Underground Realities - Social - Art - Visual Culture
Ricardo is 49 years old and I have been tattooing officially and professionally since 2005, he started learning this in 97, then he stopped for a while, then he resumed it again and then stopped it learning again and then came back doing it officially in 2005 in a professional manner.
At the time you started tattooing, how was tattooing seen, how were people who had tattoos seen, how was it seen in society?
As a client I was 23 years old, when I got my first tattoo I did a little thing here and there when I was younger, of course, I wasn’t seen with the eyes that are seen nowadays like mainstream, it was a little underground, they didn’t look at you with good eyes even if it just is tattooed on the arms, forearm or leg. When I started tattooing other people, when I changed the role of tattooed to not tattooed, this vision and this little misconception still remained, and it was still a small prejudice, not as vast as when I was a client when I was tattooed and not the tattoo artist, but there was still a slight prejudice and even less if you had visible tattoos like hands or neck or face.
In relation to your family members when you started getting tattoos what was their reaction and what was their reaction when you decided you wanted to become a tattoo artist?
The initial reaction was thus a bit strange, including that of my father, who was in the colonial war, so he was in Africa, and at the time he didn’t even bring any tattoos from there. At the time he said “so I was in a situation like this and I never did it and you go now and do it” and I said “no, I did something or other that tells me the symbolism I like and you know that art has always been my life” and then we never stayed there, they reacted a bit badly to those first tattoos, then they adapted to the scene and soon they realized that it was a taste I had because I always drew and it was a taste I always had. Of course, later on, and already being a grown man, when I started to get over it, I still had some criticisms that weren’t very repressive, but some criticisms and there was no need, they weren’t constructive criticisms. They weren’t constructive in a sense of those who see them because they said it was ruining your beauty, your image, and your face, but then they got used to it and now they’re already playing with the situation. life, they even say I’m the showcase of my work and I say yeah that’s right. It’s part of it, also those who like this while they have skin don’t stop and then there’s something else because even after you’re already tattooed you’ll still get tattoos on top because it’s that addiction. If I want, I can even put big lettering over here and it will even be a big mix but you will realize that I do not intend to do that, but when a person likes it, he tattoos whenever he can.
What is your connection with art itself since the beginning, since you remember your first contact with art where you saw that you had a taste for it?
I don’t know, it was an innate thing and when I was a kid I would go to a restaurant with my parents and when we would eat and there was nothing to do until the food came and I would take a pen and start drawing, guys, dolls, cars, ready some images that stuck in my head and that’s how I realized that I was directly linked to drawing art.
When it comes to tattoos, did you learn from someone, did you leave the country to learn from someone?
I didn’t go out, I learned here, I learned by myself with some tips already from a renowned tattoo artist in the country at the time and I evolved because at that time we couldn’t be together and he would give me some tips and then he would- giving me the tips and I was practicing on pigskin and in some notes from a book he had given me at the time, even very olds school those very basic things that are really the basics of tattooing, of course, tattooing evolves later and then there are other concerns that we have today that we didn’t have many years ago. That’s how I learned to tattoo, what is tattooing, it’s not everything else that involves tattooing, such as hygienic care, not transmitting disease, taking care that you have garbage to throw away, running garbage and the contaminated waste, so this did not exist many years ago, this was something that was evolving and that this implies a lot with public health and with the health of each one. As for the tattoo, the technique of tattooing was a little distant and a bit of self-recreation, without extending it too much because it is a personal thing and I was deprived of my freedom at the time and so while deprived of my freedom it was a way to achieve to spend my time and learn something I’ve always liked, I still soldered many of my needles, I don’t buy many needles that already made, and I can even show some material that used to be made in the past and the material of today. There was a tremendous evolution of material, the paint, for example, evolves in a sense in which you get parameters and start saying that this is not in accordance with your health because they say that this pigment has something that is bad for your health. Even the chemists themselves there was a time when they said that the purple chemicals could no longer be used, they had to be green ones because the purple ones contained any pigment based on any material that was cancerous, now let’s see how true it all is, it is often said if there is no interest in putting a certain product on the box to promote another. The trends also end up making the said evolution
What does tattoo culture mean to you personally, from a client’s point of view?
