Tag: Tattoo artist

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Interview with tattoo artist Suro

Suro tattoos out of Gold Leaf Ink, San Francisco where she creates incredible (mostly) black and grey realism mixed with illustrative style tattoos. In this interview Suro tells us about her path into tattooing and what she’s learnt along the way…

I was actually born in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. I spent my entire childhood there all the way up until 12th grade. I wanted to experience college in the states, especially art schools in New York, even though there are a ton of great art colleges in Dubai. I mostly wanted an escape. I come from a traditional Sri Lankan family and they wanted me to pursue a career as a doctor or lawyer. I knew that to be true to myself and find my creative rhythm I had to move.

The idea of tattooing was so far-fetched at that point because of my strict family and tattooing is taboo in the middle east, meaning haram (forbiddened) in the Islamic religion. I would get super intrigued by tattoos as I watched TV and saw tattoos on tourists that would come into town.

I kept saying that I would get a tattoo when I move to The States. Little did I know I would be pursuing a career in it. 

I’ve been creative since I was a baby, drawing on the walls and doors. I knew it was either art or nothing! I Loved to paint and I’ve painted with acrylics since I can remember. The only reason I even passed some subjects was because my diagrams were so realistic! So I knew I had to pursue a career in the arts.

I ended up at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY where I pursued Interior Design. I was super excited as I was going to an actual art school with other creatives, painters, sculptors, photographers, etc. It was during my time at Pratt that I found my way into the tattoo industry and I’ve never looked back. 

Starting out in a diverse city like NYC I was grateful to have come to work with some real cool people in the industry. I worked at about three shops mostly – the first Big Bang Ink in Brooklyn where I apprenticed at, and then Village Tattoo located in St.Marks which was my first shop as a tattooer and finally Red Baron Ink in the Lower East Side. Each studio had tattooers from different ethnicities and had different tattooing skills so it was cool getting to learn something new from them. I never once felt disrespected by any of them, so I know I was super lucky because tattooers, especially females have been treated unfairly.

I had quite a start, pretty rough cause I was super broke right after college. I was in between bartending and trying to keep my apprenticeship at Big Bang. Unfortunately I allowed nightlife to consume me which became my downfall and had to put a pause in my apprenticeship. I try to live with no regrets since I did bounce back a year later, but I do agree that was time wasted.

I have a better understanding of the industry especially to my clients. I’ve learnt to develop a language to communicate my art and tattoo what I like to tattoo.

This industry is forever changing, and has been since I started about nine years ago. From the techniques and styles to even the public being more accepting of them. So this alone has opened up many doors for tattooers. From tattooing celebrities to people in blue collar, tattooers are now finding more and more creative ways to tattoo. Example, wireless tattooing is now a common thing which was a spoken myth back in the day.

When I started, most of the equipment I used was heavy and bulky whereas now I can literally fit my entire set up in a Fanny pack (CRAZY!) So having a wider range of clientele nowadays has evolutionised the art of tattooing. There are more styles too, like minimalism, dotwork, blackwork, micro realism etc. I can’t say the days of the Sailor Jerry flash are dead because hell that will be the day the industry dies, but it’s amazing to see how the newer generation of tattooers are changing the game. 

My style of tattooing is a mix between illustrative and realism. I love playing with light and shadows, so the contrast level will differ from piece to piece. I also love playing with lineweight, so having both bold and fine linework. My inspiration comes from art all over. Abstract to renaissance paintings I love to pull inspiration from fine art mostly. 

Even though I paint with color I enjoy a monochromatic palette more. Using a pen, pencil or even charcoal is my favorite and has always been. I enjoy smooth shading and love when I can bring some realism with just one color. So my preference is mostly black and grey. I love to shade anything, from portraits to inanimate objects, to florals, etc. I really enjoy tattooing details so the more details the more fun the piece gets! 

