£ A great black
and grey artist
from Spain, Astin
(IG: @AstinTattoo)
“ H
ow long should
I wait before getting
a tattoo?” is a
very common (and
sensible) question.
You would need to create an
idea/concept, decide upon the
placement on your body and be
happy with it being there (pretty
much) permanently. But let’s not
forget the most important factor
in getting a new tattoo: finding
the right artist. So, this process
can take months to years – for
my next tattoo, with Victor
Portugal in Poland (Instagram: @
victorportugal), I am on a two-year
waiting list!
So, knowing all this, how much
thought and time did it take for
me to decide on my most recent
tattoo? Well, less than a minute,
actually.
Rewind six weeks, I was browsing/
stalking Instagram and I saw
Carlos Torres (@carlostorresart)
post that he wanted to do a three-
day project at the Paris tattoo
convention the following week
- if ever there was a sign from a
higher power that I should get
tattooed by my favourite artist, this
would be it. I immediately emailed
expressing my interest, alongside
a few placement photos of most
of my blank skin and emphasised
that he’d have full creative control
(generally the more creative control
you’re prepared to offer, the more
likely an artist is to take the work).
Then came the dreaded waiting
game for a reply. I got a reply from
his assistant saying he may be
interested in doing my project and
would like to discuss it further. I
was one step closer to achieving
something on my bucket list (I’d
even tried my luck in the past
asking if FreestyleXtreme were
able to hook me up with Carlos via
Sullen).
This may well sound crazy - going
to Paris at the drop of a hat and
letting some tattoo artist do
whatever he wanted, wherever he
wanted. However, this isn’t just
anybody, this is Carlos Torres. On
a side note, the best advice I can
give to anybody wanting a tattoo
is to find an artist whose work you
really like, and trust them. If you’re
liking at least four out of every
five of their tattoos, you can feel
confident th