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Graffiti TattooGraffiti Vol. 2 features Tattoo Vol. more2 than features 60 of more the best than 60 of the best artists and international artists andstars international of the scene. stars of the scene. GRAFFITI TATTOO VOL. 2 GRAFFITI TATTOO VOL. 2 G G raffiti tattOO raffiti VOL. tattOO 2 is an impressive VOL. 2 is and an impressive and well-researchedwell-researched reference workreference that documents work that documents the transition graffiti the transition artists are graffiti increasingly artists are increasingly making into themaking tattoo into world. theWith tattoo their world. eye With for color their eye for color and mastery ofand lettering mastery andofwild lettering styles,and these wild spray styles, paint these spray paint virtuosos are changing virtuososthe areface changing of the tattoo the face business of the tattoo business worldwide. They worldwide. use a language They use filled a language with graffiti filled style with graffiti style burners and characters burners and thatcharacters go far beyond that the go far standard beyond the standard tribal designs and tribal sailor designs styles. and While sailorthe styles. first While book the first book allowed a rare glimpse allowed into a rarethis glimpse movement, into this thismovement, much this much larger successor larger provides successor a full-blown provides compendium a full-blownof compendium of this fantastic art this onfantastic the mostart difficult on thecanvas most difficult of all: skin. canvas of all: skin. www.fromheretofame.com www.fromheretofame.com cRome, msg Miami, Florida, USA I got into graffiti in the early 80s when it was really evolving. It was already around before then, but in the Miami area it really started picking up at that time. My father was a sign painter and I learned a thing or two from him. Then I started experimenting with graffiti and I was eventually influenced by all the New York cats moving down to Miami. I was automatically attracted to graffiti—I just loved all of the colors and designs that went into it. I ended up doing a prison stint for drug trafficking and while I was in prison I still kept up with everything. I did about four years, from 2001 to 2006, and in that time I realized that even though I was going to stop selling dope I was never going to ruin my art. I don’t ever see myself stopping because I’ve been doing this since I was a kid. After getting locked up I realized just how petty [of a crime] graffiti really was. In prison I got a lot of respect because people knew who I was and they ended up hitting me up either for portraits or tattoos of their names and things like that. I already had it good and did a lot of tattoos in Dade County Jail. It was pretty much a free ride, not to say it was easy, but it could have been worse. www.msgcartel.com 40 41 cRone aa Rossano ROSSI Roncelli Liestal, Switzeland I n 1989 I started painting graffiti. A very good friend of mine introduced me to the legendary rap crew Run DMC. At that moment I realized that rap is the music I need and the whole Hip Hop culture with graffiti became a part of my life very fast. But Hip Hop is dead. In the beginning of 1990 I created a name with the letters C.R. ONE. The letters stand for “Criminal Rossi One” and CRONE was born. 2007 is when I started tattooing. At that time I was struggling in my life. There were only two options: go back to the fucking military again or die. But in a fortunate situation I started my education in the coolest tattoo studio in Basel: Fresh Up Studio with my master and homie Mägge, the owner of the studio. He let me do my art and the important 42 thing was that he always believed in me. That gave me a lot of energy. After two years of my education in the Fresh Up Studio I opened my own tattoo studio. All kinds of people want a “Crone tattoo.” Even the police officer that busted me a long time ago came into my studio and asked for a tattoo. His words were, “Yo Rossi, I caught you when you were painting the name Crone and now there is shop in my village called Crone Tattoo, please give me one.” With a lot pain … ha ha. In my studio the action is 24 hours a day and seven days a week, with a lot of wild stories. [email protected] Crone Tattoo Studio “Monster of Art” Büchelistrasse 11 4410 Liestal, Switzerland www.crone-tattoostudio.com 43 54 55 EAZ one San Jose, Califonia, USA W hile I was born and raised in New Jersey, Union City and Fort Lee is where I would spend most of my youth. I started writing when I was a kid because its influence was all around me and impossible to resist. I have slowed down a lot on painting due to dedicating so much of my time to tattooing and drawing. I have been known to come out to paint here and there. I have been a bit more comfortable tattooing these days so I have actually been feeling the urge to paint again. I have been tattooing for almost two years. The