Guest bloggers Archives - Page 14 of 22

September 15, 2015September 15, 2015

Interview with Tattoo Artist: Alessandro Lemme

Our Italian contributor Ilaria chatted to tattoo artist Alessandro Lemme who works out of Psycho Tattoo studio in Rome. His clean lines and selective colour palette lend themselves to the world of traditional tattoos.

When I first saw your work on Instagram, I knew right away that the tattoos had been made by an artist who had real passion in his blood. Did you always know you would become a tattooist? I don’t think it was a flash of inspiration but rather a path. It starting from painting and drawing (that I have always cultivated), and from the first tattoos seen on other people. It all developed gradually, as my interest for tattoos increased, not only the ones on myself but also the ones I made for others.

How do you feel now that you are doing what you love? Very lucky, and grateful.

What fascinates you the most about the history of tattooing? And tattooing itself? I believe that, in a world that is becoming increasingly abstract and dull, chained to masks and superficial appearances of yourself, the tattoo continues to be a powerful means of self-determination and concrete aesthetics. It is a re-appropriation of your own body and your own inner life, with flesh, blood and symbols, and therefore reality and truth.

The colours you use for your tattoos denote a great love for the past and at the same time they are traditional yet delicate. Do you agree? I hope so, although I do not think they are so unique and rare. I don’t know if we can call it nostalgia, but I think that wherever there is love and respect for the history and the past, there will always be good tattoo artists.

You can create a strong and fierce subject, like a tiger, and at the same time a romantic and mysterious one, like a mermaid. What are your everyday inspirations? The tattoo artists of the past, that’s for sure. I can produce and draw what I want, but I could never create something that coincides with my idea of tattooing without their inheritance. In my ideal tattoo shop, drawings are chosen from the flash sheets affixed to the walls. I do not think at all that perpetuating (even without inventing) is demeaning. There is no doubt that there are and have been great and brilliant innovators of style and iconography, but our world – at least up to a certain point and period – has often had little to do with the ‘real artists’, as it has been composed mostly by people who have just ‘done tattoos’.

What are the subjects you would like to tattoo but you havent’t yet? The Rock of Ages, perhaps the king among the subjects of traditional style. It’s my dream and I hope it will come true!

Tell us about the first tattoo you got and also about the most recent. Two different times on the same skin. What are the differences (if any)? My first tattoo was a Viking on my right shoulder, I was almost 17 years old. I remember that there wasn’t a lot of tattoo shops to choose from and the flash was limited: warriors, tribal and then fairies for girls! Coming from a metal environment, the decision of what subject to get wasn’t difficult! The last needles to hurt my skin were those who traced the lines of my back, by Alessandro Turcio. Two tigers fighting, immersed in vegetation, including palm trees, roses and butterflies. I think the difference consists essentially in the knowledge and preparation regarding the subject, and in the awareness of getting tattooed by an artist I trust.

Do you admire other artists? Do you have any values that you would never give up? I admire anybody who is sincere in what he does and who knows how to do it well. Both those who decide to remain stubbornly in the furrow and those who try to climb over it. Every person and artist who is good, skilled, experienced and humble.

How important is humility for you? Both in your life and in the customer/tattoo artist relationship. It often seems that those who are full of themselves manage to attract and convince as many customers as possible. I believe that, after all, it is nothing more than a state of mind, a distinctive feature of some characters: what brings you to consider yourself to be close to others, rather than constantly trying to walk over their head.

Will you be doing any guest spots abroad? Yes, I will be in London, at the Family Business, from 5th to 9th October!

September 14, 2015

Fashion Pearls of Wisdom: Erasing the Past

Our guest blogger is Natalie McCreesh aka Pearl, a fashion lecturer, freelance writer and creator of Fashion Pearls of Wisdom. This is the third of many posts to appear on th-ink.co.uk, in which Natalie will be telling us about her life in tattoos. Catch up on the first, second, third and fourth posts in the series.

Are we tattoo snobs? I think I might be. I have not so long since covered up my last teenage tattoo. I had laser removal for some of them and it was during this procedure that a friend challenged my intentions. ‘Why would you get a tattoo removed? Don’t you know they are permanent, they are markers of your life, don’t throw away your memories’. His body is covered in what must be close to one hundred tiny tattoos, each linked to a memory, a person, an event, an emotion. He collects his tattoos using his body as a trinket box. None of them you would describe as a piece of art, but they are pieces of him.

