Underground Realities - Social - Art - Visual Culture
Dani is the youngest tattoo artist I have talked too, his just 22 years old and has been working in this amazing world for almost 2 years. Sharing his point of view is super important because the youngest are full of charm and ambitions.
How much time did it took to you to get used to this profession, was it hard?I took some time, because in the beginning you need to have crazy friends, that’s the first thing. I was lucky, I have a lot of crazy friends that told me “ let’s go” , and also I was learning in a cool place, but there it is when you’re starting you are always afraid when beginning a tattoo even because it is
something that’s going to stay in your skin forever. I also think that it depends in every person and personally maybe e I got used to some things better than others, and maybe later the other things came with time but it’s something that really depends. I also don’t know what to say more because being a tattoo artist is something that is always changing and we are always learning more and more with time. The more the years pass you are always learning new things and new techniques because it’s a world that is always evolving.
What made you think at some point “ I want to learn how to tattoo” ?Honestly I was in a point that I was aimless. However, since I was young I always liked to draw and always felt a connection with art it self though in school it was different. Theres a problem in the Portuguese teaching and method, everybody tells us “ don’t do this or choose some other way”, and in the end I didn’t want anybody pissing me off regarding my choices and at that time I heard what society was telling me. I went through a fase that made me rethink and I had mental breakdown also I thought to myself “ I have to get a clear point of view, I have to do what I really like” , along with it got through my mind this idea and the opportunity. It fall down out of the blue, so I started with some friends of mine that already had some tattoos as well as me and it was there that I thought “I like to draw, I like this tattoo culture so why don’t I take the risk and try this new game”.
What was the biggest obstacle that you had to go through to star working in this area ?The biggest obstacle is that there’s a lot of doors shutting you out, but there it is it’s a bit understandable, nobody what’s to get a tattoo from some young artists that has a small experience, someone that doesn’t know all the tricks or doesn’t have such a fine line and that’s something that everybody goes through when starting. Fortunately I was lucky because my boss form this studio knew perfectly what was me and my friends level when we came here, he made ourselves feel comfortable about it, also we told him that we weren’t accepting projects that we knew that we could make just because our level.
For exemple I follow you on instagram and I see that you do lot of “flash sheets” is that helpful for you?In my opinion is the best thing you can do is only tattooing your flashes at the begging. When starting it’s kind of annoying asking this because it ends up not making that much money and many times you have to give up on some work or job that your doing so that you can fully commit to tattoos, there are sometimes when starting your are going to lose money so that you can follow up with it. I remember when I had my first studio, before the pandemic, me and my friend opened up a private studio and it was just us and the only money we made was just to pay the rent and some other little things, most of the times we had to put our own money so we could buy all the materials we needed.
Flashes sheets is something really different because doing tattoos requeres a creative process, as a matter of fact you have to be a creative person and now is super trendy doing classes so that people can learn how to tattoo not needing to know how to draw and that’s just not it. Is not a matter of elitism, you don’t need to be a Picasso but if you’re starting tattooing it’s convenient that you identify with all the drawing process, knowing how to draw is part of this process and evolving as a tattoo artists means that’s your also evolving as a designer. Summarizing you doing your own flashes is something that you already know how to do, it’s something that came out of your mind, you were the one that created it and afterwords when drawing in skin you basically don’t need a stencil because you already know what you are going to do. It’s something completely different than making a design that came out of a clients head that’s most likely to be an ideia a bit drawn-out, for exemple a dragon riding a bicycle you are going to do it but maybe that didn’t came out of you and maybe you don’t identify yourself with that idea and if you don’t have that much experience that’s the first step to go down the hole.
So you believe that all tattoo artist should tattoo only designs that they identify theirselves and also the style that they most connect with? A cliente should look for a tattoo artist depending on what type of style their looking for ?Yes, I believe in that but it’s not about any type of elitism, many people think like “ this tattoo artist only does this or that”, is not always like that, for exemple my style is tradicional tattoo but you want something more realistic maybe I’m not the most suitable one to do the work. I usually try to show it to my clients that I’m not the most suitable tattoo artist to do realistic projects even though that doesn’t mean that I can’t do some of that stuff, the thing is that I didn’t study deeply for that kind of works as well as I did for illustrations designs or classic designs. Is like when you go to the doctor and you need to do an operation to your stomach you don’t go to an Ophthalmologist, it doesn’t mean that he doesn’t know something about but is not the most indicated to do the job.
Which body part have you tattooed that was more deferent or that made you more uncomfortable?I have to be honest, I’m not even thinking about anything else because I’m just focused on what I’m doing. Imagine I’ve had uncomfortable situations but it wasn’t for the body part it was for the client itself, I was tattooing a big project in an area that caught the butt and all of that and my client at the same time was trying to flirt with me. Actually that’s not cool, I’m just trying to do my work and I’m not even putting my mind there. For me one thing is work and the other is my personal life and that’s has to be spread apart, though it ends up being an awkward situation because you have to be very cautious in what you are doing so that is not misunderstood by the customer.
There are some tattoo artists that sometimes they try to denigrate others tattoo artists does that scares you at some point or does it concerns you?No, because there it is there are space for everyone. Currently if there is a request that I can’t do or that I’m not sure that I’m the most suitable I am going to name some other tattoo artist even if I don’t know him personally. All I need is to know the artists designs and projects so that I can name him to a costumer when needed because…
I see that in this world it happens a lot to some tattoo artists are more valued than other due to having more followers in their social media, how does that make you feel relatively on having more or less recognition?I think this is something that we have to talk about, instagram is a cancer for the tattoo world, for one reason, now a days you see people that edit lines on photoshop so afterwords they can post it and let’s be realistic tattoos aren’t perfect, there isn’t a tattoo that doesn’t have a line less perfect. There is another thing, these artists only take photos or just post those photos when the tattoo is done and don’t post them when they’re fully healed also because they already know how it’s going to look like in the end. For those who don’t know how this works and in a client perspective, that what’s to get a tattoo, they see those photos on instagram and think “ of course he can do it I’ve seen it “ , when in the end it doesn’t always works like that. In my opinion, the ones to blame on that are those who only do it for the clout duo to because having a lot of followers on social media, not that I have something against those artists that have a lot of followers because it’s also very important for our work. Social medias now a days are super important to promote our projects all though it’s not cool when the tattoo artists tries to fool the client by showing designs that in real life didn’t end up looking like the photo. That creates an illusion in the costumers mind.
Do you have any story or advice you wanna share about doing as tattoo in a specific body part?Yes, a while ago I had a guy that just turned 18 and he wanted to tattoo his hand and I refused, imagine I’m not the “gate keeper” of tattoos but I don’t want to have my name bonded to something that I know it can mess up someone’s life and you see it’s a kid that still doesn’t know what he wants to do with his future. Before I decided to do or not that tattoo I talked to the boy also because he showed available to it and I tried to know what he wanted to do with his life and I ended up changing his mind about it even though that makes me loose money. I think that making money without ethics it mean nothing and I prefer staying with a calm conscience. We need to have ethic and also we really need to respect the weight there is on carrying a tattoo that’s visible on your skin.
