Being interviewed is already an honor and a reason of pride, but if the interview is conducted by Inkedmag.com honor and pride are three times as much 😀
May 2019 Update
Websites are updated, modified and revised ever more frequently and a website like inkedmag.com obviously has to keep up with the times and regularly clean its databases.
So it seems that my interview is no longer online, but since it was conducted via e-mail I still have the text and I decided to translate it and share it with you.
I don’t remember the images they used at the time, so I chose some including only tattoos done by 2014.
EnjoyÂ
What year did you start tattooing?
If by tattooing we mean piercing the skin with a needle and some ink to leave some sort of black mark, I started doing that kind of stuff on myself when I was a kid and I believe it was the summer of 1982/83. It was something irresponsible that I did to feel older than I was.
But in my humble opinion, tattooing is something more than ink underneath the skin. So it would be more accurate to say that I started doing it in a responsible way about 10 years later, although if I was still lacking some important information (tattoo culture didn’t spread until the mid-90s in Italy and for a kid who lived in a small town like I did having access to this kind of knowledge wasn’t easy).
It took me a couple more years, not only to tattoo in a safer and responsible way but also to understand that I could do on skin what I was able to do on paper and, above all, that I also needed to take responsibility and educate my clients rather than tattooing everything they were asking for. So, although we can say that I started tattooing approximately 30 years ago, in reality I consider myself a real tattoo artist since 2005, maybe even later.
Do you have any special training?
In 1986 I enrolled at the Milan School of Comics and after obtaining my diploma in 1990 I started my career as a comic artist and illustrator.
I believe that the path towards becoming a better artist is strictly connected to a continuous learning process, so I try to attend as many seminars, workshops and online classes as possible whenever I can; not only about tattooing but also about art, anatomy, digital painting and the like.
Tell us about the style of your work
Right now my style leans towards realism but it’s mostly due to the kind of requests I get. I also like to experiment with other styles, in particular, I would love to work more on cartoon.
I consider myself quite a versatile artist, I like to draw almost anything and in almost any style. I like the idea of creating something unique for my clients so I take my time to study the designs I’m going to tattoo in detail. I don’t like my work to be just some iconic image placed on skin but I like it to tell a story, when the client’s request allows for it of course. I think that my background as a comic artist and illustrator emerges from this.
Conventions usually worked?
I’ve attended very few conventions but I think that the way I work doesn’t particularly suit that kind of environment. I prefer discussing the work in detail, taking all the time I need to prepare the preliminary drawings and work in a more relaxed environment.
So, unless I have time to plan the work ahead, it’s a situation I usually avoid. But I cannot resist invitations so, if invited, maybe I attend even without having any bookings, to get to know other artists, see them at work and maybe work on some nice pieces for clients who show up.
Where did you apprentice?
Unfortunately I never had the chance to get a proper apprenticeship. When I started tattooing seriously, during the 90s, tattoo culture was at its early stages in Italy so there weren’t any tattoo shops or professional tattoo artists whom I could refer to, certainly not close to the small town I live in.
What tattoo artist do you most admire?
There are so many, too many to list them. Limiting ourselves to tattoos, there are many tattoo artists who are able to do spectacular work but I think that very few of them are actually creating something new, recognizable and hard to reproduce. Those artists are the ones I admire the most, their ability to create a unique style that can’t be reproduced without immediately understanding that it’s a copy is amazing and I hope to reach that level one day.
Before someone gets a tattoo what advice do you give them?
A question I often ask my clients is:
“This drawing you want on your skin, would you frame it and hang it on the best wall of your home?”
If I sense any doubt or hesitation I invite them to reconsider the project.
I always try to dig deep with my clients, to understand what pushes them towards an image or a meaning, this helps me better understand if there’s a different and/or better way to do that work. I think that this kind of reflection will not only help them find the best image to represent what they want but also make them love their tattoo for many years to come.
How did you get into tattooing?
It’s been a long journey. Like I mentioned earlier, I started tattooing myself at the early age of 14/15. After seeing it my friends asked me to get one too and I irresponsibly accepted. This went on and off for a few years. The requests increased when I enrolled at School of Comics, probably because at the eyes of friends and acquaintances the fact of attending art school made me even more legit. During the mandatory military service I even became the tattooist of my battalion.
After that, in the early 90s, I started my career as a comic artist and illustrator. Around that time tattoo culture was starting to spread in Italy and the requests from people who wanted a tattoo from me increased accordingly, so in 1995 I purchased my first tattoo kit in order to tattoo in a safe and responsible manner (until then my only tools had been a sewing needle and some cotton ball). That same year I published a book of tattoo flash and the next year I started collaborating with a tattoo magazine who published flash. From then on not only did the number of tattoo related projects increase but also the number of tattoos, but despite the constant and increasing interest for tattoos I still wasn’t interested in making it my profession.
Around the early 2000s, due to a crisis of the editorial market in Italy, I was feeling a little uncertain about my future, it was then that a dear friend of mine made me notice how everything I did related to tattoos seemed to work out well and that maybe I had remained blind to what the universe had been trying to tell me for too long.
Those words lead me to re-evaluate my career and in 2005 I opened my shop trying to make up for lost time and doing my best to deepen my knowledge of tattoos as much as possible.
From then on it was a crescendo and I regret not having it done sooner, but probably that was the path I needed to follow in order to become who I am now.
What inspires you as an artist?
Everything can be inspirational, a comic book, a painting, a song, but over all inspiration comes from my clients’ ideas.
When I listen to them I let my mind wander and create images in my head in order to find the style that can best fit their ideas.
What kind of tattoos do you look forward to doing?
There isn’t one in particular. I like working on large projects, coloured, and on original ideas that give me the chance to create something unique.
I sometimes have ideas that I would like to work on but I have to relate to my clients’ requests, so many of my own ideas end up being written down or sketched, and put in a drawer waiting for the right client.
Is there a tattoo that you haven’t done yet that you are dying to do?
I’ve always wanted to do my own reinterpration of the 22 major arcana tarot cards but so far I haven’t received a request that would allow me to work on either one of them.
I would like to work on those drawings and hang them in my studio waiting for potential clients, but right now I’m working on so many drawings that I don’t know when and if I will have the time to work on this project.