I see myself opening a private studio sometime in the future. I want to create a space that will pull in artists of different backgrounds and styles so that we can learn from each other. The same experience I had when I started nine years ago. The beautiful thing about this career is that there’s always room to grow and learn. So I can’t speak on it much now but I’m excited to see what the next nine years will bring. 

So for those looking to start, understand it is a commitment and an investment. Don’t start if your mind is not in the right space whether it be financially or even emotionally. Your relationship with whomever will be affected but know no matter what that it’s so worth it in the end.

An apprenticeship could take anywhere from a year to two, but what determines that is your drive. Find a solid mentor who also is in a good mental space cause you will take on from what you see, and trust me you don’t want one who parties! So have a good support system, surround yourself with those who make you better cause you’re going to need every bit as you start this journey. 

Make sure to follow Suro on Instagram for more amazing tattoos.

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Interview with Ciara Havishya

Ciara Havishya is a self-taught tattoo artist based in Calgary, Canada. Ciara creates intricate decorative art style tattoos, using both blackwork and colour to produce stunning pieces that are deeply inspired by Indian art and Indian art history. We caught up with Ciara to explore their inspirations, their mehndi style tattoos and what tattooing means to them…

How long have you been tattooing and what led to you becoming a tattoo artist? I’ve been tattooing just over five years now, it’s been the longest five years of my life. I have wanted to be a tattoo artist ever since I was a young teenager when I discovered mehndi at a wedding party I attended. I started practising more and more and developed a love of working with people and on skin. I wanted to take it further ever since then and I’m lucky to have the opportunity to make it a career today. 

Where do you get your inspiration from/what influences you? I’m most inspired by Gupta period indian art, like the murals from the Ajanta caves and the sculptures from Ellora. The Gupta period in Indian art refers to art made in the northern region of what we now call India in the years 300-480 CE. It’s a really unique sliver of time and space and the Buddhist art from that period has a lot of influence from Chinese and West Asian contact, you can see it in the way the figures are drawn and the compositions of wall panels etc.

I love the way women are represented in this period as well, every bump and roll of skin is accentuated and their bodies are just dripping in jewellery without covering anything except for the pubic region. There’s a lusciousness and a freedom and a deep acceptance of nature in the art that speaks to me all the time.

Unfortunately there are precious few remaining art pieces from this period. In order to get closer to this period in art I’ve gone on to study Japanese art and Tibetan Buddhist art from later periods that have stylistic similarities, in the hopes that I can one day get closer to this Gupta period aesthetic that has moved me so much.

It makes me snicker a little to think that it took Europeans another 1200 years to learn what a woman’s body is supposed to look like and another 100-200 years after that to learn perspective, but that’s just me!

How would you describe your tattooing style? My style is an application of decorative arts from a few different sources to the body. I look at textile patterns, embroidery, architecture and historical documents of tattoos from times and people past to create new patterns that reflect my focus on timelessness, elegance, and love of the human body in all it’s manifestations. 

Tell us about your own tattoos, do you have a personal favourite tattoo or a memorable tattoo experience you would like to share with us? I’m honestly mostly covered in terrible, awful, ugly tattoos that need to be lasered or covered up because I let a lot of my friends tattoo me as they were learning, so maybe I’m not one to be asked!

But I do have a truly stunning piece by @BooneNaka . It’s inspired by the Trajva traditions of Gujurat and he did the most beautiful job of creating his own composition, adding his own elements and making one of very few tattoos I have that I’m truly proud of. He’s also a gentle, thoughtful and wicked talented artist and he made the entire experience really lovely and I’m so grateful for that. 

What does tattooing mean to you? Tattooing is a strange thing, it means everything to me and nothing to some people and too much to others.

For me it’s probably the closest thing I have to a spiritual practice, it’s a daily practice of being present, of seeing another person in their entirety and of trying to create an experience that affirms dignity, agency and power.

