4th TravellInk Mag

TravellInk Mag

12th Amsterdam

Tattoo Convention

Interview

Tattoo Artists

Jack Galan Tattoo Shop

Needle Art Illustrator

Steve Simpson

Musician & Tattoo Artist

Miguel Olascuaga

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4th Edition 2016

Table of

CONTENT

JACK GALAN

18 06

TATTOO ARTIST

CHILLING TIME

50

NEEDLE ART

46

EDITORIAL

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MIGUEL OLASCUAGA

TATTOO ARTIST | MUSICAN

NEW PRODUCTS

TATTOO SHOP

Direction Jéssica Costa Tiago Pereira

Art Direction Jéssica Costa

Revision Robert Rozendaal

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FEMKE FATALE INK THOUGHTS

Articles & Interviews Tiago Pereira Robert Rozendaal

Collaborations Femke Fatale

Cover Photo Rose Richards Make-Up Miru Morna Models Cláudia

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STEVE SIMPSON

ILLUSTRATOR

geral@travell.ink advertising@travell.ink www.travell.ink

THIS MAGAZINE IS INTERACTIVE

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12TH AMSTERDAM

TATTOO CONVENTION

Ink Thoughts

By Femke Fatale

TravellInk Ambassadress I love tattoos! That is obvious. I want all my tattoos to be original, maybe even unique (if that is still possible), so I always get custom designed tattoos! I do not research in magazines or online, but I get inspired by my life, the world and my experiences. So ideas pop into my head as I live my life and inspiration is everywhere.

I usually tell my artists what I want, what the story behind the idea is and then I let them do whatever. Because I am very picky on who tattoos me, they get it right most of the times. *Hooray!*

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My body is my journal and my tattoos are my stories, so all my ink has a meaning; some significance is bigger than others. The fuller I get, the less space I have so I get smaller tattoos to fill up spaces. I got to start thinking small hahaha.

I hosted the Euro Tattoo Convention in Saint AndrÊ Les Lilles with Pascal Tourain, l’Homme TatoueÊ, a few weekends ago. An amazing weekend but that is beside the point. I got inked there by a friend! This time I saw some flash on his table, noticed an awesome one and decided to get it. I immediately loved it; you know those heart tattoos with a female butt in?!

Well he had the male front in leopard underwear with hair coming out, hahahaha amazing!! I wanted it, got it and posted it online, and even named him Porno Joe. I was so proud! I had never seen it before, so I thought... lot of people commented on it and said TravellInk Mag | 4th Edition

it was designed by Guen Douglas, a great tattoo artist. I also got a message from her, apparently it was her custom made piece and the guy copied it. As a matter of fact; stole it! I was soooo disappointed. I checked her Instagram and indeed she made tons of those tattoos and the leopard print was there too! Very tiny differences but still quite idential! Damn that sucked. I decided to get a real Guen Douglas piece close to it, and maybe cross the copy. Or keep the two and play the game ‘guess which one is the real Guen Douglas Ink’?! Hahaha. Maybe I should laser it?!?! Not too sure yet, but I want to do something!

Any suggestions?!?! Let me know at Femke@femkefatale.com So, before you get inked, inform yourself, ask questions to the artist, is it his/her flash? Is it an original design?

I don’t know if you care about that but I do!!! I don’t want copies of pieces artists work hard on and other tattooist just take without shame. Don’t be a tattooist, be an artist, make your own flash...be creative!!

Femke Fatale

Femke@femkefatale.com www.femkefatale.com

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CHASING Sailor Marc

TATTOO

Flash News About New Products, Books, Exhibition, Events and more

New Products

Critical Atom Power Supply - Black The Critical Atom Power Supply looks like no other power supply: the colour of the power supply changes depending on the voltage you’re running your machine on.

The Critical Atom is also extremely easy to operate: everything is done with just one button. To change the voltage you just turn the button and you can use the same button to switch on your tattoo machine or to change the settings like maintained mode and jump start. You can of course still connect a foot pedal if you prefer.