Usually, when you made a choice you did something very personal, or band stuff or movie themes many times because you really liked that kind of skulls this or that, but I think a lot of what we saw people tattooed had a lot to do with what had to do with his lifestyle was a lot. Nowadays, you get tattooed with what they tell us to tattoo, what I want to explain to you with this is this, in the old days, there was a lot of old school wave and it will always reign and the old school ruled running away from the old school you had a realism that is no longer this ultra-realism that is no longer what you see today, you had relative realism portraits were rarely made, they were symbols of bands and skulls were sometimes very personal things. Nowadays this is what is very fashionable if there was a great advertisement in terms of social networks etc. or those people who are iconic or who are someone’s elderly, I don’t like to name things but here we’ll name them, and I don’t like labels either but let’s explain it like this, and Angelina Jolie appeared with are written on a shoulder blade everyone I even wanted to make her own copy her tattoo I already did them but I told the person not to do them because I don’t think it’s correct that this was done for her, is it written here like a verse from the bible or is it written here something in Tibetan or whatever for her. If Rihanna comes up with one hand all tattooed indie, Indian style, the women all want to get that tattooed, if it’s now fashionable to tattoo highly realistic basketball figures everyone will get tattooed or want to do that kind of job, say “eish it’s awsome this kind of work, ultra-realistic”, a movie play or movie faces or gangsters will all do that. There was a time when it was the clown women and that wave a bit in Mexican style etc. etc. it seems like it’s an impingement, people seem to get something tattooed because they like it’s because it’s in fashion, maybe I’ll get Pablo Escobar tattooed because Pablo Escobar is Pablo Escobar, you know there’s no longer a proper taste, it’s almost an imitation one wants to look like A, like B or C. This comes from the new age and it differs a lot and there is a slight smack of old folks and new folks here at all, I can say that at all, I have nothing against it, of course, I think that in the past there was more of a cultured spirit of tattooing and tattooing because you really liked it if it hurt and today the question is if it was too much if you really want something….It was also a lot to work 12 hours but if you want to have a car or a motorcycle, a house you have to work those hours and it hurts too.
Today’s tattoo artists with thin pants, they look like the ballplayer, they are always worried about their appearance yeah of course a guy has to look good because he’s here working with the public and it’s not meant to become here to work all rotten or all smelly but look and there are many tattoos who have almost no tattoos, I even say that there are many ballplayers who have more tattoos than these same tattoo artists. Going back to that story of “looking like”, when Beckam appears with the cross and tattooed wings behind and with his arm full of clouds and angels, everyone wanted to fill their arms with clouds and angels and bla, bla, bla, about 15 years ago and it’s a lot this is not of their own free will it’s because it’s a big “scene” that Beckam’s arm is like this.Beckham’s arm is brutal but in his scene, want a black and gray arm, think of things you like, like liking that movie character, liking those marvel or star wars characters, so build a black and gray arm, there’s a lot of copies, I had a guy here working with me and he’s almost always tattooing the same thing, he’s probably tired of tattooing that, I haven’t talked to him yet, I haven’t had a chance, but he’s always tattooing Poseidon seen from the side, that figurine with big flying beards and such, he’s already tattooed I don’t know how many men have the same tattoo in the same position, just because it’s in fashion.