I have a few daily rituals with my practice, I listen to music by indigenous Canadian artists each day before I start to listen and recognise the people who lived here longer than any of us settlers. I pray before I start with incense to breathe in focus and good intention and to send my exhalations to God or Spirit or whoever’s listening. It’s all meaningful and meaningless in the end but that’s the beauty of doing it anyway. The artists I listen to, in case anyone is interested, are Tsimka, to remember my West Coast family and Tribe Called Red and TchuTchu to get grounded for the prairies I inhabit today.

We think your mehndi style tattoos are beautiful, could you tell us more about your decision to practice this style? I was doing henna before I was drawing which is how I got started with the style. It took me a long time to get to the point where I felt comfortable tattooing in this style. I don’t think it was entirely conscious, but as a teenager I did receive some critiques from people around me that my mehndi wasn’t “real art” because it was just copying the same pattern over and over again according to these others. I didn’t really ever stop doing mehndi-style drawings entirely but I did shift to doing a lot of ink drawings of people and animals and that was actually the style I primarily worked in for most of my tattoo career.

I did a lot of engraving style botanical tattoos and blackwork illustrative animals before I slowly started to make the switch to doing almost entirely decorative patternwork inspired by mehndi. It took a while to technically get comfortable with this style as a tattoo artist, it’s actually quite challenging to do well even though it can look simple. It also took me a while to feel comfortable with creating cultural art within a consumer culture and I’m still finding ways of identifying areas of discomfort and recentre my needs in the interaction.

As a mixed race Indian person with limited ties to my family it’s also taken me a while to feel as though I have the right to be doing this work, in many ways there are tattooers with closer and more direct ties to our culture than I do.

But, part of the reason why I’m a little more distant from my origins is colonial history and inter-generational violence. My grandparents were the children of indentured labourers who were brought to Mauritius 150 years ago to work sugar cane plantations. Their families adapted and assimilated and gave up certain traditions and beliefs to gain greater access to the world. I’m blessed to be doing this work of learning and finding my roots in a way that’s opened so many doors for me that were shut to my grandparents. 

What would you like to tattoo more of? More flowing freehand mehndi pieces without symmetry! Symmetry is so overrated even though it’s pretty. I also really love exploring Kolam traditions in tattooing. But I’m extremely careful about how I design them and without ready access to information on exactly what certain pieces of pattern mean or how they’re supposed to be, I’m limited in what I can do. 

We understand that mehndi is often culturally appropriated. Do you feel that it is inappropriate for certain people to get mehndi style tattoos? No. I don’t think it’s innappropriate for certain people to get mehndi style tattoos IF they’re getting them from someone who should be doing the tattoos. Big if.

As an Indian tattoo artist I’ve had to recognise that I can’t control who does or who doesn’t get my tattoos. Some of my absolute worst clients were Indian people and some of my best clients were white and both ways I don’t screen my clients for race when they ask me for mehndi tattoos. When people talk about mehndi style tattooing though, they often conflate actual mehndi inspired tattooing and the entire emerging genre of blackwork tattooing of Indian/Asian patterns and deities. There needs to be some distinctions between the two.

Mehndi as it’s done in India for weddings and celebrations is truly decorative, there are nuances to the patterns that indicate the wearer’s regional background, or religious affiliation, but for the most part the henna designs aren’t sacred. However, when we get into non-Indian, non-Hindu tattooers who are making a living from doing tattoos of deities on other white people who aren’t believers I think it starts to feel like Orientalism.

Unfortunately there is a culture of white tattooers who tattoo Indian imagery with religious and spiritual significance indiscriminately and they have a clientele that’s happy to buy it up. It feels very hollow to see from the outside.

I feel like I can tell when an artist has a true investment in learning about the culture and history and faith, but when they don’t it’s obvious. I also see a lot of disparity between how these artists are somehow almost elevated for doing something “different” while Indian tattooers are so few and far in between and many are almost anonymous. I don’t see these white tattooers sharing resources with others, I don’t see them apprenticing Indian artists, I don’t see them even tattooing many Brown folks, all I see is a culture of Indian art production that is made entirely by and for white people and it’s not right. Until it’s a more level playing field for POC and BIPOC tattoo artists exploring their heritage and tattoo ritual, I can’t support the work and ethos of white tattooers doing Indian tattoos. 