There are built in magnets in the base of the Atom, so you can attach it to

any magnetic surface. But if you prefer to just put it on a horizontal surface, the silicone on the base will ensure it doesn’t slide.

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Books

The History and Art of Joseph Hartley Joseph Hartley was a legendary tattoo artist from Bristol. One of the things he is known for is teaching the founder of the Bristol Tattoo Club, Les Skuse, how to tattoo. Jimmy Skuse has spent years researching the life and art of Joseph Hartley. The result is this beatuiful book telling the story of Hartley’s life and showcasing his art.

The Body Sketch Book The Body Sketch Book is intended for all artists, and especially for tattoo artists. It contains a variety of anatomical body parts to sketch out new ideas, practice gestures, compositions, studies, perspectives, finished works, line drawings, etc. It is designed to give you templates of the body with all the contours to show flow and placement for artists, collectors and anyone that has a desire to draw on people. It contains 150 sheets of high quality acid free paper with fine texture, perfect for sketching but suitable for all dry media.

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TravellInk Mag | 4th Edition

@ericjasondsouza

@dice_tattoos

@tattoo69level

@jack_galan_art

Tag your photos with #travellink or #travellinktattoo

Instagram

@samuelsancho

@travellinktattoo

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Events

Hell Xis Agency HELL XIS was created in 2007, where they have been organizing several concerts over the years with names recognized at world level as Agnostic Front, DRI, Exploited, Adicts, Carcass, Obituary, Madball, Ignite, Anti-Nowhere League, The Meteors, Cro Mags among many other bands.

Hell Xis Agency Presents info@hellxis.com www.hellxis.com

June

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Mata Ratos

@ Santa Maria Summer fest - Beja

10 Hills Have Eyes + More Than a Thousand

@ Canecas Bar - Paรงos de Ferreira

11 Hills Have Eyes + More Than a Thousand @ Hard Club - Porto

16 Your Demise 2004 + Challenge + A Chama + Villain Outbreak @ ARCM Faro

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Your Demise 2004 + Challenge +

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Your Demise 2004 + Challenge +

Linebacker @ Popular Alvalade - Lisboa Forbidden To Fly @ Cave 45 - Porto

Book

Tell Me a Tattoo Story Even as an ancient art, used as a form of cultural expression since before Christ, the tattoo is still seen as taboo by some people. The tattooed end up suffering various types of prejudice, even being prevented from performing certain types of work, although this is considered discrimination. As a design in the body would change the way the person reasons, do accounts or answer a customer. But increasingly, people come surrendering, although there is all this fear around the subject, the tattoos. They serve for you to express some kind of love, admiration, to identify tribes, to remember some event to show preference or to hide imperfections.

Book

But whatever the reason for the tattoo, it almost always comes with a story behind. Thinking about Alison McGhee, an award-winning famous American writer for his children’s books, he joined illustrator Eliza Wheeler to create the book “Tell me a story tattoo”, which shows the relationship of a father with his son through the stories he tells about the tattoos you have on the body.

One of the tattoos is about your favorite childhood book, another a phrase his father used to tell him, and on a trip he did. And there is one that reminds him of the day he met his wife, the mother of the little boy.

In the work, the little boy, curious with the drawings that his father has spread throughout the body, asks him to talk more about them, and together they embark on beautiful memories of the past, filled with love and affection.

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TravellInk Mag | 4th Edition

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New Products

Critical Universal Receiver TatLite Carbon Tattoo Stand The TatLite table is a workstation especially designed for the travelling artist. It comes with a robust transport bag, weighs just 2.1 kg and can be assembled in under 2 minutes, so taking it with you while you’re travelling is no problem at all.

The Critical Universal Receiver lets you connect a Critical wireless foot pedal to any power supply with a standard 1/4� foot pedal jack. It adds a maintained pedal mode and is compatible with all Critical wireless pedals. It is powered by an external power adapter and comes with a 2 year warranty.

The table is made from T6 aluminium and 3K carbon fibre, so it is lightweight yet very strong. The trays are easy to barrier wrap.

