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Deviousness `anmari has been spreading her infectious positivity throughout our community for over 6 years. Throughout this time Ana has been at the core of all things devious, passionately developing an eclectic gallery, helping organise devmeets, participating in chat events and also recently completed dedicating her time as a Community Volunteer. We are absolutely delighted to bestow the Deviousness Award for May 2013 to `anmari, congratulations! Read More
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Sta.sh
-How long have you been tattooing? If there is anything(or things) you would consider to be really important or influential to your own work, which you could offer as advice to an apprentice like myself, what would that/they be...?
-Do you think of a tattoo in terms very similar to oil painting, out of curiosity? I mean, I see a very old-master type painter's quality to your work. Do you do things like mix ink right in the tube, work your tattoos in layer after layer of color/b&g, etc...? Can you describe your process on a piece like this? I'm a really slow artist, I tend to think of stuff in ink like I would an oil painting, but sometimes where I work people seem to lack patience with this approach. I really don't understand how to achieve the depth, vibrancy, and detail of something like your work here without paying meticulous attention to detail, working over a period of hours and hours, layering in color, and doing multiple sessions, but I may be way off???
-I may have asked you this before, and if so disregard it, but are you making any plans to visit the US anytime in the near future?
BTW, you don't have to answer any of the above if you feel it is "trade secret" stuff, as I will understand completely, I'm just curious to know how you work. And thank you, if you take the time to do so, or not
I have tattooed for 18 years, though only seriously developed in the last 12 or so. Influences are artists that impress me or challenge me with their ability and things in life and nature I desire to capture. Pay attention, closely, to everything interesting, beautiful, and captivating and violate them all for their essence.
As far as process it varies from piece to piece. I am not a fast tattooer, though much more than I used to be. When you watch some of the best out there do what they do, some are very slow (Benjamin Moss, Bob Tyrell) but their work speaks for itself and they will always be as busy as they choose to. Even the fast ones (Fat, Robert Hernandez) take their time when it's necessary. Indeed, your best work will take real time, especially when you are pretty new to it. Over time what develops is speed in the parts that are not meticulous (invaluable... it's not all detail). Also, as your portfolio comes along people seeking the quality you strive to provide seek you out. Most importantly, especially when you're new... You do more than you're paid for. Pour yourself into every piece, no matter how mundane or overdone the subject matter is. It develops both your hand and your reputation. Eventually they will pay you for it.
As far as seeing how I work, the best way is to go back through the gallery and see the progress shots in some of the larger pieces. Short of being present and watching, it is the best way to understand.
Not sure when my next US visit will be, but I suspect sometime in summer of 2012. I will post here when and where it's going to happen.
Anywho, I'm sure you're a busy guy so I'll try to keep this brief...I've been apprenticing for about 1 year. I never set out to be a tattoo artist; I was an art teacher but lost interest, thankfully tattoo sort of just fell into my lap. I learn something new almost everyday by doing more and more ink, and drawing constantly, but unfortunately I'm not getting many pointers on advanced techniques from my mentor anymore (...he's a great guy and I'm very thankful for the wonderful opportunity/freedom he allows me, but with all due respect to him his artistic skill-set is not that strong). If you'd care to, you can check out some of my stuff in our Facebook gallery:
[link]
It's nothing amazing, but I think I'm putting out solid work for where I'm at, and I'm ever so steadily building good clientele. I do try to put 110% into nearly every tattoo I undertake, whether I'm compensated fairly for it or not, although, I do have to survive, so sometimes my slowness/or overly-ambitiousness/or whatever you want to call it is frustrating.
Given my situation, I find myself looking at tattoo artists and their work online and in magazines a lot for insight. I'm pretty much eating/sleeping/and breathing ink 24/7. I know the learning curve is long and steep, so I push myself to gobble up as much information as I can. It blows me away every time to see the stuff veteran artists like you are doing. I also look to guys like:
Bob Tyrell
Nikko Hurtado
Guy Aitchison
Cecil Porter
Mike DeVries
Josh Duffy
Victor Portugal
Aaaron Cain
Dan Hazelton
Jose Lopez
Terry Ribera
Nick Baxter
Paul Booth
And so on and so forth...
Apologies for the diatribe. I'm just totally tattoo absorbed and want to get better and better, soon as possible, ya know? I really wish it came with a magic wand sometimes...Often, I think to myself I'll never be able to do the shit you guys are doing, for real; I poor myself into a piece that takes me 4 sittings, 20 hours, and I do it for $200, yet its neither as big or as grandiose as it could/should be. I guess I really hope that one day it clicks it for me.
Well, I'll stop at that before I get too bitter on myself and bore ya to death, haha. Thanks again for your your time and input. By all means, if you've ever got any other tips/tricks/names/links/advice/etc to offer me, I'd definitely eat that shit up and greatly appreciate your efforts. And totally shoot me a heads-up if and when you're ever in the states next, it'd be super rad to check out your 411 at a convention or something. TTYL