Do you have any upcoming projects you would like to share with us? I had so many before Covid. I was trying to arrange an artist’s residency in India to learn Pata Chitra which is a line based art form representing deities in traditional styles. I was even teaching myself hindi to prepare, but sadly the world had other plans.

For now I’m engaging in a new mentorship opportunity where I’ll be learning from Doug Fink at Bushido about refining my work and pushing myself into new styles of working. He’s a traditional Japanese tattooer with a few decades of experience and I’m really looking forward to the next year and a bit of study and improvement.

Words: Lucy Edwards, 21-year-old tattooed freelance writer, cat mum and trying-new-things enthusiast. You’ll most likely find Lucy posting about mental health awareness and self-acceptance on her Instagram.

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Interview with tattoo artist Filip Fabian

A tattooist for 12 years, Filip Fabian creates beautiful watercolour tattoos at Black & Blue Tattoo in San Francisco. We chatted to Filip about the inspiration behind his abstract pieces...

I grew up inspired by artists such as Rothko or Pollock. I studied art and drawing but I also got inspired by all of the great people I’ve met along the way. I also find a lot of inspiration in nature, every walk through the Golden Gate Park brings me a ton of inspiration. I often come home with ideas for new designs of the birds or flowers that grow there.

I love to tattoo nature and animals. My clients inspire me the most. I love to use geometry, brushes and textures in my work. And of course a wild palette of colours.

My cousin had his own tattoo studio in my hometown. I saw him working, and got immediately attracted to the whole process. Tattooing seemed magical to me. Then I ordered my first machine for $20 from eBay, did my first piece on my own knee, and never put the tattoo machine away since (I now have different ones, the eBay one actually fell apart when I was doing that first piece!)

I sometimes freehand my pieces, but I mostly spend a lot of time with each design prior to the tattoo day. After I meet a client for a consultation I take all of the references I have, all the thoughts and memories they express. These inspire me, and I combine that with my own touch.

I always try to include the personality of the person who I am tattooing into the piece, and the mood the piece is supposed to have. That’s why I don’t like realism that much. I find abstract designs more capable of expressing the mood and the fluctuate nature of life.

I hope that I get to see my tattoos and art on all of my clients’ bodies all over the world. That is my favourite gallery. You do not need an entrance, you just see it it while you casually go through your day.

Be sure to follow Filip on Instagram for more nature inspired tattoos.

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Get involved in the movement with Sarah Louise

Nottingham tattooist Sarah Louise is encouraging the tattooing world to speak up and stand up. We chatted to Sarah about her tattooing and what everyone can do to fight racism…

How long have you been tattooing?

I’ve been tattooing for officially four years and I’m currently at Black Antlers Tattoo, but I have been in the industry for a total of six years. Through all my childhood years I have always been drawing, it quickly transcended into a passion that never left me. I did a creative art and graphics design degree at Nottingham college then a illustration degree at Lincoln University. Once I graduated I did freelance illustration, but it never really paid the bills.

How did you become a tattoo artist?

One of my childhood friends asked me to design a tattoo for him. Which he then fell in love with the design and decided to take it to a studio to get tattooed. The artist asked me about my work and offered me an apprenticeship. I began working there at weekends as well as taking on full time job allowing time for me to slowly progress and transition into picking up a machine. 

How would you describe your work?

I try to keep all my work evolving. I don’t think I have a direction I’d like my work to go in or a set style as such. I take a lot of inspiration from music, films, plants, scenery, and wildlife. At the moment I really enjoy doing colour realism mixed with elements of watercolour, as I’ve always been fond of using colour within my tattoos and painting. I will always try my best to complete each tattoo with high contrast if I’m using colour in particular. I used to focus on doing neotraditional, which will creep back into my work from time to time, but I always want to try something new.

What advice would you have for anyone wanting to become a tattooist?