The TatLite table is handmade in England from the finest materials and assembled with scrupulous attention to detail.

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JACK GALAN TRAVELLINK TATTOO ARTIST 18

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How did you discovered the art of tattoo?

I was really young, i spent many time drawing, and if i saw a tattoo on an old sailor it was something that fascinated me, so the next step of my life was going to school, i was 16 years old and i was a lucky guy beacuse i met one dude from school who used to tattoo at home, i was really excited to see him work. I did my first tattoo on him, and two months later made the seccond one. I thought it was really easy just beacuse it looked easy (haha). So i decided to buy my first tattoo machine and just tried to make simple stuff, drawing in skin, my first costumers were some of my friends (haha) so after tattooing for 2 years, i sat and thought to myself: is not easy at all, so i started to work really hard since then. I ‘m tattooing for 11 years now and i’ve opened my own studio 5 years ago. A lot of practice and always trying to achieve perfection, the longer i spent learning the better i got. .

We know that your specialty is realism, what fascinates you about this style?

In my opinion its the hardest style, many colours, many details, if we put more colours, more light in colour portraits it wont look the same as the picture, all the realistic effect is gone, its hard work, we need good eyes to make this and a lot of precision. If i make a portrait with colour TravellInk Mag | 4th Edition

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i’ll use somethink like 40-50 colours on the face, hair and many other places in the head area, it’s a lot of colour, people all the time think it’s easy, just put skin tone colour and its done, (heheh) so for me it’s all good, but many people tell me to do more simple designs ‘couse it lasts longer in the skin, but i think if we put good ink and use good stuff is not a problem, if i see some of my works after 5 years and looks the same, so if we have good technick it’s not a problem to make this style.

How was your learning process?

Im still learning after all this time , i’m tattoing for 11 years now like i ‘ve said, and practiced a lot, but i think i’ve started to feel happier with my tattoos two years ago.

The first 8-9 years were really hard, i had to learn alone at home, didin’t practice in tattoo shops, so i needed to take all the information by myself, i’ve tested all technics and styles in some of my costumers and

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friends to find perfection, it was an hard process, i guess its harder, like going to a tattoo shop and learn with a professional artist. But my knowledge is bigger now that when i was a schoolboy, now i know why i use the maschine in this particular way, the type of ink and colours that i apply and many other stuff.

More “standard” people use somethink beacuse some professional artist told them to use it, and they dont think the reason why, or if it’s possible to do it even better, people dont care about this.

But it’s important to get knowledge like this. If you want to get better of course.

Any artist who has inspired you that you wanna refer to?

Not talking about the style, but more about precision and quality. Im really into the work of D.Samohin, D.Yakovlev and D.Parvainis, A.D.Pancho, all this people inspired me all my life. They creTravellInk Mag | 4th Edition

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ated great works and made something new, they have some of the best quality realistic tattoos. I have faith that maybe in the future my name will be as popular. Im still young and i know i have a lot of time to show my art! I’m allways learning to get better and better.

What is your ultimate goal as an artist?

To leave my name in the tattoo history, to be a great artist and to be an inspiration to other artists, to see my name in a sponsorshpip program and many other tattoo stuff.

Its an hard journey but it’s possible if i work hard. I believe i can do this, it’s something possible. I’ll keep on working hard and try to create better tattoos with a lot of quality.

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What is your greatest source of inspiration in the creation process?

I just sit and relax. I start trying to build a composition in my mind, if i have a good concept, i try to make it in my laptop. I use photoshop to make grafic designs, i used many pictures from the internet, i cut , made different compositions, many photomanipulation, many colours, and many different stuff that we cant make with just a pencil, it’s fun to create a concept for a tattoo, most of my work is multicolor and its fun for me so im happy to make tattoos like this .

What do you think about the tattoo “industry” today?

Just WOW... its not like 10 years ago... we have really good tattoo equipment TravellInk Mag | 4th Edition

today, fantastic ink! I’m working with World Famous Ink and it’s perfect ink for me. We have many online shops now, we can buy it on the internet and get it in the post office 1-2 days later, really easy. But like everything, tattoo equipment it’s expensive, but i dont really care about that, i need to make perfect tattoos with quality.

