Interview with Tattoo Artist: Betty Latusek

London based photographer Marta Hawrylow interviewed Betty Beata Latusek who along with her partner Kamil work at Betty Tattoo in Wroclaw, Poland. On the day Betty organised a few of her clients, with healed tattoos, to come into the studio to talk about their tattoos and allow Marta to photograph them… 

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How long do you know each other? Gosh, ages, we’ve met when we were only kids,  14 years old. We have been inseparable since.

Was tattooing important to you back then? Our love for art and tattoo flourished few years after we met.  Kamil was my first skin, he trusted me enough when I was training, now he laughs that one day I’ll have to cover up my first tattoos.

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How long have you been collaborating? How is it working out for you guys? We do everything together, always have been. This isn’t our first job under one roof. Our roles are very clear, I draw and tattoo, Kamil focuses on customer service, the clients are very important to him and he is the CEO.

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How do you work with clients in order to design a project for them? This is Kamil’s part. He meets every client during the first consultation, he discusses what they want- the colours, size and placement. He also does the first draft, most clients bring in photos and other materials  to show what they want in their design. During the session, I chat with the client before we start, over a cuppa.

Does your work depict your personality? I don’t think so. I try to get to know the client and their wishes, I try to portray them, not myself in my work.

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What do you like to tattoo most? What is your favourite theme? I love portrait, realism, always have. Even in art school I loved painting faces.

Is there something you wouldn’t tattoo or a part of the body? I’d always said I will never tattoo faces. But broke that rule, and with pleasure I now say to never say never. I love a challenge and nothing surprises or scares me.

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What or who inspires you? Do you have any favourite artists? Everything what surrounds me inspires me, from changing seasons to people who come to the studio. There are many ultra talented polish artists whose art I admire like Marcin Surowiec or Giena Todryk. However, I might surprise you here, my favourite artist is our eight year old daughter Nadia, who is so gifted. She became a little star and I tattooed a few of her art work onto people already.

When was the first time you knew you wanted to be a tattoo artist? I knew in high school, when I was studying art and got my first tattoo. After that I was drawing projects for friends and their friends and that is how the love started.

And how did you get into tattoo world? Well, it was a bet with my nephew. And as very stubborn being, I did (and still would do) anything to achieve what I set my mind to.

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How long have you been tattooing it? Only seven years, five of which as Betty Tattoo.

How does your own tattoos make you feel? I always wait for super special moments in my life to get them on my skin. Few are a spur of the moment, but most are done by person who helped to change my life, Damian Kowal, my dear friend and my teacher.

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If you weren’t a tattooist, what would you be? I probably would still paint or draw, just using different tools. I am a jeweller by profession. Surely I would be doing something creative and interesting.

Mean Girls flash day, that is so fetch!

We headed to Lost Time Tattoo in Peterborough for a Mean Girls flash day on the famous date that Aaron Samuels asked the most important question of all time:

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This was not your typical flash day, Harriet Heath and Abbie Williams had every last detail down from pink balloons outside the shop to cheesy tunes blasting throughout the day.

Harriet is currently on a tour of guest spots and when the pair were discussing her time at Lost Time they realised it would fall on October 3rd. Abbie and Harriet love films from the 90s/00s and with a predominantly female client base they couldn’t resist organising the day.

Lost Time got a complete Mean Girls make over with the film on repeat, a variety of animal ears and even its very own burn book. Even better was that after the event they et the book alight.

With an incredible array of flash to choose from we couldn’t resist getting something fetch ourselves. The wall of flash incited bouts of quotes from ‘is butter a carb?’ to ‘there’s a 30% chance it’s already raining’ that meant there was something for even the most obscure fan.

We hope this is part of an influx of October 3rd flash days that starts an invasion of awesome flash days where we can listen to awesome music, get awesome pieces and just sit around and soak up each others’ awesomeness.

And our favourite touch of the day was that we even got our very own piece of the crown.

 

New York: Museum of Tattoo History

Daredevil Tattoo studio in New York have been fundraising to create a tattoo museum, we chatted to tattoo artist Michelle Myles who works at the studio to  find out more… 

Who tattoos at the shop? I work at the shop full time and my business partner Brad Fink is based in St.Louis at Iron Age studio. He gets to New York as often as he can. Our other full time artists are Diego Mannino, Chilly Pete and Lara Scotton from Milan.

How long has the studio been open? We opened Daredevil in 1997 when tattooing was legalized in New York after a 30 year ban. Two years ago we moved from our original location on Ludlow Street to our new space on Division in Chinatown.

Can you tell us about the New York tattoo Museum you are creating? Our new space is larger and incorporates Brad’s extensive historical tattoo collection. Our new location is also just down the street from Chatham Square and the Bowery, the birthplace of modern American tattooing. We are very excited to be able to build a space that pays tribute to the early roots of modern tattooing in the same place where it all began.

How did the fundraising page start? In December we were able to buy the storefront that the shop is located in but it really wiped us out and we were anxious to finish the work needed to bring the rest of the collection into the space. We saw the fundraising campaign as a way to finish the work on the space and also to let people know about the museum and to get people involved in it. Probably the best part of the campaign was the amount of support we got from the tattoo community and really having a sense of people believing in the project and wanting it to come about.

What do you hope to achieve? These days with so many small businesses falling to high rents and being pushed out our goal has been to build a permanent home for tattoo history in New York City that is open to everyone and is a global destination for the tattoo community.

Why is the museum needed? New York City of all cities needs a tattoo museum more than any place else because of the history it gave us.