Beginning of backpiece with cover up

The tattoos I had early on in life I wanted covered up for two main reasons, firstly they were badly done and secondly they were taking up space on my body which I wanted to cover with large, professionally done tattoos. My tattoos now could be classed as artworks on my skin, they are beautifully executed and original in design.

But is that the point of getting a tattoo? I really don’t know, we all have different reasons for going under the needle. It cannot be as simple as collecting art, I could and do have a multitude of art hanging on my walls at home, there was no need to have it on my body. Most of my tattoos cannot be put down to any special meaning either, of course there are the traditional meanings, I have a rooster which is my Chinese zodiac sign, I have a Foo-dog which represents protection but these aren’t meanings deeply personal to me. I have a peony on my knee which is solely there to fill an awkward gap, there for aesthetic purposes does that make it purely fashion?

Like fashion, tattoos can cost very little or exorbitant amounts. You have the high street budget fashion comparison in the street tattoo shops, often boasting special offers ‘all you can sit for £250’, ‘full sleeves £300’, ‘any two names £20’ (all genuine offers seen on the streets of Sheffield), you can get a full outfit from Primark and your boyfriends name tattooed for under £50. On the opposite end of the spectrum you can pay $500 per hour – I won’t say who quoted that but on large pieces you can pay an average £80-100 per hour. Some artists charge by the piece and depending on the size and details a fairly large tattoo can cost between £200-£500. Just like a Chanel handbag, if you embark on a body suit you will look to pay into the thousands.

Therein lies the elitism, not everyone can afford the best artists and the largest tattoos. For some having a spare £50 for a tattoo is a struggle. When I had my early tattoos done they were the ones I could afford. But does erasing those tattoos mean I’m erasing my past? Am I trying to hide my working class background? Every now and again I forget I had my first tattoo covered up and get confused for a second when it’s not on my wrist, there instead the snake concealing it. Throughout our lives we change, we change – our clothes, our hair, our jobs, our homes so why not change our tattoos to better reflect the people we are now rather than the people we were.

Snake by Kelly Smith

September 13, 2015October 5, 2015

Music Interview: Atreyu

Californian Metalcore legends Atreyu have just completed their first UK tour in nearly 5 years – following a lengthy hiatus, the band were playing a couple of intimate warm up shows at smaller venues prior to appearances at the Reading & Leeds festivals. Our guest music blogger Robert Moody caught up with the band at their sold out Nottingham show:

(From the left: Brandon Saller – drummer and vocalist, Dan Jacobs – guitarist, Robert Moody – our guest blogger, Alex Varkatzas – vocalist and Travis Miguel – guitarist.)

You’re playing much smaller venues for these warm up shows than you would normally play – how has that been on the tour so far?

Alex Varkatzas: No venue too big, no venue too small!

Brandon Saller: They’ve been a blast, it’s what we came from so it’s awesome to have an opportunity to do something like that. Sweating on kids, getting kicked in the face, it’s a good time!

And after this you’ll be playing the bigger shows at Reading and Leeds Festivals, how much are you looking forward to those?

Brandon Saller: I’m stoked, I really love the UK and their approach to festivals, they’re such big events and you get to see so many friends, it’s going to be a really good time.

Any other bands in particular you’re going to try and catch while you’re there?

Brandon Saller: I’m not sure if they’re on the same day as us but I’d like to see Beartooth, they’re doing a tour with us later this year in the States. Stoked to see Bring Me The Horizon, stoked to see Pvris, stoked to see Ghost…

Travis Miguel: Be good to see our friends in Metallica…

Alex Varkatzas: Yeah we haven’t played with Metallica for a couple of years so it’ll be good to reunite!

Thinking about your new album, the songs we’ve heard so far have had a varied sound, almost encapsulating the styles of the band over the years. With that in mind, how would you describe the band’s sound now, and what does the rest of the album have in store?

Brandon Saller: I feel like this album has a lot of the spirit of our youth, combined with a lot of the things we’ve learned along the way…

Alex Varkatzas: It’s the spirit of our youth combined with the maturity of our years.

Brandon Saller: Exactly – it’s an Atreyu fan’s record, to be honest.

Several members of the band have always had a lot of prominent tattoos and artwork, even dating back to your early days, would you mind sharing some of the inspiration behind what you’ve had done and telling us a little bit about what motivates the tattoos you get?