Do you have any advice that you wanna give to people who are now entering in the world of tattoo?

Just listen to your mind, try to create your own style, but you must remember to be humble. Its good to find artists who start learning the basics about the tattoo process. All higienic and sterilization at work! Its really important, many young people forgot about this but it’s important to us the

safety in our work! It’s the first rule about tattoo, Safety first! And just practice a lot your technique, to start, it’s good to try it in synthetic skin or pig skin. It’s good to learn tattooing, just dont try it on your friends like i did, beacuse you’ll probably need to cover it the next time (hehehehe) and many other important things, its a long process, but if you learn and practice a lot your life will be fantastic! You will be able to get to know many good artist from around the world, you’ll travel a lot, many beautiful places in the world. It’s great to see a lot of new artists, true artists.

Jack Galan Beauty And The Beast info.tattoogallery@gmail.com

MIGUEL OLASCUAGA

TATTOO ARTIST & MUSICIAN

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How and when did you discover the world of tattoo?

Growing up, my mother had a good bit of biker friends hanging around our house. I was fascinated by their tattoos and way of life, no one told them how to live and I admired that.

They had an identity that was completely their own; they didn’t look like everyone else and it definitely shaped the way I felt about being an individual. When I was fourteen, I got my first tattoo from a biker in the neighborhood. I thought I was the freest person in the world and wrong or right I knew it wasn’t up to anyone to judge me, I was too busy being free to notice anyone’s scowling eyes. It took me longer to get over the ass whooping I got than it did other people’s opinion.

To this day as an adult nothing much has changed.. Reflecting back on my childhood and how socailly and morally wrong it was to be tattooed at such a young age, I wouldn’t recommend being that careless with your life, choose your battles wisely and

show rebellion by succeeding and being the individual they only wish they could be.

How was your learning process? Tell us about your journey.

I started in 1998 as shop help at Black Cat Tattoo in Panama City Beach, Florida. I was told that I’d never be an apprentice, I was warned that being a tattooer was not for everyone and that you needed thick skin to survive. It wasn’t like they were handing them out back then, and I knew it was going to be a challenge even getting my foot in the door, I had no idea how right I was…

My plan was to work hard, and work more than anybody in there, thus making them feel guilty for not offering… You soon learn that tattooers don’t have the same mentality as most. I became so good at my job that they didn’t want to lose me as front help.(backfire) Albee (Allen Heis) offered me the apprenticeship after a year and a half of being front

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help. I worked construction during the day and the shop afterwards, many nights I stayed late to make needles and scrub tubes for the whole shop, do my drawings and clean, then wake up at 5am for my other job. Days off I had were spent at the shop catching up and watching.

Part of my apprenticeship was tracing old J.D. Crowe flash designs and then going back to color them all in, others included were Cherry Creek and Picture Machine. I’ll always have so much love for Picture Machine because at the time that’s all there really was for traditional designs, our spring board back then was missing its springs! Now lets talk about the other duties that werent as much fun yet have almost more of an effect in your trade. Doing laundry, washing cars and motorcycles, getting everyone’s food and coffee, selling tattoos in the lobby, being an emotional punching bag for the shop, having no social life, endless trips to the post office, disgruntled relationship repair, verbal slingshot communicator specialist, and all the while holding down a job to pay my bills.

I learned that what ever I was doing or wasn’t doing wasn’t right or near good enough to please anyone there, so I just kept working harder and staying a float. To this day I appreciate all of those days and lessons learned, its help me in so many ways unimaginable.. I can also detail a car and place an order of food for 10 people, all with absurd requests and diets like nobody’s business.

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I am a true believer that people who have worked the floor before tattooing have a better way about them and understand the clientelle more than most. It wasn’t until 2001, four years after I started at Black Cat Tattoo that I became a tattooer, I have been romantically involved ever since in this career and will continue to do so until my death.

Who were your biggest artistic influences?

