Tag: tattoo

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Interview with Tattooist Joe Ankave

26-year-old Joe Ankave is a tattoo artist from Te Aviv, Israel who is currently traveling in California. We caught up with Joe to chat about his tattooing style and the tattoo scene in Israel…

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How long have you been tattooing and how did you get into the industry? I’ve tattooing for almost seven years now. When I was 16 years old I knew that I wanted to develop my drawing skills and take them to the next step. After a couple of years I bought my first machine and started working privately at home and I work by myself till this day – I don’t have a master. In Israel you don’t need a license to do this, and it is quite different from the UK.

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What inspired you to become a tattooer? Was there a particular person? From day one, Shige inspired me the most, and he still inspires me today actually. Shige is the one who took traditional Irezumi to the next level, he turned it into the modern form of neo-traditional tattooing.

How would you describe your tattooing style? My main style is neo-Japanese. Some would say that I do bold colour work, which is kinda funny. All tattoos must be done as bold as possible, so that they look right. In time tattoos fade more and more, so why not make it bold from the beginning?

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What do you like to tattoo? Is there anything you would love to tattoo? The object that I like to tattoo the most is the peony flower. This kind of flower has great potential, especially when it comes to different sizes. You can create a beautiful movement within the tattoo and of course to do a nice bit of colour work.

What was your first tattoo? I’m not sure about that, but I think the first tattoo I did was a smile on my friend’s leg.

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What’s the tattoo scene like in Israel? It’s getting better and better! People are getting more and more tattoos and also big ones! There are many new tattooers and new tattoo shops, especially in Tel-Aviv. Also every year there’s the Israel Tattoo Convention and every year more and more people are coming over. Now you can clearly see a huge difference in the amount of people that are exposed to tattooing.

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What kind of reactions do your tattoos get? It’s funny to say that but people love my tattoos even those who don’t have tattoos or say that they don’t like Japanese work at all. I believe that when I try to do my best with each new tattoo, when I harness the ability to focus on the small details, I can create a sort of magic. When people look at my tattoos they can see it too, it’s hard to explain but just the way I see it.

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How to Pack for Tattoo Conventions

The guys over at Mightygoods chatted to tattoo artists to find out what they pack for conventions and travel. Read on to find out their best tips and tricks to help you be prepared to work at any convention…

Rhys Gordon – Has been tattooing 28 years, and he specialises in Japanese style tattooing. Rhys loves traveling, motorbikes, and everything to do with tattooing, he also runs Australian Tattoo History.

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How do you pack your gear for travel and conventions? I use Crumpler, an Australian brand. A beautiful matte black travel case, customized internally to suit my needs. After all these years tattooing, I have perfected my convention game. No need to bring my work station.

What top three things do you always bring besides the common stuff everybody bring?

  • Stencil machine as convention one generally break or a nightmare to get to.
  • Water for both tattooing and drinking.
  • Deodorant as they can be hot sweaty events not just for me but also for clients, so everybody smells nice.

What are your top tips for other tattoo artists?

  • Travel light and take more money for both fun and supplies
  • Bring a plug in battery pack to charge your iPhone
  • Cheap hotels are a bad bad recommendation after tattooing all day

 

Archana Nakhua Bhanushali – Started tattooing in 2010 after completing an applied arts course. Soon after working with her tattoo teacher for few months Archana started freelancing and then opened her own studio Ace Tattooz in Mumbai, India with the help of her husband Nikhil, who manages the show.

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How do you pack your gear for travel and conventions? I use a hard case tool box to fit in my tattoo stuff for conventions as it keeps my tattoo equipments safe from damage. I double wrap all my colours to avoid spill in case the bottle bursts (its only a safety precautions because generally they are intact with the help of my hard case). If the convention is in India, I prefer carrying my own printer and stencil copier.

What top three things do you always bring besides the common stuff everybody bring?

  • My printer, graphite rechargeable power supply and my tattoo stand table from Kings Tattoo Supply are the three things I bring besides the common things everyone brings. Because it took us very few conventions to realise that on the first day of the convention, you can waste a lot of time in case you don’t have these three in place.

What are your top tips for other tattoo artists?

  • To tattoo with passion and be consistent with the same energy from the start of the tattoo until the end.
  • It’s really important that the tattoo artist is in their best health to perform 100%. I see many having issues with their back because of which they can’t perform consistently, so yoga or any physical exercise that keeps their core fit is a must.

Discover more packing tips from other tattoo artists here. 

