About tattoos

My two cents about the shiny world of tattooing

I realized that in this newsletter, so far I have talked very little about tattoos. I wondered why, since I am also a tattooer and that is a huge part of my work. I gave myself an articulated, honest and a little painful answer. When I started this newsletter I was looking for a new space to give to my drawings, my reflections, my dearest projects, those that I didn't want to throw in the mouth of an increasingly voracious and ruthless algorithm that chews and spits out content like waste that need to be disposed. I wanted to give these projects a pinch of space and more breath compared to a post or story that is scrolled away in 1.2 seconds. And I wanted to breathe a new air myself, and the old air also included the over-boring tattoo-themed contents, which by force of profession I have to follow and care about.

The so-called tattoo industry sometimes seems to me a factory of endlessly repurposed content. The entire sector is essentially based on repetitiveness and standardized canons, although there are obviously exceptional artists within it. But here the word exceptional is not chosen by chance: I really had the impression that they were exceptions to a sad rule that, however, if we think about it, has always been part of this work. Traditional flashes were made to be repeated, and many styles are still based on the same subjects reproposed in a slightly different way. So maybe it's a systemic factor?

Add to this the embarrassing trend of the current market to request video-like content with fake customers who are mistreated (tremendous) or, before you can put a photo of the tattoo you made with so much passion, the rule seems to have become to insert a video of you doing a silly ballet because otherwise not even your mother can see that photo. From tattooer to digital creator, basically. This at least if you need social media as a tool for promotion: a tool that years ago allowed me to start this profession because it gave me the opportunity to show my work to people that I could never reach by mere word of mouth. We're talking about a pre-sponsored, pre-meta, pre-ai Instagram. In short, prehistory. I started tattooing about 7 years ago: it's not that much. And in these 7 years things have changed so much from this point of view that the breath of air I was looking for could not include the topic of tattoos: it was also from the tattoo world that I need a break, I admit it. Not from the work itself but from its social media drift, of course.

But then in the last newsletter I mentioned the theme, talking about what I called my crusade for a creative and unique tattoo, which was born from an original design and idea. And I said to myself: but Laura dear (yes, I often talk to myself and when I do I try to be kind) why then don't you bring this topic to your beloved newsletter space?

And here we are! Today I want to tell you what I love about this job, thus focusing on the beautiful things and leaving out of this door the trash videos and the views.

I would like to present my favorite theory: the illustration that becomes a tattoo.

What I love about this transformation from illustration to tattoo is the fact that the first one has an absolute potential, on a narrative and creative level. A blank sheet is, potentially, capable of telling anything. And when you create something in that free space, without the constraints that by its nature a tattoo has, weighed down by the canonization of genres, in my opinion you can give life to something not already experienced, not already seen, personal and magical. And when that image resonates for someone to the point of making them think hey, I would like to wear it on my skin forever, for me that's the meaning of all my work! From there, of course, you come back with your feet on the ground and come to terms with the fact that the skin is not a sheet of paper. But with the right precautions, for example the correct size to last over time in the best possible way, everything can be transformed into a tattoo. Let's say that this is more or less the spirit of the style called "illustrative tattoo", even if there also converge drifts that have a lot of pinterest and little of original ideas but that's it, you have to be patient. Veeeery patient.

But enough talk, I propose some of my most emblematic cases! Projects born on paper without purposes of being tattooed. This fact makes the point I'm talking about evident but I absolutely must underline the fact that I apply this theory to all tattoos! So everyone has this illustrative matrix, even when inspiration is brought to me by a client, or even when there is no previous version on paper. But the cases that I’m showing you are made even more evident precisely by this aspect, that is, their birth regardless of the tattoo intent.

First case! I take advantage of the fact that I kept the original sketch to clarify a couple of points. New disclaimer: I'm only talking about me and my way of tattooing. There are tattoo artists who don't use lines just to say, while the first point on the agenda for me is lines. When a drawing becomes a tattoo, I define the lines that I want to be clear and precise. Then come the contrasts: fundamental! You can't put two areas that have similar shades next to each other: a void must correspond to a full, a deep black must be combined with a light shade, to make the image clearly readable. The essential point for me is precisely the readability: from a reasonable distance you have to understand what the tattoo represents.

One of the first tattoos born from an autonomous illustration! One of my absolute favorites (we also won a prize for this one at a convention 🙈). Here I really tried to transfer the feeling of the drawing on the skin as much as possible. We modified the features a little to get closer to the evolution of my style, since the big mouse was a few years old.

Another case under consideration that is very meaningful: my first experiment of transforming a print (which you see on the left) into a tattoo! It dates back several years ago, in fact by mutual agreement with the client we treated it a bit like an experiment. I wasn't too experienced yet, it was one of my first so ambitious pieces in color but I'm still very satisfied with it! And it healed great to this day.

From this yokai illustration a double tattoos! Here too, definition of the lines and more decided contrasts, made even more evident by the transition to black and white. Here I also added some elements such as the shimenawa rope to the Kitsune to give a more autonomous character to the design and create an extra movement that is always needed in a tattoo! In the same way in the little hand of our yokai I added a strategic fan.

In short, I could go ahead with a lot of examples, I took the ones I had more material on (so if you’re reading and don't see your tattoo, take it out on my clogged and messy icloud). I hope I was able to clarify this aspect that was vital to me: the care of the tattoo first of all as a design that has its own autonomy, dignity and that requires special care. I call it crusade because time, profit, costs, visibility often impose a completely different standard. Hasty jobs with AI, or vaguely copied by other operators in the sector are unfortunately almost the norm. At the same time, there are so many incredible artists who innovate this language and propose their personal vision enriching a profession that in my opinion deserves an all-round artistic dignity. I called them exceptions but that doesn't mean they're not numerous anyway!

Maybe my vision is too romantic, and I know that there are many currents of thought within the sector that would not agree with my point of view. But this is my newsletter and here I say my two cents! Thanks as always to those who have come this far!

See you next time!

Laura