First and foremost, Steve Turner will always be my favorite tattooer and biggest inspiration. My style does not reflect his, but nonetheless he was, and is my favorite. I will always be heavily influenced by the greats,

Bert Grimm, Percy Waters, Sailor Jerry Collins, Brooklyn Joe Lieber, Owen Jensen, Cap Coleman, Bob Wicks, Tom Berg, Amund Dietzel, just to name a few. Today’s artist’s I’d have to say that I am incredibly drawn to are: Rudy Fritch, Valerie Vargas, Jonas Nyberg, Grez, Dan Santoro, Mike Fite, and Chris Marchetto. Id also like to note that I love the balance of walkins and custom work that Tim Beck produces, it’s always so impressive.

What came first in your life, Tattoo or Music?

I’d have to say music for sure, I’ve always been a musician and love the union between the two. To have both in my life is a blessing and nessessity.

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How would you describe the style of work you do as a tattoo artist?

Getting by… I like to make this analogy pertaining to tattooing as I see it.

When you look at a 1957 Chevy you get a certain feeling of nostalgia that comes over you, its timeless and classic, and puts you in another era.

A neon pink Geo Storm was cool back in the 90’s, but most wouldn’t be caught dead in one now. The older a ’57 Chevy gets the better it look and nobody ever says, “I regret getting that car.” This is how I see traditional tattooing, I also appreciate other styles of tattooing, I just prefer this one the most. I like to leave cryptic messages in my art, everything that effects me in life wether it be good or bad, has it’s place in my tattoos and how I draw them. I am in to death,dark minded art,occult inspired imagery, and matters of the heart.

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Tell us about your career as a musician, “Blood on the Harp” and what inspires you?

I’ve been a musician since I was 12 years of age and have played almost every genre of music at some point.I started playing this style of music however its described (folk, americana, country, bluegrass, ext.) when I was 30. My best friend and co-worker at the time, Darren Anderson is who I started playing this style of music with. When I moved to Atlanta in 2011 I took a break to focus on my new environment and establishing a clientelle, it wasn’t until a few years later that Blood On The Harp was formed.

Anxiety, hardships, relationships, and death inspire my writing and always have, I wear my heart on my sleeve through song and make no apologies to those I’ve written about or situations that have occured. Every song TravellInk Mag | 4th Edition

derives from a situation I’ve been through, an experiance I’ve had, or the anxiety that death and heartache has put on me. I love the people I play music with, and feel very blessed to have such incredible musicians as well as people that I consider family.

How do you associate music to tattoo?

I feel like they go hand in hand, most tattooers I know are either musicians or are heavily influenced by music, it’s an extension of your expression and art. Most of us bare our souls in our music and art, I’ve always believed that being a musician and an artist is both a blessing and a curse, just ask any of my prior relationships.

Would you like to leave some personal note?

Yes.No matter how many instagram followers you have, or the amount of social media presence you obtain in your career as a tattooer, the person standing next to you at the DMV or the one behind you at the grocery store doesn’t give a shit who you are or even cares for that matter. Don’t feel self entitled by false fame and treat others around you like they are worth less because they “don’t get it it”, at the end of the day you’re not a doctor, a shaman, or developing the cure for cancer..

It’s a job,career and way of life that suits the passions of several, but is not the defining point of anybody else’s existence to kiss your ass.

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STEVE SIMPSON

ILLUSTRATOR 30

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How did you start your career as an My first job title was ’Special Effects Artist’ but I spent the first month artist? working a Xerox machine. This was Was born in 1965 and grew up in a 1985 and still a good few years before small town outside Manchester, Eng- digital would revolutionise the animaland. After leaving high school at 16, tion business. Back then all the drawI studied technical graphics (a mix of ings had to be photocopied on to cell graphic design and technical illus- and hand painted on the reverse. That tration). This was pre-digital and we was my next job, cell painting. In all, I were taught to take mechanical blue- spent 5 or 6 years working in animaprint drawings and turn them in to tion. I was very ambitious and loved isometric airbrushed illustrations - it being in an environment with so many was hugely time-consuming - but I opportunities to learn new skills. Aflearned a lot about perspective theo- ter ’Special Effects’ (which was usury and importance of every detail and ally spraying a glow around sparmost importantly, patience:) I never kles with an airbrush), I worked as a finished my degree - half way through ‘backgrounds artist’, then I moved on my second year I was offered a job to ‘layouts’, ‘animation’, ‘storyboards’ working in TV animation at Manches- and ‘character design’. The studio ter based Cosgrove Hall Productions. mainly worked on TV shows, includ-