How much have you raised? The kickstarter campaign raised $36,000

What’s next? Right now we’re working on getting all the rewards out to all the people who pledged for the campaign and finishing the projects in the shop that the campaign will be paying for. The main projects are the front display case that will hold the Thomas Edison engraving pen along with other artifacts, the signage out front that can go up when the work is done on the facade of our building and getting the crushed penny machine working that we got from Lyle Tuttle.

You can see the progress of the kickstarter campaign here

 

Apprentice Love: Roxy Ryder

We spotted the work of apprentice Roxy Ryder, 24 on Instagram and instantly loved her colourful, bright and cartoon-like tattoos. We chatted to Roxy to find out more about her life as an apprentice at Alchemy Tattoo Studio in Wigan, Manchester where she works.

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How did you get your apprenticeship? What were you doing before? I asked in the studio I was getting tattooed in at the time around three years ago and started by handing out flyers. I started my apprenticeship at Alchemy Tattoo Studio in Wigan, a friend of mine recommended me and it went from there. I’ve been tattooing as an apprentice for little under a year. The artists have made me feel right at home. Even if it is an all guy studio and I get a little bullied now and then!
Before working in the tattoo industry I worked in retail, I did this whilst building up a portfolio. Spending most nights drawing and painting.

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What do you like about it what do you dislike? I love that I get to do something I love everyday and stay creative. The guys I work with are awesome and getting to meet lovely people on a daily basis is great. The only thing I dislike about tattooing is feeling nervous before a tattoo and self doubt.

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Do you have a background in art? I have always been into art and crafts from a young age. I spent a lot of my childhood doing different crafts which followed through into school. I then studied a BTEC National Diploma in Art and Design at college as I always had my heart set on doing something with art. I then found my favourite medium to work with. I have been spitshading with watercolour inks for a couple of years now, trying to get better!

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How would you describe your style? I’m not too sure how to describe my style but I love to do bright bold designs. The majority of my designs are usually pretty cute and girly. Very colourful for someone who wears all black everyday!

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What is a typical day like for you? A typical day for me is coming into work and doing my little jobs around the studio. I usually prepare most of my designs a couple of days before so I have time to study a colour scheme and change any bits. That way I can make sure I am fully prepared and myself and the customer are happy with the design. I spend the rest of the time watching and learning from the other artists I work with and making brews! If it’s a quiet day I will spend my time drawing new designs and painting. I love to do commissioned paintings in my spare time but if I’m not doing those I love to watch a good B-Movie or a Horror!

How did you feel doing your first tattoo? I did my first tattoo on myself, it was a little moth on my lower leg. I was so nervous and it took me ages but because it was on myself it wasn’t too bad.

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What inspires you? So many artists and tattoo artists inspire me. Seeing how hard people work and how much talent they have makes me strive to be better and paint and draw more.

What things do you like to tattoo and draw? Everything I draw is always pretty bold and bright. I love drawing and painting cartoons. Most of the time people commission me for cartoon pieces, which is always fun to do! It all depends on the mood I’m in but I have lots of things I love to draw and tattoo! My faves are anything bright, cute and girly! I love doing spacey stuff, aliens, UFOS and rockets are super fun! Robots, little bloody weapons, kewpies, tropical, nautical designs and kawaii pieces. I love horror so I would love to start doing little horror pieces too.

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Can you tell us a bit about your own tattoos? I still have so much free space for tattoos. I currently have my lower legs and arms tattooed with a few others dotted about. My most painful tattoo has to be my palm. I decided to have a brain tattooed on it! My first tattoo was a ship on my foot. Most of my tattoos are pretty traditional. I have so many artists I want to get tattooed by so I’m saving my space at the moment!

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Charity Tattoo: Still Standing

Our Italian contributor Ilaria went to the charity event ‘Still Standing’ at Adrenalink tattoo shop in Marghera, to raise money for the victims of a tornado in Venice. Here is her diary of the day and the tattoos that were created…   

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On 8th July, a tornado hit the Venice outskirts along the Riviera del Brenta, known for the magnificent Venetian Villas. Many people have volunteered to help those who have been affected by this terrible misfortune.  When a tornado hits a place it doesn’t consider religions, borders or the colour of skin. It just follows its own route and destroys. Many homes and lives have been ruined. Millions of euros worth of damage has been caused and hundreds of families have been left without a place to call home. The fear was – and still is – huge, because such an event has never occurred in Italy before.

To support those victims of this natural disaster Adrenalink tattoo shop decided to organise a charity event!

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Crez and Stefy, tattoo artists and owners of the shop, who are known in the tattooing industry for creating high quality tattoos, influenced by Japanese history and culture. On Sunday 26 July 2015, they came together with tattoo artists Rio and Diego to help those who are unfortunately now in difficulty, with a 100% charitable event called ‘Still Standing’.

 

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Tattoos by Rio

The walk-in day started from 4pm, with tattoo flash prepared especially for the occasion, there were prints available to buy as well as DJ sets and entertainment.

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Everyone loved the array of flash and each tattoo started at €50 and then people would bid on each design, the highest bidder would then have the flash tattooed. I thought this was a great way to raise money, as everyone could help give to charity and the starting bid was really affordable. Every one who got tattooed during that day was also thinking about helping someone else. And that’s simply great.

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Tattoos by Stefy

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Tattoos by Crez

Once again tattoos are a force that brings people together, beating down old barriers. What better way to show your solidarity to others than with a charity tattoo? All of these tattoos have a story and piece of life to tell, they are now connected with the tornado and the disaster that ensued.