Skin Deep – September 2019

34 • SKIN DEEP MAGAZINE

He’s a multi-talented Manx making a mixed-media mess in all the

madness. Ladies and gentleman, let me introduce... Pauly.

Here’s a big ol’ massive question

(or should I say, questions) to kick

things off. There has always been

something that’s stood out to me

about your work. Especially with

solid black-work, as there’s an

increasing appetite for it and so new

black-work artists popping up every

day. You’ve got this way of taking a

really common tattoo image, like a

skull, pulling it apart, stretching it,

breaking it up, re-collaging it with

other things and turning it into

something properly unique. How do

you approach what you do?

I feel my work may come across a little differently due to

the fact that I didn’t start as someone who only did black-

work. I also didn’t get into art to be a tattooer. I spent my

time through school procrastinating via art and I’ve al-

ways created paintings, drawings and clothes, so my art-

work now is a combination of everything I’ve learned and

tried over the years. 

As a tattooer, I learned all styles I could at the start be-

cause I wanted to learn to tattoo, I didn’t only want to

learn to do black-work—that concept is really surreal to

me and I feel anyone who learns only one style is severely

limiting their abilities. For me, the more

knowledge the better, and being able to

do all the different styles has helped me

journey towards my current collage work. 

With the collages, I don’t try to cre-

ate an image with a specific message

in mind. I take out all of the pieces and

play around with them until they start to

make sense—but I don’t dissect the rea-

son, I just let it happen. My mindset on

the day dictates the way the design will

come out. It’s a more natural and easy

process for me then. And each person I

talk to sees a different meaning in each of

my designs, which I love. 

So, where did your idea to create the collage pieces

come from? And what’s the technique of creating

one from start to finish? 

I was becoming increasingly dissatisfied with working dig-

itally—I’m all for progress and ease of process but I missed

the smell of inks and the sound of paper. I started to feel

a real disconnect with my work and I didn’t want to con-

tinue down that slippery slope. I think it had been a year

or two since I’d done anything physical, so I started the

collages purely to get my hands on something real again. 

My technique is long and messy really. I collect images

The Sound

Of Paper

Wo

rd

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