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ing Danger Mouse and Duckula, but also a feature film of Roald Dahl’s The BFG. In 1990 I moved to Dublin and worked as an ‘art Director’, ‘Director’ and even produced my own short. I was enjoying a lot of success but also finding I was drawing less and less as an increasing amount of my time was spent in meetings, checking lists and asking other people to do the drawings I’d much rather be doing myself. SO by 1994 I was ready for new challenges. I worked in comics, drew caricatures in bars, I was the creative director for a greeting card company.

By 1995 I found myself, quite by accident, working in illustration and from the first moment it felt like the perfect place for me be - 21 years later I still feel the same way:)) Tell us about the concept of your work?

Behind my work there is always a story. For instance when I’m designing a character for one of my illustrations, I treat it like meeting someone for the first time. In the beginning you know just the bare facts about them but as

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you spend more time together you discover fascinating insights about their personality and their history.

I’m always talking to my characters - I ask questions about pretty much everything I illustrate, why, what, where, when - it’s all important. It’s not just the characters, it’s everything; objects, buildings, scenery. I believe the more answers you can find the more depth the design takes on and the more believable it appears.

Who was your biggest artistic influence?

I have a lot of influences, mostly I draw on the past for inspiration. If I had to name one person it would be William Morris, one of the founding fathers of the British Arts & Craft Movement in TravellInk Mag | 4th Edition

the mid to late 1800s. Probably most famous for his wallpaper patterns but he was also a great illustrator and designer. His typefaces and illuminated capitals still live on today as ITC Golden Type and P22 Morris Golden. But it’s him textiles that have been the biggest inspiration to me - especially in my sketchbooks which, in turn, influence my commercial work. For me, Morris is the great-grand-daddy of graphic design and a constant source of inspiration.

Other than Morris my inspiration comes from many places. I love hand lettering - everything from early christian carving to 50’s advertising. Limited colour palettes are hugely important to my work too. I really enjoy the challenge of reducing an image to just a few colours.

I like to think of what I do as illustrative design - the place where graphic design, hand lettering and illustration blur together as one. If we go back a few years to the 1950s and 60s, long before design became so fixated on creating perfectly symmetrical icons, graphic elements and fonts everything looked hand drawn and a little quirky. Much of what is expected from graphic designers these days is pulling together assets from other designers and trying to fuse them into a single design. If you think about a typical packaging project, you would have a font, designed by designer A, a logo, designed by designer B, maybe multiple icons by designer C,D and E, illustrations by F and even the barcode has been designed by someone else.

It can be quite a mix of different philosophies on design.

However, if you are able to draw everything by hand - the borders, the icons, the lettering and the illustrations (and yes, the barcode:) you end up with a completely cohesive design. This is what really excites me!

Tell us one of the most important moments in your life as an artist.

My uncle was a huge inspiration for me as a child. He was a full time comic artists. The British children’s comic scene in the 70’s was huge - some comics even outsold Vogue and Cosmopolitan. My Uncle, John Geering, was one of the most well known comic artists of that period and produced around 10 strips a week for a range of best selling comics. Having an uncle who drew pictures for a living was a massive influence right through my childhood - I was never without a pencil in my hand and would regularly copy my uncles work in order to try to impress him. It eventually worked and at the age of 14 he took me on as an intern for a whole summer. I was mainly given the job of drawing

the borders around his strips with a Rotring pen and ruler but as the summer progressed I also got to ink the odd cloud, tree or distant seagull :) When there wasn’t any work for me or I was waiting for him to finish penciling a page, I could sketch my own comic characters and sitting there in my uncles studio I could dream of being a professional comic artist - I was certainly the envy of my school friends and from that moment I knew drawing was always going to be a huge part of my life.

