TALE OF TWO CITIES
A mural by Karabo Poppy & Raoul Goetze
Made possible by Blok
Two artists. One leopard. A friendship that started with a tattoo.
Tale of Two Cities brings Karabo Poppy and Raoul Goetze together on a shared wall in Cape Town’s city centre. Their first mural together combines two distinct approaches to animals, flowers, line and colour, shaped by a friendship that began in 2017.
Open Lane / Vredenburg Lane · Cape Town · 2026
The story behind the mural
Karabo and Raoul first met in 2017, when Raoul tattooed Karabo. An appointment became a friendship, followed by years of talking about making something together.
They worked in different mediums, but shared plenty of references: animals, flowers, bold graphic imagery and South African visual culture. Eventually, a leopard gave the collaboration its shape.
Each artist took one half, made their own marks and trusted the other with the rest. Karabo’s poppies appear on one side; Raoul’s South African flora on the other. These botanical designs are a particularly popular request from Raoul’s tattoo clients, bringing a familiar part of his work on skin onto a city wall.
A shared colour palette connects the two halves. From a distance, the image comes together as one leopard. Look closer and the differences emerge through the linework, patterns and details.
“We wanted people to see one leopard first, then take another second and find the two of us in it.”
— Raoul Goetze
Meet the artists
KARABO POPPY
Illustrator, graphic designer and muralist · Johannesburg
Karabo Poppy Moletsane is a South African artist from Vereeniging, based in Johannesburg. Her work draws on contemporary and traditional African visual culture, bringing together expressive faces, bold linework, pattern and colour.
Some of her earliest influences were the hand-painted signs outside local barbershops and hair salons. They showed people who looked like her family and neighbours, offering a sense of recognition she rarely found in the media she grew up with. That connection to everyday African life continues to shape her work.
Her references often begin with people she meets and places she knows. Photographing her surroundings allows her to stay connected to the lives and experiences she depicts. Basketball culture, introduced to her by her older brothers, also forms part of her influences, alongside animation, games and storytelling.
Karabo’s practice spans illustration, product design, murals and basketball courts, with work for Nike, Google, Netflix and Calvin Klein. Across these different settings, her interest in celebrating African people and visual culture remains central.
Public art extends that work into everyday life. A mural can be encountered on a walk through the city, reaching people beyond a screen or gallery and returning the work to the communities and surroundings that inspire it.
Raoul goetze
Tattoo artist and founder of Palm Black · Cape Town
Raoul Goetze is a Cape Town tattoo artist and the founder of Palm Black Tattoo. His creative life spans tattooing, drawing, painting, music and projects that bring people together.
His route into tattooing began while studying multimedia design and working on posters for an international tattoo convention. Spending time in a tattoo studio gave him a closer view of the craft. An interest in collecting tattoos developed into a desire to make them.
That background in design, alongside studies in sound engineering and an involvement in music, has continued to inform a practice that extends beyond the tattoo chair.
Botanical designs inspired by South African flora are a particularly popular request from his clients. His approach to tattooing also reflects the personal nature of the work: understanding an idea, considering how it will sit on the body and building the trust needed to make it together.
Those connections extend into Palm Black. The independent Cape Town studio is a meeting point for artists, musicians, collectors and travellers, with relationships often continuing long after a tattoo appointment.
Through tattooing, music and live events, Raoul's work has created spaces for people to share ideas and experiences. Tale of Two Cities brings that wider creative life onto a public wall.
on the wall
The finished mural is one part of the story.
These photographs follow Karabo and Raoul through the painting process: preparing colour, working from the lift and building the smaller details that bring the whole composition together.
Mural and process photography by Dirk Steenkamp.
With support from Blok
Blok made Tale of Two Cities possible by funding the entire mural project and helping secure the wall. As the project’s urban partner, its support came with something equally valuable: complete creative freedom for Karabo and Raoul to make the artwork their own.
In sharing the mural, Blok described an approach to city life built around connection, urban living and design. Its focus was on bringing people, ideas and experiences together, and giving everyday urban spaces the character that encourages people to explore.
Here, that support helped turn years of conversation between two independent artists into a public artwork that anyone passing through the lane can encounter.
Thank you to Blok for backing the artists, trusting their vision and helping make this shared wall a reality.
Keep exploring
Discover more of Karabo’s illustration and mural work, follow Raoul’s tattooing and drawing, or visit Palm Black’s wider creative world.
Follow Karabo Poppy
Follow Raoul Goetze
Follow Palm Black Tattoo
Start a tattoo conversation with Raoul
Raoul tattoos at Palm Black in Cape Town. Share your idea with the studio team to begin a tattoo enquiry with him.