Underground Realities - Social - Art - Visual Culture
Johnny is one of the tattoo artists that we are going to meet and talk a bit more about this amazing culture. This artist is 31 years old and is on this world for 5/6 years. A small talk with someone that has different perspective and it’s from another generation is super important and curious.
For how long have you been tattooing and how much did it took you to lear it?
I can’t precisely tell you for how long, I know that I bought my first tattoo machine like 7 years ago but I consider it a real thing for about 5 or 6 years.
In your opinion what was the most difficult thing to lear about tattooing and starting working professionally?
I think that the hardest thing when starting it’s all the pressure and the responsibility that you have on yourself, the fear of making mistakes because it’s a tattoo and it’s a thing that you can’t press ctrl + Z and go back to correct something. I think that is the biggest obstacle you have when you're starting. I began learning at home with YouTube videos, then I had the opportunity to learn in a studio. When you're in a studio the evolution is much better because you start to breath more tattoo, at home you only tattoo when your friends want to get one and in the studio there is much more work and possibilities.At a learning level do you think you already reached a level where you have a lot of knowledge or not, do you think that you still need evolve?I think that there’s no one that can reach that level, no one in this world.
" The hardest thing when starting it’s all the pressure and the responsibility that you have on yourself, the fear of making mistakes because it’s a tattoo and it’s a thing that you can’t press ctrl + Z. "
Now you opened up your personal studio where you work with someone you know which is cool. What was the hardest thing since the beginning of covid-19 till now?
The hardest part about all of this was not being able to work. Opening this studio I can say that is was easy and super dope, in the end is super challenging and super motivating in a professional way.
Did you ever expected achieving the things you did so fast?
It has to do with all the effort and dedication you put on to it, I think that we lose track of time with all of this that’s way I say that I can’t determine when I actually started. We have to just go with the flow and having a lot of dedication, there’s no precess that you achieve faster or slower because it all depends on the person but I think that I’m in the right path.
Before you start learning all of this did you already had tattoos, were you familiar with the tattoo culture? In an artistic way, through your eyes and toward the Portuguese society what do you feel about the looks that people give to you now and when you were younger?Yes I already had tattoos before and I was familiar with the culture. It’s different generations and I noticed that since I started getting my tattoos till now it’s getting a bit better regarding all the looks and stuff. Comparing to other countries mainly in Europe we are still way behind in matters of mentalities, but in my view I think it’s because we have a lack of information towards people. In my family they used to think like the others, for them me having tattoos especially when I tattooed my hands they didn’t like it, my parents and my grandparents mainly, and when I started doing it for living there was a need to have a serious talk about it. I think that talk was super important, we spoke and I showed them what tattoos really was, showed them that it isn’t something that are just for the thugs or for prisoners, because people have this mentality, and it doesn’t have nothing to do with it. The conversation that I had with my family was to make them see for it true colors what tattoos are which is art, this is something like buying a painting to decorator your living room expect that this is something you carry everyday for rest of your life in your skin. People out there they look but I never gave it the importance, of course I noticed like always noticed the way people look especially but I never cared about it.
What made you chose to be a tattoo artist, what made you think you wanted to follow that profession?
Since I was younger I loved to draw, I was always watching cartoons especially dragon ball and it was that show that put me drawing, I was watching the show and drawing the characters at the same time, I was doing this and I was like 8/10 years old. Nowadays I see those drawings and it just blows my mind off, like how is it possible for a kid that age manage to do all that. I’ve always had an interest for art also I’m guy that loves to take risks and it was it, I had some support from my friends that use to say “ bro your drawings are amazing why don’t you try out tattoos?” , I said ok let’s do it.
Friends are something important for this?
Super importante really.
Some tattoo artists do anything for clout and sometimes they try to denigrate others artists, does that scary you or makes you feel threatened?Honestly never, also I’m very secure and confident as a tattoo artist, I think it’s really bad doing it in that way like talking bad things about someone’s work, obviously there will always be comments. In my opinion if the critics are constructive I think they’re actually important also people shouldn’t be scared to talk because that’s part of the evolution process but when it’s with a bad intention that’s just evil, although it’s really important to give constructive comments. For example if I’m scrolling through instagram and I see a photo of a tattoo and I noticed there’s something that he could do better or improve, I think it’s important to give that constructive comment on a dm just so he can improve by saying “ hey dude, in that part I think you could improve a little bit”, even if I don’t know the guy but if you’re exposing and making fun of it on instagram that’s just super bad.