Tell us a little about the connection that exists between your work and tattoo, you think it would be easy to adapt one of your works into a tattoo?

The first time I ever saw one of my illustrations tattooed on someone’s skin was around 10 years ago. I received an email from a ballroom dancer who had a full upper arm tattoo of one of my paintings. It looked incredible, she had even bought a dress that matched the colours of the tattoo! It’s one thing getting likes and comments on social media but when a stranger loves your work so much they have it tattooed on their arm, leg, back… It’s just the most amazing endorse-

ment. I regularly get messages asking if it’s ok (it’s always OK :)) to use one of my designs for a tattoo or someone sends me a photo of their new tattoo - I feel truly honoured.

Is there any music inspiration in your creating process?

I listen to music all time I’m working - I can’t imagine my studio without it.

I love lots of different types of music but it’s got to be real, crafted music not the engineered pop music that mostly tops the charts today. I like everything from the afrobeats of Fela Futi (late nights) to Brit Pops Blur and Oasis. Bob Dylan and the Band to The Who as well as more modern stuff.

I’m still missing David Bowie.

I still have the first LPs I bought as a kid (Parallel Lines by Blondie) and planning to buy a record player for the first time in 15 years. On a daily basis I listen to the digital station, BBC6 music who always have amazing session guests and wonderful DJs. I also subscribe to Apple Music which is a great way to find both new music and explore discographies of favourite bands I have a few guitars and will usually pick one up when I need a break, particularly when I’m working on a big project that requires a long amount of time in front of the screen - I think using my hands in a different way breaks my thought process and allows me to re-boot my brain - few minutes later I’m back working with fresh ideas and renewed vigour.

With a career spanning over 30 years, how do you feel to be part of conferences and workshops across Europe?

I’ve always enjoyed teaching but never wanted to do it full time or on a regular basis. Running workshops is perfect for me. I only do a few a year but they can be very intensive. I believe failure is hugely important component in learning and without accepting failure as part of the creative process we can only be repetitive - which eventually becomes predictable and boring.

I really try to push my students. Over the years only a few students have dropped out of my classes - usually the ones who have had to push themselves through a creative pain barrier are the ones who have the biggest sense of achievement at the end. That always make me feel good - I really feel my career started when I was 6 and I’ve had so much help from so many people over the past 45 years - I really wouldn’t be the artist I am today without them - so it’s hugely important for me to feel I’m giving something back and hopefully inspiring a new generation to push them selves over that next hurdle.

I also really enjoy speaking at conferences. My talks are mostly about my journey, my influences and the ups and downs of the business. I’ve met and become friends with so many wonderful artists all over the world. I’m always discovering new tips on apps, materials or social media promotion from other presentations or in the conversations in the bar afterwards :)

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As always, the annual Amsterdam Tattoo Convention is a well-visited event from tattoo enthusiasts all over the globe. The set-up, like any convention is basically to walk around in awe of all the great, talented and original artists present. From the ancient art of tribal tattooing to innovative and new, groundbreaking ways of tattooing, this convention was nothing short of spectacular.

Upon entry, I was amazed by how busy it already was. Heaps of tattoo enthusiasts were swarming around either their favourite tattooer, clothing stand or tattoocreme stand. I started my way to discover the convention by heading up to the info-stand, where

a tattooer-friend was working and providing eager people with all kinds of information about the event. After grabbing on of the sheets displaying the event’s layout I started to wander around to not miss any thing included in this massive convention.

Firstly, the convention was very neatly organized. Stands were looking absolutely stunning here and there with the odd human-painting stand thrown in here and there for diversity’s sake.

