Interview with Lucrezia

Our Italian contributor Ilaria Pauletti chatted to tattooist Lucrezia about her beautiful tattoos and recognisable style… 

Lucrezia is a Sardinian girl with a colourful heart and sea waves in her hair. Her Sarditional style is getting more and more renowned and here she explains the perfect mix for a tattoo made with love. Among coricheddos (little heart shaped sweets), delicate feminine figures and amulets, she is bewitching the web! You can find her in Milan, at Toy Tattoo Parlour.

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You are a complete artist- a graphic designer, illustrator and tattoo artist! Can you tell us a little bit about your artistic career? It was a quite natural process, you know, I grew up with colors in my hands and I used to leave my marks on every surface. My path as an illustrator and tattoo artist were parallel to each other, they reflected a way more rebellious and emotional side of my studies in architecture and graphic design. My degree surely gave me the basics useful to search the composition and balance in each drawing I make.

What is your first memory connected to tattoos? My first memory is a feeling, I see the tattoo as a very important gesture that helps to fix an emotion and one that is on your skin for you to wear forever. As a tattoo artist,I find that the tattoo is a rite, that binds deeply the tattooer and tattooed during the creation of the piece.

The transformation of a story into a picture and the subsequent transposition of the skin, the pain, the amount of tension and excitement, and an indelible bond that is created with all my clients. These are the things I love the most about this work and I’d never imagined they could become so essential and vital for me.

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How would you define your Sardinian style? Is it a declaration of love for your homeland and the coricheddos (typical Sardinian sweets mostly made of almond and honey)? The sarditional was originally born as a hashtag game on Instagram. Initially, before I started tattooing, I filled my illustrations with little women tattooed with Sardinian buttons and motifs derived from the Sardinian tradition. Beginning my career as tattoo artist, they became my main subjects, executed using the technique of traditional style. The designs were simplified, with thick lines and black shadows, from there I put that Sar-ditional touch. Now it has become a real characteristic of my style, which is to bring to the world the Sardinian tradition, from ‘pavoncelle’, kokkoi, to buttons and coricheddos. And all those jewels that the Sardinian tradition considers to be protective amulets and charms. That’s how the design of a sarditional becomes a real ritual to put on the skin: for Sardinians and beyond!

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What are your daily inspirations, both personally and professionally speaking? Every day, the inspirations are the most varied, most of the time I get influenced by my moods, from the weather and especially by music. This last is crucial because it helps me to channel myself in mental states that may not belong to me and, for example, when I prepare a drawing for a client I can get closer and better identify himself using music.

From Alghero to Milan: how are you living this experience and what are your expectations? Milan is basically adopting and taking very good care of me, I am very good and I also managed to do a lot of experience, getting to know many people and growing especially from the professional point of view. Alghero will forever remain the seat of my roots and going home to do some guest spots is a must for my creativity. Sardinia is a land that offers so much inspiration, and especially its silence and its mystery stimulate creativity in me.

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Corals, beads, women faces filled with love. What are the subjects you prefer to tattoo? My favourite subjects are without doubt the little women, I find them super expressive and I am able to communicate anything through their eyes and hands.
I try to draw every little woman to resemble as closely as possible the client who will wear them forever.  In fact, I generally choose the colours together with the client, also to see what kind of colours and feelings that person sends me, and most of the time I guess right!

Who have you been tattooed by and who is on your wishlist? I have two beautiful surreal pieces made by the great Gabri Pais. Others by my boss Amanda Toy, who has spoiled my skin with bright colours. A piece signed with perfect lines by Paul Colli. A wonderful little woman by Viola Ceina. Another woman who remembers the old pieces of George Burchett, masterfully executed by Marco Sergiampietri. And a super old school tattoo by Alessio Errante.
In my wishlist you will find; Chiara Pina, Nicholas Rinaldi, Giampiero Cavaliere, Carlotta Cawa, Luca Font and internationally Bouits, Danielle Rose, Kirk Jones, Emily Rose and many others!

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Do you have any side projects you would like to tell us about?
I carry on various projects and collaborations, where I leave my mark with my illustrations. I have a newborn project this year, where my illustrations are combined with stories of “Appunti sparsi di una trentenne a Milano”; I often work approaching the magnificent letters of Gabriele Cecere. I always carry forward my graffiti under the name of La*tete, it was all born one evening, many moons ago, out of curiosity and in Milan, thanks to my good friend Nacho. When I have some time left, I also collaborate with the great artist and friend La fille Bertha.

Do you have any future guest spots and conventions planned?
My future guest spot will be in August for Cagliari Tattoo Convention. And then I will be in Rome and Florence within the year. The next dates and locations will be surely posted on my Instagram!

Interview with Yle Vinil

Our Italian contributor Ilaria Pauletti chatted to tattoo artist Yle Vinil who lives in Bergamo but works all around the world… 

Long eyelashes and red cheeks: these are two of the recognisable elements we can find both in her tattoos and in the artist herself! In this interview, Vinil talks about how it all began, revealing a more intimate view of her tattoo world, among Dolomites, childhood memories and bicycle rides!