What it your opinion about the social media and the influence on the tattoo culture and all the artists? Noticing that not every artist is completely dedicated to the social media or even don’t know how to use them right.I don’t have a lot of patience for instagram and I should have more patience to it. It’s super important because it’s your digital portfolio and posting a lot of stories of our work and personal life also helps a lot and I think it’s important. Not long ago I took a trip to tattoo for some days in France, at the studio I talked about social media with a guy that was there and he was the one that told me that me should post more on instagram because that makes our clients interested. Usually people follow this type of Instagram accounts because they are tattoo artists or they have an interest on your projects or want to get a tattoo with you or whatever, though the public really likes to be nosey and on your account you end up posting things about your daily life that’s not just tattoos. Honestly I don’t have that much patience to be on instagram, I like to post and share my work and all of that but posting a lot of stories is not for me all though I think it’s very important also I don’t have the time to do it as much as I liked, this ends up creating a connection with your clients too.
If you had to give an advice to someone that’s starting to learn how to tattoo what would be your first advice?
The first thing I would say is don’t get in this world for the money, just say this. Well also let’s not be hypocrites and say that tattoos doesn’t give money because it does although you have to reach a level where you are stable receiving money, many people have that thought that tattoos will give you money right away and you shouldn’t go thinking that way because it will not end well. That is something that goes through your mind always and I already said this to some mates of mine that are still in the begging and now they say that I was right. Also it goes through your mind wanting ti quit a lot, this is something that you have to risk and try it out so that you can see if it’s something you can handle with all the pressure and the fear of making a mistake, you have to be persistent because if you actually figure out that this is what you want and it’s this that you like to do you have to persist. I know a lot of people that started this for the money, it’s understandable though it’s not right because they all ended giving up.
What would be your next step, your next goal?
It’s doing better everyday a little bit more, is to travel more and meet new people because that’s really important in this career, participate in conventions that’s something I have done although I want to be more part of it maybe next year, now everything is complicated because of the pandemic even though some countries are already doing this type of conventions. I really hope that next year we can manage to invest more on being part of this type of events, also we can’t forget that we can’t do everything at the same time if so it’s impossible to work at our own studio and with our clients.
What did you feel when you went to your first convention?
The experience was super cool, we didn’t went with the idea that we would take all the prizes we went more to see and to understand how it works and it was super cool just being there with all those tattoo artists. I already had participated but as a cliente, seeing and attend those conventions as a tattoo artist it was super dope for real and it was an amazing experience.
What would you say to someone that’s a beginner and is nearly settling on this career?
Insist, if this is what you like you have to insist really hard because there it is you go a lot through this fase that you don’t want to care this big responsibility also you have to study a lot. Search a lot because unfortunately in this area you will take many no’s when asking for help besides that insiste because you’ll find out someone that will be ok with it and is willing to give you some tips and is going to help you make contacts with other tattoo artists which is important too. We shouldn’t just focus on one thing and not listening to what others can teach us, that’s why I say traveling is important. The first time I traveled it was to France and just so you can see there I met a tattoo artist that also tattoos here really next to our studio and I had to meet him in France. Meeting different artists is important because you get to know their techniques and they get to know yours it’s good because you end up sharing knowledge.
What is your favorite style of drawing or what style do you identify the most and what is the one that you like the least?
I have been through several fases where my style was oriental and the it was neo-tradicional and at the moment the style that I like the most is realism all though I like to do a bit of everything. Relatively to the style I like the least, honestly I don’t do those type of tattoos unless someone really wants me to do it, are the Maori tattoo or tribal tattoo. Everything is hard working though those type of tattoos are the ones that I don’t have any pleasure in doing them. There are a lot of tattoo artist that enjoy doing this type of style and actually are really good and I know hoe to appreciate those tattoos I just don’t like to them.
From all the tattoos that you have ever done which one was the most weird or different and did you ever tattooed in a different part of the body?
Well it never happened to me thinking that there’s a part of our body that’s more different all though there are parts that I like less because the skin is more difficult to work or normally its a zone where people move a lot wile I’m working and that just makes it hard to work. If we talk about embarrassment that never happened also, in the beginning it was a bit awkward just because if it was a woman and if I was going to tattoo her chest my hand had to be supported over her chest and in the beginning I used to get a bit nervous and I sweat a lot but is normal. Talking about tattoo designs actually I have done some works that were really hardcore to friends of mine that are crazier than me, but really aggressive drawings like a design with a woman holding a penis in the middle of her boobs for example, I have done things like that type but only to my friends also because I think their the only ones that would recall to do something like that.