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Tattoo Artist: Sofia Angelita

23-year-old Sofia Angelita works as a resident artist at Low Tide Tattoo in Southend-on-Sea and she also regularly guests at Kings Cross Tattoo London and Angelic Hell Brighton. We caught up with Sofia to chat about her style and influences…


How long have you been tattooing? I’ve been tattooing for two years or so.

What do you love the most about tattooing? Now that’s a tricky question, I love most things about tattooing! I love the daily creativity and freedom I’m lucky enough to have at work and that it never feels like work! But I’m sure every tattooist thinks that! I also love meeting new people and making them happy in some way!

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You work in both colour and black, which do you prefer? In all honesty I don’t think I have a preference, colour definitely takes a different kind of thought process for me personally than black work or black and grey. Colour also takes a longer time for me but I really enjoy the both!

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Who are your tattoo icons? Or artists that you admire? There are so many artists that blow my mind  technically and for creativity. Rebecca Vincent will always be a huge icon to me, I met and got tattooed by her very early on when I was finishing my apprenticeship. She took so much time for me and was very informative and helpful and really gave me that extra moral boost I needed at that time, which she really didn’t have to do. Also loving Oliver Macintosh, Claudia de Sabe, Barb Rebello, Adam Ruff, Horiyoshi, Sarah Schor, so many artists, the list goes on!

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What would you love to tattoo? I would love to tattoo more lady faces and ornamental stuff.

How would you describe your style? I’m really bad at this question ! I’ve had some people say it’s illustrative but I’m really not sure what “box” my stuff goes in that would help me explain it? I also love tattooing ornamental pieces!

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Interview with Kelly Julio

Tattooer Kelly Julio works out of Pulse Tattoo in Banbury, UK. We caught up with Kelly to chat about his tattoo style and how his career is more than just a job to him…

How long have you been tattooing? What inspired you to get into the industry? I started getting serious about tattooing around the end of 2004, after learning a lot from working at a friend’s tattoo studio in Jakarta, Indonesia.
I had and still have a strong passion for drawing, painting and graphic design and knew I wanted to make art part of my career.


What did you do before? Did you study art? I worked in hospitality for a couple of years, but deep down I knew it wasn’t for me and what I was meant to be doing. Although I have never studied art formally, I learned a lot from friends, art books, architectural art, photography as well as from traditional and cultural arts from several countries, especially my own, Indonesia, an infinite resource of inspiration for me.


What do you like most about your work? Tattooing is so much more than just work, more than just a way to make a living. I feel extremely happy when I can translate my customer’s idea or concept into something that they are happy to get inked on their body, which will accompany them throughout their life. I also love the human side of tattooing, being able to talk about everything and anything with my customers, not only about tattooing; sharing thoughts, ideas and learning from them.

How would you describe the style of your work? I am probably best described as an all-rounder, because so many things inspire my work. I want to please my customers by translating their ideas into a tattoo without restricting them.

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What is your favorite style of work and your favorite subject to work on? What inspires you? I love color as well as black and grey, I really enjoy working on mandala, geometric and pointillism pieces. I am really inspired by Art Nouveau, traditional ornaments and patterns.

Do you have any planned conventions or guest spots? I am taking part in the Oxford Tattoo Convention on 1st and 2nd of September this year. Next year, I am planning to participate in several tattoo conventions in Europe and the UK.

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Be sure to follow Kelly Julio on Facebook to see more of his tattoos and artwork.

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Interview with Tattooist Çağdaş Mutlu

Çağdaş Mutlu is a tattoo artist from Izmir, Turkey who creates black work tattoos, we caught up with Çağdaş to find out more about his work…

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Having graduated from Dokuz Eylül University Fine Arts Faculty in  2005 with a fine arts pattern design degree, Çağdaş has been designing and drawing for the last 15 years. While he has been tattooing for the last five years, focusing on dot work, lines and a black style.

Since he had been designing patterns for year, it was time for him to permanently mark those designs onto skin. His inspiration is providing a result that everyone is happy with and seeing the desired artwork come alive on the skin. There hasn’t been a favourite piece for Çağdaş, but instead seeing how his different designs emerge and develop everyday, watching the process that has been his favourite part.

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Describing his style, Çağdaş says:

HUMANART is a tattoo way and a brand that combines the art of tattoo with illustration and graphic design with narrative expression. We do not address this art that we perform on the human body as tattoo.  What we create is an art of people. We do not define this as tattoo, but as HUMANART.  This is how we represent our brand and this is the way we initiate a new movement by painting people’s lifes, philosophies and secrets on their own bodies.

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