catalyst came way before that though. Over the years I grew tired of the corporate 62 scenarios that I always found myself in as a graphic designer. I was successful with it, working with huge companies like Pfizer and Nintendo. I won a few awards for the company I worked with but that was never the real me. I didn’t feel comfortable having to “sell” my design ideas to a boardroom full of clients and explain why I did this or that. Nothing that I was doing during my design career was “me”. It was all a soulless shadow of me. My boy Adrian Roots from our shop Scared Roots Tattoo in San Jose helped me more than anyone else. He shared a lot of his tattoo techniques with me. Even before we officially opened he was showing me a lot of important things I wouldn’t have known otherwise. To me tattooing is art. If it is dope and your artist is dope it deserves to be on your skin. If you can dream it you should wear it. There is no reason that a person getting tattooed cannot collaborate with a good tattoo artist and come up with something great, with or without meaning. “Graffiti” tattoos are one of the things I feel most strongly about. If I am creating graffiti style work on people I want to be able to proudly say I did it. Some dudes are tattooing really embarrassing shit graffiti letter styles on people’s skin. I mean seriously, it’s a tattoo, not a practice wall. [email protected] www.eaz-one.com facebook.com/eazonerocs twitter: @EazOne SACRED TATTOOS 515 South Bascom Ave., San Jose, CA www.sacredrootstattoo.com 63 FEL3000ft Detoit, Michigan, USA A round 1982 some kids from New York moved into my neighborhood and got me into writing. They would go back and forth to the East Coast to see their family and bring back pictures of graffiti art and tapes of Red Alert on the radio that changed my life. But one of my biggest influences was my friend Tim Jones (aka Trick), who made art look easy. We would both push each other to be better at graffiti and art and were heavily influenced by the New York scene through television, movies and music. You know rap, breakdancing, DJing and graffiti—just a Hip Hop lifestyle. When I was 14 years old I got a job at an airbrush shop and worked there a long time; one day this kid came in and asked for a job. Since his work was really good I talked to the boss and he got the job. We became good friends and started to learn from each other. Slowly we d eveloped a style that had a street art feel and translated it into an airbrush form. I was just doing what I did in the street on shirts; I never stopped painting and learning how to take from one art form to use on the streets in my graffiti. My friend was way into that as well so I showed him how to paint with a can and hit walls. We hung out all the time, so when he left the airbrush world to go into tattoos, I made the same jump at 19 years old. That friend was Jime Litwalk. He was just the first and not the last to twist my arm to get into tattoos. Don Miller was a friend who gave me a chance when no one else would and he set me up with a job at Krayola Tattoos, where I worked for a long time. The first year as a tattoo dude is hard. It’s not like a painting a wall, or like anything for that matter. There is so much to learn about safety for yourself and your clients, aside from doing good work. It took me four years to feel like I was even starting to get the hang of it. I thought just like everyone who ever did art and was good at it, “man I can do that shit,” but I was wrong. This is not easy at all; it takes time and it’s technical. That’s why anyone who does it should learn from someone as an apprentice. That’s the way it has been done for hundreds of years in Japan, so there is a bit of tradition involved in this. The first year is tough and I had to be at the shop all the time to learn and not get paid but if you want something you just have to do what needs to be done. [email protected] www.fel3000.com Twitter: @fel3000ft XS Tattoo 105 East Second Street Rochester, Mi. 48307, USA www.xstattoo.com 68 69 Fibs Caolina, Pueto Rico A round 1999 I started writing. Graffiti has always fascinated me, ever since I was a child. I didn’t have the courage to do it until I become 16 and I was freer to engage with such an art form. Some years I am more active than others but I never stop doing it. My style is wild style. Straight up letters and style. My writing style is more pure and totally different from my tattoo work. However, I have been adding a little of my graffiti style into my tattoos. I want them to be different. When I bomb in the streets I feel a totally different mood and energy then when I am inking in my studio. I started inking in 2002 when I went to college. I believe that there is compatibility between graffiti and tattoo artists, they are equals and have common ground. At least that’s how I see it. I grew up in a movement in which graffiti artists have a huge respect for tattoo artists, some of them are inked. I think it is a perfect fusion. [email protected] Facebook: La Galeria Tattoo Flickr: ...