The styles were well-represented all around the convention as I saw a mix of new styles, old styles, newcomers earning their name and older, more experienced tattooers gladly training their apprentices to get their

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names and art out there. Because this was also a promotion-opportunity for Travellink, I got the privelege to discuss work-related matters a little bit more in-depth and found out the concept behind the company was welcomed with open arms. It seems that the travelling tattooer is far from extinct and that there is a wide-open market for people wanting to sign-up, travel and work through this initiative.

But tattoo-stands weren’t the only thing well-represented. A vast array of clothing stands was present too.

It seemed that tattoos and their respective clothing-inspired counterparts where intertwined so deeply, a tattoo-enthusiast like myself simply couldn’t resist grabbing a couple of cotton-based tattoos to decorate myself with.

Now, this review couldn’t be a review unless there are some negatives to even out the overwhelming positives

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this convention offered. After having a great day talking to some of the most inspiring and colourful (literally) people, me and my photographer-friend who joined me where nothing short of dissapointed by an extremely poor-organized “end of day” competition where one member of the jury simply didn’t show up, forcing a non-suspecting tattooer to be all but uncer-

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emoniously shoved into a chair with him going “so how does this work?”.

After giving the competition a redeeming “this will get better, I just know it”.

Not 1… or 2… but 7 of the candidates for the award simply didn’t show up for their prizes. A nerve-racking and awkward half hour led by a poor girl having to call the candidates’ names over and over to no avail, trying to

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smile off the embarrasment. So far for a 10/10 score organization wise.

Even though the competition was one of the most awful and awkward things I have ever witnessed, some of the tattoos showcased by the candidates who DID show up where simply mindblowing.

To sum it all up, I have had a great time at the Amsterdam Tattoo Convention.

I was surprised, in awe, made some new acquintances and had a delicious pasta made by some enthusiastic and hard-working people at one of the food-stands that were present.

All in all: a great day for tattoo-collectors, tattooers, clothing-makers and magazine representatives!

Photos & Article: Robert Rozendaal Video: Luuk Van Duren

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TravellInk Users Tattoo Artists

PAVEL GOLENISHCHEV IGOR PUENTE SAMUEL SANCHO

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NEEDLE ART TATTOO SHOP

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Bertina

Marieke

How and when did you guys discovered the fascination for tattoos?

Of course this is different for every artist, they all have a story to tell and their own reasons to become a tattoo artist. For sure it’s a tight group of family that works in our studio, we all like to work and learn together and enjoy time with each other.

How did you guys get together?

Over the years we had a few people coming and going, the Needle Art enthousiasts stayed here and made the studio their ‘home’ to work out of...

How did you decide to open a shop?

The owner of the studio, Brian Heijboer, used to work at his father’s studio in Breda. After 7 years they decided to expand the business and open a second studio which Brian took under his wing. Now, almost 14 years later Brian arranges all email contact, appointments and TravellInk Mag | 4th Edition

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Alex

Bertina

contacts with clientell. Since we serve clients from all over Europe this is a full day job.

What is the predominant tattoo style in your shop? Is there anything that you guys refuse to do?

Every artist at our studio has a unique style of tattooing. We offer all styles of work because of the diversity of the artists working here.

We can say that you guys have a beautiful tattoo shop, what kind of environment do you want to transmit with it?

Nick

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We offer High-end artists so also the studio is completely furnished in this style. There are 7 work stations devided into 3 different areas to assure privacy and full attention for our clients.

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Daan Guru Marques

Eugen

Is music a source of inspiration in the studio? What are your influences?

Like the artists working at our studio also the music is as diverse. We play rock music, jazz, bluess, house, electronic music etc.

What is your goal for the future?

Continue working with famous International artists, expand the business to a maximum of 10 work stations.

Have lots of fun, party’s, conventions and beer!

Alexandr Cormacov (Moldova) Eugen Mahu (Moldova) Daan v/d Dobbelsteen (Holland) Nick Uittenbogaard (Holland)

Jarno Jarno Theijn (Holland) Bertina Rens (Holland) Marieke Bouwman (Holland) Email: info@needle-art.nl

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Chillink Time

Photos: Rose Richards Make-Up: Miru Morna Model: ClĂĄudia Lali Video: InĂŞs Veloso 50

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