joy in my work, which is a really rare thing that you must appreciate.
My friends always supported me, those dummies…they would
be better off with me being a lawyer or a dentist though, I guess.
(Laughs.)
Can you tell us more about the shop you work at and what it’s like
working there?
Currently, I work at Piranha Tattoo in Viseu, Portugal. I just recently
moved here, mostly because I needed some change in my life,
and because I love the country (I spent my half a year scholarship
in Porto before and that city has a huge piece of my heart). I am
very lucky to get the chance to work among such talented and
experienced artists like Erich Rabel, Sergey Gas, and Lucas Ferreira.
It’s also kind of a new and unique situation for me that everyone does
different styles, so there’s a lot for me to watch and learn, and that’s
great! Before this place, I only worked as a resident at Fine Heart
Custom Ink (previously Tattoo Magus in Budapest) and it was really
hard to say goodbye, because I am really close to the owner of the
shop, Tibor Kovács, who was beside me and supported me from the
beginning, and all of the guys working there. It wasn’t even a real
heartbreaking goodbye because I just couldn’t do it, so I regularly go
back to do a guest spot and get on their nerves just like in the good
ol’ days. (Smiles.)
Describe how you go about creating a tattoo from concept to finished
design, as well as how you try to put your own unique touch on your
tattoos.
For me, creating a project from scrap is quite a time consuming
process. Most of the time I go only with the basics of my client’s idea,
and then try to find and build up a story or image in my head that
fits it, and most importantly, inspires me. This way, the final product
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will be probably something different than what they imagined, but
95% of the time it works. With the other 5%, I get a day off, and with
how busy my days are, it usually doesn’t make me nervous. And with
me it’s 100% that the tattoo will be a bit bigger than it was originally
planned by the client. (Laughs.) When I have the idea in my head, I
try to get additional inspiration by browsing through images, listening
to music, and collecting references. Then I sit down and draw, usually
between 11 PM and 4 AM, the best hours for me to get creative.
What was the first tattoo you ever did? Can you tell us about it?
It was a black star with a bicycle gear in the middle. I made it for my
boyfriend at the time, and since then it has gotten cut in the half due
to an injury and operation, but the nice doctor tried to sew it together
as precisely as he could so it looks even better than before!
What is your favorite style to tattoo? What would your dream piece be
to work on?
I do a lot of different styles, or maybe just different techniques, but I
like to do all of them, and I always try to put something in every piece
that makes them unique and hopefully recognizable.
Describe how your role models and any other sources of inspiration
have affected your tattoo style?
I am not sure about how, but there are a lot of things and people that
have inspired me from the beginning. Art nouveau, traditional, and
Japanese tattoos, all the new, modern tattoo styles, classic woodcuts
and etching, my studies, a lot of contemporary artists, designers and
illustrators, calligraphy, and most recently and inevitably maybe one
of the most talented artists I’ve ever met and whom I happened to
live with for a while, Carlos Breakone. It was amazing to watch the
whole creative process from sketch to the finished piece of art up