Austin tattoo artist draws five cryptids for new USPS stamp set
Nat Power, a resident artist at Royal Legion Tattoo, digitally illustrated the five-stamp pane featuring American folklore figures.
By Alessia Romano ·
Five distinct mythical creatures will soon appear on U.S. postage stamps, marking a new intersection between traditional ink art and federal postal design.
Nat Power, a resident artist at Royal Legion Tattoo in Austin, digitally illustrated the upcoming Mythical Creatures stamp set. The project places American cryptid folklore on a postage-sized canvas for the first time. The five-stamp pane was designed under the direction of Antonio Alcalá, the U.S. Postal Service Art Director.
Power’s approach to the work draws on her academic background in printmaking and serigraphy. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in studio art from the University of Texas in 2016 after growing up in Cedar Hill, North Texas. Her professional focus on strong shapes and bold black linework, developed during a tattoo apprenticeship that began in 2019, informs her illustration style.
The collection features five specific beings from regional legends. The Mothman, first reported in West Virginia in 1966, appears as a flying, red-eyed figure. The Jackalope, an antlered rabbit, represents a legend that emerged in Wyoming in the 1930s through the work of two taxidermist brothers.
The set also includes the Squonk, a tearful creature from Pennsylvania lumbermen’s lore, and Sasquatch, the giant known as Bigfoot from the Pacific Northwest. The final stamp depicts Champ, the legendary lake monster associated with the Lake Champlain region bordering New York and Vermont. Each illustration includes icons representing the creature’s native environment.
The Postal Service stated that the collection reflects a national appreciation for the unknown and odd. This release serves as Power’s debut project for the agency. The stamps translate local folklore into a standardized visual format for national distribution.