Brandon Saller: Personally, I’m not that big on the deep meaning behind my tattoos, I’m a lot more about the art. Several of my tattoos do have meaning of course, this key (below) was a gift for my wife for our 2^nd anniversary, I’ve got tattoos for my Mom and Dad…but for the most part, a lot of my tattoos are because I’m appreciative of the art.

Alex Varkatzas: Yeah when I was younger, I was very appreciative of the art, but now I take the art and twist it in my own mind to make it personal. I just got a really large thigh-piece of an English Bulldog fighting a Cobra (below), and that’s because I have an English Bulldog and I love her…and I fucking hate snakes! So for me that’s about conquering fear.

You’ve travelled around the world with the band, are there any particular places that have inspired you or stuck with you after you’ve visited them?

Brandon Saller: I’m a huge fan of the UK, Japan, Australia…

Alex Varkatzas: Which has some of the best tattoos, I think. I think everyone in Australia has really good tattoos. I really like Italy, I’d love to get tattooed there.

Brandon Saller: Alex has just recently started tattooing, so he’s probably a bit deeper into it now than the four of us are. But it’s always helpful to have someone who knows where the good tattoo places are, wherever you go!

And have you found that it’s given you a new appreciation of the art, now you’ve experienced the other side of it?

Alex Varkatzas: Absolutely. It’s hard. It takes years to learn the craft – so you appreciate it so much more. It’s awesome.

As you mentioned, you’re heading back to the States for the tour with Beartooth, which is really the band’s first ‘normal’ tour since the break – does this mean the band is going back to the touring lifestyle now or is that just a one off?

Alex Varkatzas: It’s more that, as long as it’s fun, and it makes sense, we do it. So we might do this tour and then just cancel everything after it! I don’t think we will, of course – just as long as it’s fun.

Brandon Saller: We just want to take as much of the ‘job’ aspect of being in a band out of the equation, and just enjoy every second of what we’re doing. We’ve scaled back a bit, we might be touring a little less, but we’d definitely want to get some packages together and then perhaps to a few shows here and there as well.

And are you finding the touring experience any different this time around?

Brandon Saller: I think we appreciate it more now. For us it’s been great, the energy at our shows has been pretty fucking crazy.

Alex Varkatzas: We’re touring in a smarter manner these days, not just taking every single show that comes our way. The way we see it is that it’s a lot easier to get through some sprints, than it is to run 10 miles. So we can just put more effort into it. So for me, if I know I’m only going on tour for a couple of weeks, I can just go all out. If you’re going out for 3 months, you can’t do that. Plus it’s not so much fun when you’re just doing the same thing every day, so we just come out here, really push ourselves, give the cliché 150%. Then I feel more engaged with it and I think the audiences are more engaged. A good way to describe it is like the NFL season in America – it’s only 16 games, every game counts.

Dan Jacobs: We want our touring career to be like the NFL season and not the Baseball season which is way too long!!

Well we know the London show in April delivered on that so if it’s half as good tonight we should be in for a hell of a time!

Brandon Saller: It should be great, it’s been sold out for some time I think, I think the kids are excited and we’re excited too.

September 11, 2015

Film Review: Horns

Our guest blogger is hobbyist film and TV series reviewer and writer Harry Casey-Woodward…

Horns 2013, 2/5
A while ago I saw Daniel Radcliffe’s face emblazoned on a magazine cover. He was unshaven, had a steely squint and a smoking cigarette dangling from his lips with no consideration for influencing young wizards with this dirty muggle habit. The headline was ‘Harry Potter gone bad’ or something silly like that.

Daniel

My guess is that Radcliffe’s new bad boy image had something to do with this film I’m reviewing, for his character does indeed smoke, drink, curse, fight, has some sex and looks as if he could do with a bath, some attitude counselling and a good night’s sleep: you know, like a normal young adult.

This is not the first time I’ve wondered if Radcliffe is taking the same career path as Elijah Wood; in other words, attempting to trash the cute boy wizard/hobbit roles that made them famous by proving they can do darker, mature roles. For example, Wood starred in Maniac in 2012 as a woman-slaughtering psychopath and in 2014’s Open Windows he played an internet creep stalking his favourite actress (who happened to be played by porn star Sasha Grey to add further controversy).

