Underground Realities - Social - Art - Visual Culture
Bruno is 29 years old and since he was really young he had this connection with art. He is in this business for 5 years working professionally and dedicating his life to it. Bruno is an amazing artist and it is fascinating how a person can be so art itself also he shows us that living by what makes us happy is possible.
For how long have you been in this business? When did you start tattooing at home and when did you stared to do it in a store?
The experience at home lasted for a year and in a studio I started 6 years ago, living only from tattoos started 5 years ago precisely. I started when I was 15 years old having the first lights on what this is also because one of my brothers was an tattoo artist at that time. I was always person of the arts zone since ever. When I was 13/14 years old I used to draw portraits by order with the skills that I had at that time, the father of one of my brothers was also a tattoo artist and it was at that time I started gaining the taste for it too. My stepfather also gave me some lights about that topic, I got to do some risks but when your 15 you don’t think about your future so I let it pass through me. After some years tattoos came back to me again when I was at that 20’s fase when I started wondering what I wanted to do with my life, at that time I was taking a design technique course, it was cool but it wasn’t exactly what I wanted to do though it was inside the art culture and I never lost the connection with drawing. One day I was tidying up some things at home and I found my first tattoo kit form when I was younger full of dust and spiders, so I thought to myself “why not?” . I had friends that were crazier than me and we gather up some beers and stuff, well it wasn’t really like that but you know what I mean, also I had help with the financial part like 5€ or 10€ here and there for the material and my mom bought me my first tattoo gun machine. My friends also helped me out with money so that I could buy the needles and etc so that I could practice on them.
Did you ever tattooed yourself? The experience of tattooing yourself is hard because you will always feel pain while doing it, how can you combine being focused on tattooing and dealing with the pain of getting a tattoo?
For starting I needed beer, it started with 12 beers and it helped a lot. I did some and after I begun practicing just in friends, they knew that it could end up being a bit bad and by chance I never had any unfortunate situation but of course those tattoos aren’t perfect but at that time, I thought to myself for what I could do and for what a knew at that moment those tattoos weren’t that bad, yes I did some roses that looked like broccoli and stuff. When you’re in the begging you have a lot of willing to, at least that happened to me, I had a lot of willpower like “ do something in your leg”, now I’m like “ no I’m not gonna do that I am going to hurt myself and I don’t like to feel pain”. All though at that time my cravings were to pick up some material and in 2 days I spoiled all of it, now a days I use different type of stuff back then I used cheaper materials, and I started to tattoo myself but I ended up quitting it and in the 3rd day I drunk those 12 beers and did it. I pulled over my machine gun tattoo and pressed the pedal and then I felt the needle so I didn’t stop and when I felt the pain it didn’t felt unbearable so it was super easy and this helped me to get the ideia about my hand weight.
What was the biggest difficulty that you felt when you entered in this career as a professional?
It was myself, not trusting myself enough and feeling a lot of fear, the thing in tattooing a friend of yours is helpful but I was 1 year at home and I had every week a friend saying for me to start looking for studios so I could do it professionally, at that moment I just tattooed at home just in friends or friends of friends in maximum and it was like that I drew out some cash. The biggest difficulty was me, I was afraid to take a risk and I had that thought that I had to be better so that I could go to a studio all though I couldn’t do it just by myself, I couldn’t reach that level alone without any guidance. So there was one day that I was with a friend of mine, that by chance he was there when I started tattooing myself for the first time and at that time I already had finished my professional internship and I was just doing nothing with my life back then also I wasn’t having any requests for tattoos, he asked me is you could go and drink coffee and see some tattoo studios, I thought to myself the first saying that they accept me as an apprentice I was staying. I went to the devil tattoo studio and in the next day I was already tattooing so they could see what I knew.
Do you think this career is fair or unfair from a professional and beginner point of view?
If you are good and fight for it, to be better, it will always be fair, now if you are on it just for money or just to show yourself or just for the style it wont work out. If you like it and if you dedicate yourself, yes, it is more than fair, you can be well paid. On a monetary level it is also fair if you are good then yes, if the person is well organized he will also do well.
Those tattoos that are made for cover up some imperfections or scars are tattoos that always require some type of experience, back in the days it was said that we shouldn’t tattoo over those body parts. Do you think this particular tattoos require some years of experience, did you ever did a cover up tattoo, which are the thing we need to pay more attention to?
Requires you to have a lot of experience for sure for example I had a few days ago a lady that came over here and she had a scar on her belly probably of a cesarean and she had a tattoo to cover it up, so what she wanted was to cover up a tattoo that was supposed to cover up that scar. I said to her that I had to see it first and think about it because I was going to look up someone that has experience on that type of projects, sometimes the years of experience have a big weight on this but that fellow has a lot of experience on cover up tattoos and scars. If I see that I’m not capable to do something I try to advice my clients on someone that can also I try to focus on a certain type style like realism tattoos that is my speciality, sometimes all I need is a paper and I can do a design based on that style and it looks good, modesty aside, that was always my taste. Covering up scars sometimes I can do something but I know that the client will not accept that type of project so sometimes is better to say that it needs to be done by someone that has experience on that and that can idealize and do anything that goes within the client idea.
There are a lot of new tattoo artists that give their prices a little bit to high for the work they do, what do you think relatively about that and does that creates a big discrepancy in the market? Did any customer already comment that type of things with you?Yes, I had some customers that talked about that theme but there will always people who are unhappy about it. Regarding the budgets I think that anyone can ask for they’re own price, I don’t feel like there is any discrepancy or something like “ because you do it cheaper” or “ you do it better but you ask for more”. My thought is if you want to do it and you have the money for it just do it. There is space for everyone.
