TOTAL TATTOO MAGAZINE 101Over the years your tattooing has
taken you to different parts of the
world. What different attitudes
have you seen to your work, and
to tattooing in general?
That's the best part of it. I love to travel,
tattoo-related or not. It would be hard to
generalise, but I find it fascinating that
tattooers in some countries and cultures
embrace their traditions and merge them
with the modern take on tattooing (so
that a new quality emerges), while for
others tattooing is in conflict with their
traditional culture (and therefore remains
a reflection of a 'Western' thing). It would
be safe to say that all around Asia my
work is getting a lot of positive feedback,
wherever I go.You’ve won countless awards for
your work. What does this mean
to you?
I have mixed feelings about this one.
On the one hand, I do realise that tattoo
competitions are a vanity fair, stroking
egos and providing entertainment and
not much more. And the results are so
arbitrary. How can you decide which
tattoo is better than the other? There's no
objective measure. It's only ever aTATTOOIST INTERVIEWTOTAL TATTOO MAGAZINE 101