Radcliffe has gone down a less violently extreme image-trashing career path than Wood, but his angry young man take in Horns is still hilarious, especially since he’s adopted an American accent. As grating as this sounds, you do get used to it and surprisingly I ended up caring a little bit for his character. He plays a young man named Ig living in some insignificant backwoods town whose girlfriend Merrin (Juno Temple) has just been murdered and everyone thinks he did it. After a drunken emotional night, he wakes up to find a pair of horns sprouting out of his forehead. He then discovers that everyone he talks to confesses their deepest, darkest secrets and desires. He decides to use this new awkward gift to seek out his girlfriend’s killer and force a confession.

As imaginative and darkly hilarious this setup is, it’s not really explained and doesn’t make a lot of sense. I’m not one of those people who like every aspect of the plot dictated to me and I do believe a little ambiguity is good for a film. However, If director, Alexandre Aja, is trying to make some moral point about Ig being cursed with demonic powers it’s missed because there’s no reason for it. I don’t know if the novel by Joe Hill offers more explanation and, like Kubrick did with The Shining , Aja decided to sacrifice some of the novel’s explanations for the film’s imagery.

But in The Shining, there is a vague justification for the weird spooky stuff, in that it’s a reflection of all the dark stuff that happened in the hotel’s past. In Horns Ig never does anything that justifies his curse. Sure he’s a surly, indulgent, non-believer like every young adult, but he’s not evil. If anything, he’s the character most wronged. The only heretic thing he does is smash the Virgin Mary figurine at his dead girlfriend’s shrine, pee on some candles and then rant about what good going to church every Sunday did for her. Do any of these pathetic, slightly justifiable actions merit the horror thrust on his life, whether by God or the Devil (unless either one has a very bitter sense of humour)? And if this curse is a punishment for whatever darkness lies in Ig’s heart, surely it shouldn’t give him advantages? Halfway through the film snakes swarm to Ig, willing to obey his will, I guess because he’s now tainted with evil? So he uses them for vengeful purposes, thus making him more evil than when he started. If God’s trying to punish him He’s doing a bad job and if the devil’s trying to corrupt him, why him? He wasn’t exactly a pure being to start with.

I do admire films that do weirdness for the sake of it, but only to an extent. Traditionally in Gothic moral narratives, like Doctor Faustus, religious phenomena that has a negative impact on the protagonist’s life has a moral purpose, in order to give didactic instruction to the audience (let’s ignore the film Stigmata, which is based on random religious phenomena). With Horns we have what feels like a traditional Gothic narrative. But the fact that the reason and nature of Ig’s non-deserved curse, whether it’s a blessing or a punishment, is hidden to the audience means that the moral we’re expecting is not very clear. All we get is a character that has a lot of weird, bad stuff happen to him. This doesn’t do much for a story and throws up more questions than answers. The other thing that lets the film down is Radcliffe. As hard as he tries, whether he’s being distraught or vengeful, he’s never very convincing. He always looks like he’s straining when he should be easily slipping into these emotions. Unfortunately, since the entire film consists of him having emotional conflicts with every character, we’re stuck with Radcliffe in tantrum mode.

I didn’t expect the film to be great from the offset, as I’m not a fan of Radcliffe, but I was surprised at how gripping and entertaining it was on another level. Despite the vast room for improvement left by the issues discussed above, it’s still a good murder mystery and the idea of a superpower that removes people’s inhibitions is an original idea that leads to some hilarious and cringing scenes. The story and dialogue is good, even if it’s a lot of flashbacks and emotional angst. All the performances, apart from Radcliffe, are good too. Juno Temple playing Ig’s girlfriend shows Radcliffe up on convincingly portraying a troubled young adult. Even the child actor playing Ig in the flashbacks does a better job than Radcliffe. We also get Heather Graham in a great minor role as a publicity-crazed waitress.

So if you want a supernatural murder mystery with a thrilling plot that looks cool but you don’t care about the supernatural part making much sense, knock yourself out. Other than that, there isn’t much substance here and the film will probably only be memorable for Harry Potter joining the forces of evil.

September 10, 2015January 4, 2016

Sick Girls Official

Our guest blogger is 34-year-old Southsea creative Alanna Lauren, founder of RubyxRedxHeart. She chatted to Natalie Watts and Fox Xoft founders of Sick Girls an online store which sells creepily cool prints and accessories, about how they met, what inspires them and their tattoos…

Tell me a bit about yourselves! How long have you gals known each other and what was the inspiration behind sickgirlsofficial.com?

Fox: We’re both freelance illustrators from Toronto, Canada who graduated from OCAD University in 2012. We weren’t friends right away though. Eventually we bonded over Keyboard Cat, because remember that used to be a thing?

