Tag: tattoo

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Interview with Tattoo Artist Ruby Quilter

26-year-old Ruby Quilter, is a tattoo artist at Sang Bleu Tattoo in London. We chatted to Ruby about being a female tattooer, and her fine line style…

How long have you been tattooing? I’ve been tattooing for about five years now, I began my apprenticeship at 21.

How did you get into the industry and what inspired you to do so? I started getting tattooed quite young, and from then it sparked something in me to learn more about different tattooers and tattooing history. I actually hadn’t considered tattooing as a job, even at that time, being a female tattooer had some social connotations. I felt like it was quite a huge step away from the path I was on. I decided to look for an apprenticeship and a really amazing shop near where I’m from called Scarlet Rose took me on.

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What did you do before? I didn’t have too much time after leaving school to get into a career, I’d had a few different jobs, mostly retail work, and was studying fashion and originally wanted to do something along the lines of visual creative direction. I feel incredibly luckily I found tattooing.

How would you describe your style of tattooing? Fine line black and grey.

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What inspires your designs? Loads of different things; I reference a lot of old flash and I look at a lot of religious imagery. I also love looking at old fantasy art. I collect a lot of older comics which have some incredible ideas that can transition into tattoos.

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 Are there any artists that influence you? Definitely; Jack Rudy, Kari Barba, Juan Puente, Freddy Corbin among so many others. I love the work of Nathan Kostechko, Juan Teyer, Ben Grillo, Zac Scheinbaum. I could keep going!

What would you love to tattoo? I would love to get more into fantasy, I have some incredible customers who are really open with what they get, and give me the opportunity to try something new. I’d also love to take on larger projects, I would love to do some back pieces!

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Do you have any guest spots or conventions planned? I definitely have more plans to travel, my best friend Jack and I plan to make a trip to Barcelona soon, and make the most of travelling within Europe. Last year I worked the London Tattoo Convention, which was a huge opportunity for me and I would love to do that incredible convention again.

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Careers: Tattooed Social Media Representative

25-year-old Mikaela is a Social Media Representative at LUSH in London. We caught up with her to chat work, her tattoo collection and being vegan…

How long have you been working for Lush? How did you get your current role? I’ve been working at Lush for about three years now. I started on the shop floor at the flagship Oxford Street store, then joined the in store events and branding team. I’ve always wanted to bring my love of photography into my everyday job, so jumped at the chance at joining the social media team. I’m now a social media rep, and support events and branding when needed!

What do you love about your job? I love working for a company that’s so accepting of everyone, and encourages individuality. It’s a company that cares about their products, what goes into them, where ingredients are sourced and of course is fighting animal testing which is incredibly important to me. Lush also creates and supports a number of campaigns each year and isn’t afraid to use its voice as a popular brand to make people think, and I think that’s great. It’s also quite a tongue-in-cheek company at times so there’s always an element of fun involved.

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What sorts of stuff do you do? What projects do you get involved with? On a day-to-day basis at Lush, I do a lot of community management on the store’s social media pages, shoot photo and video content etc. Outside of work I try to do as much photography as I can, the majority of which is portrait work and it’s something I’d eventually love to be able to do full time.

I’ve also been vegan for two years now, so that’s a big part of my life. I’ve been trying to get fitter and healthier so spend a lot of time at the gym with my badass female, tattooed, vegan trainer @princessoftheunicorns!

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Can you tell us about your tattoos? Do you have any future plans? I’ve been getting tattooed since I was 19, my first one was a tiny heart on my wrist. I then ventured into getting bigger and more colourful pieces. My first ones being by Gemma, Amy Savage and Adam Ruff. They’re mostly quite traditional, lots of hearts and a few lady heads! I also have portraits of my dogs on my calves and two Fall Out Boy inspired tattoos. I also have a dotwork Maltese Cross on my ankle that I got in Malta, which is quite sentimental.

I think my favourite is still the first colour tattoo I got by Gemma, it’s a locket with my mum’s initials either side that I later had a key added to underneath. I have so many ideas for tattoos that I still want to get. I want to finish my sleeve and get my knees tattooed next, but I definitely know why I’m maybe putting that off a little bit!

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Can you show them off at work? How would you describe your fashion style? Not having to cover up my tattoos at work is another thing that I love about working at Lush. Everyone is encouraged to express their individuality and tattoos are no exception. I’m around so many tattooed people at work that I sometimes forget that they can still be a problem at other workplaces. Everyone loves seeing each other’s work as well and discovering new styles and artists as a result!

I don’t really follow any kind of fashion in particular, I mostly wear black, occasionally dipping into a little Bettie Page 50s feel when I have time to put the effort in – but mostly keep it a little bit dressed down “goth” I guess.

What kind of reception do your tattoos get? Most of the time I get a really positive reaction, people love how colourful they are and finding out why I got certain pieces. I do get the occasional negative comment or dirty look but I’m pretty used to it now, and nothing will ever make me feel bad about them when I know how happy they make me!

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Has being vegan influence your tattoos or job? Does it influence the company you work for?  I would probably say that I became vegan as a result of working at Lush. I’d always had a bit of a guilty conscience when I used to eat meat but once I started working at Lush with lots of vegans, I learned so much more about the meat and dairy industries that I couldn’t ignore it anymore.

