plan tattoos the same way they plan food tours or day trips.

But the smart version of tattoo travel includes safety checks, and you should never feel awkward asking for them. Public health guidance on tattooing focuses on the basics: sterile needles, clean surfaces, proper glove use, and clear aftercare, because infections and bloodborne pathogen exposure are the real risks when standards slip.

So if you want a practical checklist before you book a tattoo in Medellín, here is the one that keeps you grounded. Ask how they handle sterile supplies, ask what aftercare looks like in Medellín’s heat and humidity, and ask how the design approval step works, because a good artist does not rush you through stencil approval like you are holding up the line.

Here is how to get in touch with Manu:

Manuela Grajales (Manu)
WhatsApp: +57 314 219 0867
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/delamanutatu

Now let’s talk about the part most people dodge. El Poblado has talented artists, but it also has Poblado pricing, and that pricing often shows up in ways that have nothing to do with tattoo quality, because you are paying for rent, positioning, and convenience. Envigado gives you a different feel, because you can still access Medellín easily, but you are not trapped in a neighborhood built around visitors, and that shift alone changes the client experience from “next” to “let’s build something.” If you watch the interview with Manu, she talks about it several times, collaboration. This is part of the spirit at Taller Creative.

Here is how to get in touch with Manu:

Manuela Grajales (Manu)
WhatsApp: +57 314 219 0867
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/delamanutatu

The Taller Creative Collectivo has many incredible artists with a wide range of skill sets:

• Jimmy Gómez: https://www.instagram.com/jimmygomeztattoos

  Specializes in: New School, color, bio-organic, black work, illustrative.

• Liz Restrepo: https://www.instagram.com/lizrestrepo

  Specializes in: Ornamental, fine line, black work, illustrative.

• Luis Zapata: https://www.instagram.com/luiszapata99 and https://www.instagram.com/luchostattoo

  Specializes in: Neotraditional, color, black and gray, cover ups.

• David Morales: https://www.instagram.com/david_mtattoo

  Specializes in: Black and gray, fine line.

If you want to plan your Medellín stay with fewer rookie mistakes, you can also pair this with your wider Medellín research, like my digital nomad neighborhood breakdown, and my piece on avoiding “walking wallet” situations when you go out.

Manu and her crew are not only the right choice for your next tattoo, but they are also the fun people to talk to. If you take art and tattooing seriously, this is the place to go. It's incredibly clean and sterile, located in a nice quiet neighborhood and away from the lights and nonsense of Parque Lleras, which is perfect for your next tattoo.