Natalie: We met in second year, some bogus computer class, it was supposed to teach us how to make a website, but clearly I learned nothing.

Fox: SadGirls started off because I used to be really into making zines at the time and Nat and I had a graphic novel class together and liked each other’s work. We decided to do a zine based on bad ass babes. I think we were vicariously living through our work and creating the world we actually wanted to inhabit, because in reality we were VERY poor, eating A LOT of ramen, while our tears bled the ink on our mountains of school assignments. Fast forward to three years later and basically we just got our shit together and shifted our medium from viewable art to a wearable product with a similar intent.

Can you tell us about your tattoos?

Fox: I’m in love with Alex Snelgrove’s work. She did the black woodcut flowers on both of my arms. Last month she did a woodcut Pegasus on my hip because I’ve been obsessed with Greek mythology for as long as I can remember. Those ones are amazing, but I’ll always have a soft spot for the stick-n-poke on my ankle done by the talented Open Entity, which is a drawing of the welcome mat on the door to Hell that Natalie drew as flash art. Because Nat is MLC (Major League Complainer) and has that WAH tattoo, I started calling her “Wahwah” or “Wahtalie” a while ago and it stuck.

Natalie: I have one tattoo I had done when I was 18 somewhere in Oshawa that is of a Welsh Dragon and then two that are stick-n-pokes. One of them was done by Open Entityand of just ‘zzz’ on the back of my arm, and the other on my ankle by a guy I was seeing – which is probably my favourite one – of the letters ‘WAH’… because I like sleeping and complaining.

What’s in a name? Who came up with sickgirlsofficial.com and what does it mean to you?

Natalie: I came up with the name Sick Girls one night while we were drawing, the name describes our style of art and ultimately it’s just who we are… I like the idea of being an outsider, and I like illustrating really gross shit. I am very shy, and have a hard time expressing my thoughts; I’m also a huge mumbler. I like the idea of being able to express myself through my illustrations. Sick Girls is a unisex brand, but definitely caters towards more females who want it to be known that they aren’t just your average girl. Pretty flowers and kitties? BORING! Slime and barf coming out of your eye sockets? Now that’s more like it!

What took you down the patches and pins route to showcase your designs?

Natalie: At first we didn’t have any patches or enamel lapel pins, for our first pop-up shop we began making Sculpey candy pins and necklaces, which were entirely handmade. I was also producing ShrinkyDink pins, which I still make today, but is time consuming and labour intensive. Once we started getting noticed on Instagram and making more sales, it was hard to keep up with producing all handmade items, so we started designing lapel pins and patches that we can get mass produced.

Fox: Patches and pins are great because they can add personality to a plain old bag or denim jacket. You can customize or make a statement on articles of clothing you already have. It’s great because everyone has their own collection that tells a story or says something about their personal aesthetic. I have my own pin collection on my bag, and I’m stoked every time I add a new pin because it’s another brand/artist I admire.

sickgirlsofficial.com has a strong message for women. What does it mean to be part of the ‘sick girls club’?

Natalie: For me, it’s just not really giving a fuck, like what you want, even if it’s not the norm. I mean I like drawing stuff that gets me excited, and I get excited by drawing gross shit. I’m happy that other people enjoy it too.

Fox: We’re all about being tough, never giving up and in general not giving a fuck if other people tell you you’re not good enough. We’re “sick girls” because we don’t have a “typical girl” image to promote. Being ‘girly’ or ‘feminine’ isn’t a fault by any means, but we’ve always balanced the feminine imagery with things that were gross, disgusting, and visceral. Even though “girls” is in the name, the brand is unisex though obviously some products cater more to the ladies.

What does the future hold for sickgirlsofficial.com?

Fox: We’re working on the wholesale game right now. We’re still selling products individually from our online store, but we’re starting to sell wholesale to shops worldwide. So far our merch is available in stores in Toronto and Ottawa and few cities in the USA. Next THE WORLD.

Natalie: I’d really like for Sick Girls to take off, I think in order for that to happen we just need to keep creating as much as possible. We’ve been discussing some collaborations with other companies, as well as working with a large design label, which will be using one of our products on their next spring/summer line. We seem to be getting more and more interest from stores to stock our products each month. It’s crazy to see how far we’ve come in less than a year, I think things just seem to be getting better with each passing month and can’t wait to see what happens!