In terms of tattoos it means that I have to think about whether tattoo ink being used is vegan and aftercare, which hasn’t been too difficult so far. I don’t have any vegan-related tattoos yet, but I’m sure I will end up getting one eventually. I’ll definitely be getting more animal tattoos!

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Tattoo Artist: Sasha Foteev

27-year-old Sasha Foteev works out of a private studio in Moscow, Russia. Sasha also belongs to the professional team of Ego machines with which he works with the studio Bugpin.

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I have been involved in the tattoo scene for six years, and I got into this profession quite spontaneously. I am constantly trying new kinds of art, and besides tattoos I’m fond of graffiti. I make canvases with acrylic paint and posters with markers.

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I can describe my style as a mixture of several styles (graphics, ornament and realism). As an artist I represent creativity and activity, as a tattoo artist my first step is to search for my own style. This usually happens by testing a large number of different directions. And many of tattoo artists can’t decide what exactly they like: is it Japanese, Tradition or Watercolor with realism? Likewise it was very difficult for me so I chose a combination of several styles. I like the contrast between styles, shadows, blending and hard-edge painting.

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I’m inspired by a combination of styles and techniques, I like the visual combination of lines and smooth shadows.My favourite artists are Aivazovsky and Vrubel for their diligence and memorable style. And there are many modern ones, but it’s there are too many to list. In the tattoo world, I like it when people come  to me for my style and “my hands”.  I love it when they trust me and they’re ready to listen and hear my advice, especially if we have similar looks and tastes.

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I really want to work in England soon, especially at the Triplesix studio with Bez the owner of Ego machines, as well as work in other studios in Europe. I have already worked as a guest tattoo artist in Paris at Chez Meme, in Prague at One Love tattoo and in Hamburg  at Vaders Dye. In the near future I plan to participate in the Moscow tattoo convention.

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Interview with Santa Perpetua

Tattoo artist Santa Perpetua creates impressively abstract tattoos in her private studio in Brighton. We chat to Santa about how her tattoos tell stories and how her career started…

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How long have you been tattooing and how did you start? I think art has been part of my life since I was born. My mother is an artist too, and she basically introduced me into this world. I grew up with art books, pencils and brushes around, art museums were my playground and drawing was my first way to connect with myself. But my interest in the tattoo industry started a while after that. It began when I got my first tattoo piece done in my home town: Montevideo. By that time I was 21, but I didn’t immerse myself in that world until 10 years later.  A bad economic situation at that moment, my university studies, my current job as a designer and photographer, my passion for drawing, moving to Spain and some other personal circumstances made the task of starting to tattoo a bit difficult.

So although I really was into the idea of becoming a tattoo artist, I had to postpone it for a while. It became possible when I finally got settled in Barcelona and since 2008 I’ve been developing myself in the profession. Strange as it might sound, I didn’t like tattoos before. I got my first piece done in the early 90s and the level of tattooing was not as good as it is today.

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But for some  reason, I felt the need to record a permanent memory on my skin, so I made a really simple, silly, too small and too detailed for its size design and I went for it! When I was sat in the tattoo chair, I had a very primitive introduction to tattooing and I completely felt in love with it! I always liked to try different media to make my drawings, and tattooing was another one of them. When finallyI was able to start, I knew immediately that tattooing would be part of my life for good. Since I started I’ve never stopped learning, creating and loving this profession.

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Your style is incredibly abstract, how would you describe it? Well, I don’t think we should label things in art. From my view, art allows the emotional expression of the artist to become real. My pieces could fall into abstraction, avant garde, conceptual, graphic art, contemporary tattooing. But if I had to describe them, I’d say that my artworks are just my personal approach to things. I always tell stories that are beyond a particular situation or representation. I love speaking about life, death, and emotions through my artwork. If someone comes to my studio asking to have a bird done, I always ask why they have chosen a bird. I am interested in the motivations behind the tattoo rather than the elements of it. My intention is to build a solid idea, as timeless and universal as possible rather that making just a “pretty” or “cool” image on the skin. I know it might sound a bit ambitious, but my approach to tattooing is more artistic than aesthetic.

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Are you inspired by any artists? I am mad about the Dark Ages. I absolutely love that time in history. I get inspiration from the way in which art and artists were conceived – the artistic expression is divine and the artist is just a tool to represent it. But beyond that, and even admiring lots of tattoo colleagues, I mainly get my inspiration from dreaming, and also from music and painting. The list of artists on both branches is pretty long and super varied. But summing up, I’d say that everything that is well made catches my attention.

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Would do you like to tattoo? Do you have a wish list of designs? After 10 years of working as a tattoo artist, and almost five years doing it in the UK, I could happily say that I have reached the point in which I do exactly what I want to do. It has been a super thorny path to achieve, but today people tend to give me free reign on all my designs. Thanks to this I’ve managed to evolve technically and artistically. Every tattoo project I take is a challenge that pushes me to improve and do my best with it, and that is extremely pleasant to me. I do not have a wish list of designs, but I do have the wish to carry on being blessed with people who connect with my artwork and trust their skin in my hands. I am immensely grateful for that.