There was a time when you only tattooed mandalas, you’ve stopped for a while, more or less, to another type of brutal work that people don’t care about, they think it’s kind of horrible, because they want what they get in their eyes, a great photograph, highly realistic, but other works of another kind that also have a lot of impact, I think tattooing has become very commonplace and in your learning too, as I’ve already said I welded needles, I had to while disassembling my machine back to assemble, buy new spools to change, because there came a time when they spoiled, reeds also had to be changed, today you have a pen, put in and take out the tip, I think this innovation was nice, you have is another type of situation that is in the past this was a testimony of the past, this was an ancient art and it was an art that was passed down from generation to generation and it was not like that, there were paths, there was learning, people today if they had to weld a needle s, regardless of the way they have to tattoo, if they had to solder needles if they had to have this kind of care and these concerns, I think that of the 100% tattooists who go around, I think that only 50% or less would be left, because today everything is much easier and thankfully some things, but even so they should go through the process of evolution, make drawings with vegetable on vegetable until reaching the final work but no, it’s an iPad layer by layer, send that, also learn through YouTube, this was another profession that appeared, right, which is YouTubers, you go there and squander all of your learning there and people keep getting beat up, and this ended up becoming mainstream in that sense, people today don’t even resort to who knows , buy a machine, start doing this at home and take the first steps, so this no longer has a story.
Do you think there is respect coming form this new generation?
There is no respect, tattoo artists nowadays have no respect, this is my reading of things, it’s my personal opinion, there may be those who share the same opinion as me, but I’m here to share my opinion guys. I think the blame for this also comes a lot from the middle of the tattoo and the middle of the tattoo with what, with the big brands, it ends up later also running your own medium, your own sector, this used to be all tattooists opened their business, at least those who had the chance to do it, I mean in the case of Portugal had the chance to be the first, they were really the parents “from all over this world” that we have in Portugal and they took our name abroad a lot, but when they opened their business they always gave a name to a store, whether it was, to form that into a brand or just a store name, but they gave a name, now this has become very individualistic, it’s all very much with the name “ricadotattoostudio” stuff like that is everything a lot like that and almost the stores that actually have the store name “helldiablo”, “artofbuda” among others. Today’s kids from nineteen to thirty have their name, it’s their name that rules, very few have a studio with a name that isn’t their name, that is, it’s become a bit selfish and this alters ego because then the tattoo material brands themselves also promote these alter egos, because too many good tattoo artists around the world, we used to have the idea that there was the best of everything abroad, there are amazing tattoo artists in Portugal, much better than many guys out there, but then what happens these brands take these people as headliners, they start to patriotize, and that adds alter egos, and what happens when people start to be them and not the studio.The studio could be like an art gallery, it could be a bigger store, there were ten different guys there, each one with their potential and the name was that, but how do brands sponsor these kids with these things from YouTube and between other things. They start thinking because they can take one or three steps higher, which are already super good, but many do realism that’s very fashionable, but maybe they can’t do old school or even make a straight line, and in my time you were forced to do everything, line, shadow, paint, because of course more people tend to do some things than others and when you know you can’t do the work, it’s better to stay quiet, but today you don’t want to go easy, you have to know how to draw, at least have a minimal background, but then it’s easy, you pull there also you have the paint bag, you know the contrast that has, then it gets a little lighter or darker but that’s it, and then you ask for a more old school work a line more rigid but stronger, but if they later leave that field, they are no longer tattoo artists.
But for you what is the real meaning of having tattoos?
I see it as an art that marks on the body things that you have gone through in your life, your personal likes, your dislikes, sometimes your idols, sometimes even your own sorrows, this is what the tattoo is.
Do you do any style of tattoos?
I do all kinds of tattoos only the one thing I don’t do is color portraits.
Would you accept someone as an apprentice at this time and what advice would you give that person?
Depends on it, alter egos sometimes leave us with certain marks, a lot of people have passed here, I had to think. I can’t tell you any advice, because I don’t know if I would have to train as a tattoo artist, or as a person, which is what many people lack, having character, sometimes they come very humbly to ask to learn because in the meantime, Dao a little step Dao three, then you’re already more loaded with customers and you pass a customer or others to the people and then think of tomorrow you’re already the biggest and tidy things up and go away, after all, I don’t need you for anything anymore, and I eat I don’t deal very well with these types of situations, I don’t know if I would be able to manage them.