“Fibs”... La Galeria Tattoo Ave. Monserrate BA-20 00983 Carolina, Puerto Rico 70 71 80 81 FRanz JägeR Copenhagen, Denma W [email protected] Le Fix Tattoo Guldbergsgade 18 kld. Tv 2200 Copenhagen N, Denmark Facebook: Le Fix Tattoo www.lefix-tattoo.com 82 here I grew up there was not much for young teenagers to do except for smoking weed and stealing cars and so on. Then along came this thing called graffiti and I pretty much got hooked on it right away. I started out writing in 1984 or 1985. In the beginning I had different kinds of tags, to be honest I can’t even remember most of them but three or four years later I started writing the tag “Faze” and have kept that ever since. I started out tattooing in 1999—then I suffered a knee injury that forced me to stop working construction and seek a career change. So it was more by accident that I got into the tattoo game. The place I started learning was an old school biker shop where every aspect of it was done in an old school way. When I think back it was kind of crazy but also fun to have been a part of that particular period of tattooing in Copenhagen. So the learning process for me was strict but also fun. I do many different styles but if there is something I am known for then it is that I do it MY way. I’m inspired by various tattoo artists, especially old American flash art and later on in my career old school Japanese style. 83 92 93 Kinjal MitRa New Yok City, New Yok, USA B ack in 1983 I started writing graffiti as a sophomore in high school. I was always drawing comic book stuff in school and two writers named Serc and West told me on different occasions that I should make my art a little more cartoon-like and write graffiti. I filled two pages of loose-leaf paper with names and eliminated almost all of them but Micro stuck. It sounded very hi-tech to me and at that time computers were just starting to be used by the masses. I was always an artist and over the years a lot of people used to tell me that I should become a tattoo artist. I had also often wondered about being a tattooist somewhere in the back of my head but I had no idea where to begin. As luck or fate would have it I was offered an apprenticeship in 2006 by my tattoo artist because he liked my drawings and preparation (I had designed my own tattoo and photoshopped it on my arm for him to follow). I started physically tattooing in 2007 after a solid year and a half apprenticeship. I was extremely blessed to be offered an apprenticeship with Anil Gupta. The mentoring process itself was awesome. I was 36 when I started so Anil told me I didn’t have to do a lot of basic shop stuff (sweeping, cleaning etc.) because I wasn’t a young kid. I just sat and watched the master at work, learning and absorbing a lot of stuff. I got to meet all kinds of great clients, celebrities and had a great time, including emptying a few bottles of Scotch along the way. Anil also instilled a lot of discipline and appreciation for the arts and the artistic process in me. He was a professional, a workaholic and a great example to follow if you want to be successful at anything. My love of art is strong and I actively search out and absorb new ideas and influences. I was unfocused and probably a lazier and a less attentive artist when I was younger but tattooing has made me a much more disciplined and appreciative artist. I don’t know that I’m known for anything in particular. I think I’m pretty versatile, I can do letters and characters equally well. The characters come from my comic influence and my letters come from just working at it and letting it flow. [email protected] www.inkstasy.com facebook.com/INKSTASY Inkstasy Studio private studio, appointment only Washington Heights, NYC, USA 110 111 far left: Taken from a design by Banksy, tattooist unknown, photo by Jason Lefton left: Taken from a design by Banksy, tattoo by Péter “Rozsdy” Rózsás, photo by Krisztina Marton below far left: Taken from a design by Banksy, tattoo by Norm Wright, photo by Adam J. Tolman below left: Taken from an Obey design by Shepard Fairey, tattoo by Hillman, photo by Joe Morrissey of JM Photography below right: Inspired by an Obey design from Shepard Fairey, tattoo by Mr. Chris Sandoval, photo by Reiswig Photography above left: Taken from a design by Herakut, tattoo by Dominika Ulewicz above: Taken from a design by Herakut, tattoo by Bob Cooper, photo by Bea Wißner far left: Taken from a design by Herakut, tattoo by Sidney Lopes, photo by Diana Oshiro left: Taken from a design by Herakut, tattoo by Gino Fuchs, photo by Stephan Wilke 114 URBAN ART TATTOOS URBAN ART TATTOOS 115 132 133 138 139 Luis Mendonça La Linea de la Concepción, Cádiz, Spain M y first time painting on a wall was at the age of 14. It was the first graffiti ever painted in our neighborhood, La Linea de la Concepción. My crew was composed of Dani Muñoz, Kaberna and I, we were writing “sk8” and “rap for life!”