Talking about ambitions, what is your next step?What is the next step? I really don’t know honestly because my last goal was the studio therefore for now is just go with the flow, keep putting up with Johnny that is over there putting pressure on me and keep getting better every day, be better than yesterday and continue to make our studio moving forwards.
What is your point of view about the tattoo culture, the people with inked body what is that fascinates you, how do you face tattoos?Honestly I don’t know what to say because I never thought about it. For me tattoos are like master pieces it’s the way people can express themselves, it’s someones opportunity to express too. There are people that never had a lot of success with paintings or that never had a connection with it but with tattoos is different, specially now a days that tattoos are blowing up our society and there’s more and more people with tattoos or wanting do became a tattoo artist all though I think we didn’t reach the real boom. I think this is a good way for someone to express themselves, it’s a good way to bring art again to the top because in the old days art were only for the nobility and today it is accessible to everyone and society through tattoos can see different types of art and maybe start paying more attention to paintings, sculptures, architecture, etc. Maybe tattoos it’s a way forward to open horizons.
Good and bad clients there will always exist so what was the rudest thing someone said to you?
Maybe I think it was Johnny but like grabbing my hand and saying “stop the fuck up!” Grabbing my hand and neck but it was ok he almost fucked my neck, so yeah I nearly killed him on the table, this was just a joke of curse. I really don’t know, something that had shocked me I really have no idea because I already have heard so many things yet directed to me, no, only calling me some bad names and stuff but I know they are not meaning what they’re saying.
Normally clients don’t have that much perception of reality in the tattoo world and when someone makes you a proposal for a tattoo design that is an idea taken from the internet and sometimes there are design that are not possible to do, how do you explain to your clients that what they wanted is not actually possible to do?
Well there was always those who already told me “ is it not possible or you don’t wanna do it?” , saying it in a really arrogant way and I’m just chill if I couldn’t do it I would just say it, but usually people understand. Mainly in the last 3 months, since I started to impose design styles issues, I’m not gonna let the costumer win me over because if I see that I can’t do what they are asking for I’m just going to say that I can’t and advice them some other tattoo artist or I try to advice my client to do the design in some other style or something, for example recommend changing sizes or try to not do it with such details. Taking a risk on this cases is a no, because if I mess it up or don’t do it the way the client wanted it to they are going to come back and nock on my door to complain about it even though I have done it the way they asked because the client will never say it was their fault. I’m always honest if I see that the design is not going to look good at all I’m just saying that it won’t work and that the person will get mad after the tattoo is healed.
Which were the body parts that you felt embarrassed to tattoo and which tattoo projects was the most different or crazy request that you had done?
Body part that I felt more embarrassed I don’t see it that way because for me it’s just normal all though in the beginning obviously I felt nervous because of the area that I was tattooing but because it could be a more sensitive area or because the place I have to place my hand on because it can be uncomfortable for the person. The most funny tattoo request I had I actually ended up not doing it because it was going to look really bad. A cliente of mine, a crazy one, I tattooed him a phrase with dragon ball style saying “ send nudes”, I even have tattoo project posted on my Instagram. Another funny request but didn’t make any sense was form someone that came to my dm’s with a strange approach and I saw straight away that some crazy idea was on the way. The client immediately said “I wanna do a something and I wanna know your budget yet I wanna see the design first because I already went to some tattoo studios and ask for it but they didn’t do it.” The I saw it all, when a tattoo artist says no or doesn’t do it is because the request is completely crazy. So the drawing he wanted was a tribal tattoo and after he wanted the tattoo to start fade away and then transform it in leaves, then the leaves became birds and after that he wanted to go from birds to paratroops. I thought “ok that’s the reason why they didn’t do the drawing”, it wasn’t going to work. I said to him that I wasn’t going to do it because it wouldn’t look good at all and etc. and it wasn’t worth it doing something that wasn’t going to look good in a tattoo.
Do you think it’s good for a tattoo artist to participate in conventions or go from studio to studio, is it good for them?
Attend to conventions yes is good, now going from studio to studio I don’t think so. Going to different studios just for a few days to learn when you are experienced it’s good but when you are in the beginning I don’t think so much because when you’re in that fase I think you should stay in one place only, having good bases and the first experiences with tattoos that’s important. If you’re in a studio for just 1 year and then go to another one what you’ve learned in the first studio is going to fade away or maybe not, if you jump form studio to studio you will have many people teaching you different ways and methods and if their from different styles they will always teach you in different perspectives, you end up not adsorbing anything. If you’re an experienced artist it can be good being 1 week here and another there, meeting new people, getting to know more techniques also new ones, see how others see and connect with art, all of that is really cool.
Which advice would you give to someone that is staring now?
Study a lot, theory, theory because there is a lot of it. If you have the opportunity to learn with someone, follow what they say and listen to them also see if that someone has a good portfolio and how many years of experience do they have and if they are good too which is also important. Study real hard that’s important because now a days there is more and more materials, more types of needles, tattoo machine guns, styles, also there are a lot of styles that are being created too. Insist is you really want this.
What inspired or motivated you throughout your career, since the beginning till now?
Maybe what inspired me it was myself too, the person who was scared to take a risk and then saw that it all worked out just fine when I did it. I inspired myself also in Johnny, he was also part of my learning in the beginning because he was there when I started in the devil tattoo studio. I inspired myself on Paulo and Vera too. Maybe it was that one conquest that gave me inspiration, doing it like “I took a risk and I did jut did it”, it was many things too but that one was super important for me.