I love this question! As all I want to do is to champion passionate people! I think the only solid and best thing to do is to work on a portfolio. The only advice I can really stress is spending as much time drawing and showing how enthusiastic you are willing to learn through your art.

Finding a place that will apprentice you is so hard now, I think because the social media algorithm manages what is most aesthetically pleasing to its viewers. If you  spend a large amount of time drawing and promoting your artwork it’ll be easier to find a place that will take anyone seriously. 

You often speak out about social justice issues, can you tell us about your experiences in the tattoo industry.

Expressing and sharing information about social justice; means so much to me.  I was first inspired by female tattooist Heleena who spoke so openly about culture appropriation within the tattoo industry. She posted her video on a IGTV and it inspired me to do the same – to talk about problems and my experience on the movement. It inspired me so much, because I think one of the main problems is a lot of us are guilty for not talking openly about how we feel about the inequalities within the tattooing industry.

I have thankfully not been affected by the problems within the industry regarding gender and racial inequities that would inhibit my work with clients recently. Saying that, I still regularly experience micoraggressions from clients assuming I wasn’t born in the UK. Or receiving the classic comment of “I am trendy for a black girl”  with the assumptions that this wouldn’t be my scene, as it’s still a predominantly marginalised white industry. But I am very grateful that this hasn’t deferred me from speaking up about my experiences. And won’t continue stay silent on these issues, because re-affirmed education is key. 

I have seen the somewhat egotistical sides of the industry taking a lot ‘ownership’ of what women and POC have brought to the table. There still is a long way for black people and POC to experience recognition for their talents amongst their white peers.

I  do think that sadly my skin colour has become more of a highlight to the inequalities within the industry, but it has made me more determined to inspire others to stand up against racism.

Do you think we can make a change to the industry?

I believe how we make the change is to continue to come together and expose a lot of the issues regarding race by educating each other. Whether that be by sharing knowledge and achievements, by reading books and openly asking questions about tattooing. We can make change with every piece we do. One of the biggest ways I found is by actively asking questions but being consistent with what knowledge we gain and what we want. I think the more knowledge we share then the more exposure we can get. I feel we need to be very consistent on how we share this information on social media with other black people and POC.

I recently followed Shades Tattoo Initiative created by tattoo artist  Rizza Boo. The page often does shout outs to promote small pages and boost them, but I think the consistency of other people is where the buck stops. I also think the major problem also lies within the industry’s structure in relation to sponsorship. I feel as black people we get less recognition for our achievements, which adds to the unfortunate white-washed view of the industry. But with education and by consistently pushing each other and our tattooing we will force the industry sponsors to finally take note.

Protests are a way to start a conversation. Given the history and  importance of protests and the content they generate, it’s imperative that we actively continue to push for change.

I think that we are at a place in time that we have a platform to actively keep sharing knowledge with one another. And although I am aware that there are some struggles we face with not having confidence and knowledge, I do not think it’s entirely justifiable for not taking action at all.

If you do not decide to take action in a form of a protest, I would suggest you look at other ways to support an essential causes. Such as signing petitions, listening to podcasts, donating to charities and local communities – supporting black or other ethnic minorities. These are the things that can bring dramatic change, it can easily happen within the art community and eventually tattooing. 

Sarah is continuing to speak out and challenge the tattoo industry, make sure to follow her Instagram and why not join in the conversation yourself?

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Awakening dreams: Maxime Etienne

Transforming dreams into tattoos and bodies into works of art – tattoo artist Maxime Etienne, owner of Leonart studio in Bondi, Sydney, Australia chats to us about his humble beginnings, the process behind his designs and his charity work…

I have been getting tattoos since I was 18 and always loved art in terms of creation. Painting, sculpting, drawing and tattooing have always been industries I’ve wanted to work in. But, I never thought I could have the skills to do any of them until I tried to draw in late 2016. I started drawing with a lot of geometry pattern and in an abstract version of realism.

