From Interview to Column

The Russian magazine Tattoo Master came to my work twice: first with an interview in issue #1 of 2005, then with a column I wrote through 2007. Most of the people reading it were about to get their first tattoo, or to start tattooing, in a country where good information was still hard to find.

2005: The Interview

The tattoo biography printed in 2005 is the short version of my road. There was no information about tattooing in Russia, so knowledge came through experiment, first of all with machines, and through my work alongside Taras. In 1998 I joined the British A.P.T.A., in 2002 the American Alliance of Professional Tattooists. From 1999 I worked the European conventions, in 2000 I opened Bardadim Tattoo Studio, and in 2003 I was one of the initiators of the Guild of Russian Professional Tattooists. What became of the Guild is told in Before the Industry.

The page carried two lines of mine in large type. "The only difference between a tattooed person and one without tattoos: the tattooed one doesn't care that you have none." And my credo: not to stop at what has been achieved.

So You Want to Be a Tattooist (#3)

In 2007 the editors asked for a series of articles for readers, written from the tattooist's side of the chair. Seven of them ran that year, in issues #3 to #10. I started with training. I opened with Filip Leu's point that knowledge in tattooing does not come from books, and argued for the traditional apprenticeship: at least three years of full studio work and daily practice, because skin, healing, machines and design each take years to learn. Courses of a few weeks were opening everywhere, and I wrote that they give almost nothing. Trial and error on clients I called what it is: criminal.

The practical advice was plain. Come to a teacher with a portfolio of drawings that shows line, form, composition and perspective. Expect to pay, and to wash floors. And learn about bloodborne disease as seriously as about drawing, because a tattoo opens the skin's barrier.

Choosing a Tattooist (#4, #5)

The next two issues were for clients. A tattoo stays for life, yet people choose it carelessly: because a friend did it, because someone does it for free, because the design they really want costs a little more. My advice was to look for the best, not the cheapest, and if money is short, to wait.

Then what to look for: clean, continuous lines, even shading, smooth gradients, little trauma around fresh work. A tattooist who has no photos of his work is a reason to leave. As a benchmark I pointed readers to the members of the Guild who held its professional status. In the studio, ask to see the sterilizer. A steam autoclave belongs there; the small quick sterilizers made for manicure rooms do not. Needles and grips should come out of sealed sterilisation pouches in front of you, and everything the tattooist touches that cannot be sterilised should be covered with a barrier film.

The Price of a Cigarette Pack (#6)

Every Russian tattooist of that time knew the phone call: "How much is a cigarette pack?" My own explanation went back to Soviet times, when tattoos were made mostly in the army or in prison camps, cigarettes were currency, and a tattoo the size of a pack cost a pack.

Pricing by area makes no sense for modern work: a square centimetre of tribal and a square centimetre of a portrait take very different time. Time is the honest measure. So I told readers not to ask what the whole work will cost but how long it will take, and to describe the idea before asking about price at all. How I price large work today is on the Japanese Tattoo Prices page.

If You Don't Like Your Tattoo (#7, #8)

Two issues went to cover-ups. Retouching an old tattoo rarely helps, because the dissatisfaction usually has several causes at once: the application, the drawing, a meaning that has changed, or a size that does not fit the part of the body it sits on. I called that last one among the most common mistakes tattooists make.

The second part was about the design. Light colour cannot hide dark: the inks mix as the skin heals and the old image comes back. There is no "skin-coloured ink". Covering with dark tones alone makes a tattoo that cannot be read from a metre away. The new design has to follow the relief of the body, be in proportion to it, and hide the old lines inside its own details. And it will be much bigger than the old one.

Reading it now, the part about size, proportion and the body's relief is the one I would keep word for word.

Scratchers (#10)

The last article was about scratchers: people who tattoo without the knowledge of art or of health the work demands. Where they work tells you nothing; you can find a scratcher in a prestigious salon and a professional in a well-equipped home studio. Equipment was getting cheap and easy to buy, but experience still could not be bought. I ended with the line I would still give any client: when you choose a tattooist, you trust him not only with your safety but with your individuality.