. I didn’t write much at the time since there were too many limitations. I started painting aliens and things related to Hip Hop culture. Believe me, I was writing way less than I wanted to. Later on I started doing jams and showcasing the most respected graffiti artists from our area. These days I don’t paint anymore. I am more of an event producer and tattoo artist today. I have always been into tattoos and all kinds of sketches. I began learning t attooing around 1996 or 1997 in a rock shop on Gibraltar, the English colony. I worked there for many years selling clothes at the store until the day that I decided that I needed a profession with which I didn’t need to work for anybody else and could have fun at work. There is nothing better than to sell something (tattoos) that is eternal, for life. I had a mentor for four years. He was into simple and linear designs, with good style and technique but not too artistic. I was into realism, which I learned about through great tattoo artists who inked my skin. I also learned a lot at the tattoo conventions, where you can meet talented and cool people and see many fresh styles. Every year I’m getting better, perfecting my craft and loving what I do more and more. I see my ideas more clearly now and it’s becoming easier to bring them to skin. [email protected] 146 Black Dragon Tattoo Coronel Cadalso # 2 La Linea de la Concepción Cádiz, Spain myspace.com/ink_blackdragon fotolog.com/ink_blackdragon 147 152 153 170 171 this spread: All tattoos and the painting top right by Jeks pages 178 / 179: Tattoo by Maze on babakONE, photos by Siniša Mazulovic 176 177 POSK Madid, Spain W hen I was looking for a “place” within the streets in 1990, I started writing. The streets taught me almost everything that I know. I’m still writing, but I’m not as active as I used to be. My first tattoos were made in 1996. Graffiti changed my life; it gave me a new course, and then tattooing simply saved my life. L ettering (the art of writing letters) is the style that defines me. I guess it’s partly because of graffiti and also because I am very into the research and study of letters and styles. Everything that surrounds me is what inspires my work. My style is changing as constantly as the rhythm of life and as I change too. The essence has remained the same since I started. I think the best of my work is still to come. I challenge myself to get better every day. Like the song says, ‘Looking For the Perfect Beat’. 182 [email protected] posking.wordpress.com Facebook: Posk Buenatinta What is it like to be a tattoo artist? It r equires a lot of discipline and study, it’s always challenging. Tattooing is just another form of art and beauty. Of course there is a clear graffiti influence in my tattoos. But the most difficult part of my career is to fully understand each style and preserve the best of each them, knowing how to find their differences and respecting where they came from so I can use the styles in their purest form. Buena Tinta Av. de la Constitución 13 28931 Móstoles, Madrid, Spain www.buenatinta.com 183 206 207 SupeR TimoR Belgade, Sebia O ne of the first things I r emember in my life was one of the first B elgrade graffiti pieces done in the late 80s by an unknown artist, and it was near my kindergarten. Now I realize that all my passion for art started there. I first painted g raffiti when I was a twelve year old kid at the basketball playground in my hood in 1998. I have been writing actively for ten years. I am best known for characters, but these days I’m coming back to letter style. I hadn’t worked on it for three years and now I am back with my new crew MOFOS (Lortek, Tkv, Sobekci, Sito, Brik). Five years ago I started tattooing. The main reason for that step was my basic outlook on art, that is the energy and emotion transferred through the mediums of p ainting, 216 design, architecture, graffiti, and tattoo. I didn’t have a mentor for tattooing. I think that is absurd. Working in studios is a real prison, like every other everyday job, so I quit that. I just freelance. These days I work from my homemade studio on my schedule because I am also working on other stuff—trying to make a total design studio. I am trying my best to give customers the best tattoo for themselves, while incorporating it into the same visual concept as my work in other art fields; but you know I wouldn’t work on any satanic or hate symbol. Generally my main inspirations come from Slavic art and ornaments. A tattoo without any meaning is absurd and actually everything has some meaning, the bad thing is when the meaning is wrong, since it can be a source of bad energy. [email protected] www.timor2013.tumblr.com facebook.com/super.timor.2013 flickr.com/supertimor3 private studio 217 226 227 above: Photo by Damien Sereno 232 233
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