I started tattooing in late 2016 at home when I realised I could actually draw a little. I wanted to get more tattoos but couldn’t afford them. So I ordered a $40 tattoo kit on eBay and started to practice on my legs, my arms and even my chest and stomach before tattooing some friends.

I never thought I could be a professional artist of any kind. But after tattooing a decent number of friends for the about eight months loads of people contacted me via Instagram and my follwers increased. I realised that maybe I could become a real tattoo artist one day. One night I met a bunch of tattooists that loved my chest piece that I did myself. They told me “if you can do that on yourself and it heals that way then you can definitely become a tattoo artist.”

So, after roughly 10 months I decided to apply for my licence here in Australia and started in a studio as soon as I received it. After 10 months working in that studio, I opened my own and now it has been two years and I work more than I ever expected.

After some researc I discovered so many artists that inspired me and realised what I like is already there and what I could do would be appreciated by a certain audience. I pushed my creativity further and came up with what I do today. Realism, abstract and detailed pieces that are done to tell a story or express a feeling. I am inspired by everything that comes into my mind and what I love. Nature, animals, astronomy, women’s features, architecture and scientific research illustrations.

Most of my designs are from my clients’ stories. I am trying to turn their feelings, dreams, or their past into images. I design everything one day before the appointment and finalise it on the day after asking further questions. I work that way because I really put myself into their story or project and so I don’t work on several designs at the same time. I only book one client a day to ensure we can get the best out of their future tattoo.

I see myself as a designer more than someone who draws, as I often mix up several elements all together.

I try to give my designs the best contrast and shape for the placement that is given to me. I cannot freehand my designs as they require great details and geometry. Floral and extra small pieces in a piece can sometimes be free-handed, but I prefer having a stencil on to ensure the result will be the best and let my client really visualise what it will look like.

My style is really hard to describe in one word. It is composed of micro realism, abstract and geometry. A dream project would be a full body covered of many designs that would express the wish of freedom and the love for nature and earth. I love the diagram patterns used from engineers and would attach all designs together that way to turn the body into an actual book of human feelings and perception of life on our planet. What we are doing on earth, thanking it for the beauty of it and mixing different feelings most of us are going through to express our strength and fragility.

I see my art lasting through time as I am constantly trying to evolve, learn and create. I am a dreamer and a hard worker at the same time. I always give everything I have to achieve my goals, but if one day my art isn’t appreciated any more and I am forced to only execute clients’ thoughts without having the opportunity to create on my own, then I will do something else.

Tattooing became a passion, it’s more than a job. It has never been a way to make money for me, but a dream that became true – to live by doing what I love and making people happy.

Tattooing is an industry where we are in contact with people for hours and deep conversations occur during the process of tattooing. I’ve met so many incredible people that have told me real stories of what they have been through and their issues. Which are unfortunately not mentioned enough to a general audience, including domestic violence issues. I have been raised by my grandmother and my mother and grew up with one sister. Women are everything, they made me who I am today.

I work with an organisation called Karmagawa created by two really close friends of mine, Mat Abad and Thimoty Sykes. I travel with them and help them on different events around the world and design clothes for charity. They both inspire me not only with their charity work, but with their personalities and open minds. They showed me that we can do more than just work for ourselves and we must all help when we can.

Domestic violence, which isn’t always physical, on children and women is something I would really like to help with. Organisations are here to help those in need and money is often necessary to ensure they can keep running. Doing a tattoo fundraiser isn’t only for the money but to reach people that might be in need or even to help them realise what happens to them isn’t normal.

Social media as a platform is powerful, me doing a tattoo fundraiser with posts and stories might push other artists to do so too. I have done similar with the Australian bush fires and given the money to people that were helping those on the spot not just to the organisation.

That’s what I would like to do here. I would like to raise money of course by giving all the profit to organisations, but I am sure that just posting about it could help to raise awareness and I will do that a couple of times every year. My future project is to open a studio in Amsterdam and work with artists that will be willing to do some flash days every year for different causes.