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How did you get into the world of tattooing? Did you immediately know that it would become an integral part of your life or it was just part of a gradual process?
I basically entered on tiptoe. When I was 18 I got my first tattoo, to commemorate a person who was very important to me, and I had lost a few years before.
I actually had never been attracted to tattoos before, and I did not get tattooed to be cool or to look different, but just to have a memory.
From that moment on, I fell completely in love with tattoos and a few years later I joined a tattoo studio as an assistant.

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Year after year, your style becomes even more recognisable. Do the emotions you feel when creating a design and then a tattoo, remain the same? Every time I undertake a new adventure, when I guest in a new studio, I always feel emotional. Travelling makes me savour the beauty of my work, separating me from the routines of life. I must admit that sometimes we forget, while creating a tattoo, that we are creating something more or less important to the customer and that will be forever on skin.

Have you always drawn characters, or have these developed over time?  Like all the things, even my characters have their own story, and their birth occurred absolutely randomly. When I started tattooing I tattooed almost every kind of style, it’s a typical thing in the beginning of any tattoo artist’s career (or at least it should be).
One day, a friend who left a few years earlier to London, returned home for a short break, and he asked me to tattoo something on him. I gave him a little strapping man, because of the courage he had shown by moving abroad on his own. The character had a giant head and blue moustache. From that day on, people started asking me to tattoo in that style.

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Who and what inspired you during your journey?
When you manage to find your own expressive channel of communication, you realise that in the end it’s like drawing yourself. And what we are is what we see, what we love, what affects us. Certainly, in the early days, my striking inspiration was Amanda Toy.
I have always been attracted by illustrations for children and I think that this is in general what continues to inspire me a lot.

What makes a good tattoo and  what would you like to change?
The fixed point for a good tattoo is definitely the impact: not too many elements or too many details, I love the immediacy of a good tattoo and not too much confusion.
There is not a definite thing I would like to change: I am always looking for an evolution, that extra step.

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Following you on Instagram, I can see that you are a huge fan of cycling, mountains and strudel! Are these elements linked to your childhood? How would you define them? I am very passionate about mountains, and then also of strudel and cycling and elements in my life always link to them.
I have been following cycling activities with my father since I was little. While watching the Tour of Italy on the mountain stages, I always looked forward to the Dolomites, the places where I have always spent my holidays since I was born, and with whom I am linked with by a strong bond. There, I always find my peace, and these are places I like to call, quoting Tenco (Luigi Tenco), “my place in the world.”

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What aspects of your imagination do you draw upon when you create tattoos? I do not have a definition, I only know what I am not and that many people get confused when they see my work. To many my work is seen as fancy and fantastical. Like I created it with a mind full of unicorns, fairies and candy. Although I think there is a lot of sweetness in my work, I wouldn’t class my style as fairytale-esque.

How do you like to work with your clients? And, most importantly, what is the stage of the process that absorbs you the most?
I always design at the time of the appointment, just before the tattoo session.
I love this approach because it is the most direct: I discuss directly with the client, I can understand what they want. The designing stage definitely absorbs me the most.

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I heard you love to call yourself ‘old inside’ and you love the Italian singers of a few decades ago. Do you feel nostalgic toward an era that you could not live fully? Do you think this is reflected in your work?
Old inside is absolutely the perfect definition for me.
I think I have a bit retro/old fashioned taste, and I sometimes have a nostalgic aura about those golden years. The notion that I long for a world that I cannot live in definitely shines through my work.

Who have you been tattooed by over the years? I have had the fortune of getting tattooed by many tattoo artists, some became great friends: Gianni Orlandini, Nik The Rookie, Francesco Garbuggino, Marco Luzz, Pepe and Angelique Houtkamp.

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Are you planning any other guest spots?
I have scheduled some guest spots in Paris, Berlin and Moscow! And I hope to return to London with my friends at Cloak and Dagger tattoo shop.

Is there a particular subject you would like to tattoo?
There isn’t a particular one. What I always hope is that in the proposals I receive there could be something I haven’t done yet!

Abracadhybrid – an exhibition by Amanda Toy

We sent one of our lovely readers, Ilaria, to the opening of Amanda Toy’s exhibition ‘Abracadhybrid’ at Parione9 to review the event for us…

“Last week I was at gallery Parione9, in Rome, near Piazza Navona. As soon as I walked in, my eyes were welcomed by a feast of balloons, colourful walls… and so many people! Here I had the pleasure to meet two lovely ladies, Marta Bandini and Elettra Bottazzi, who curated ‘Abracadhybrid’, the first solo show by Amanda Toy. Amanda Toy, as you may already know, is a tattoo artist from Italy. For over 18 years,  she has reinterpreted old school with a really personal touch that is now very recognisable.

“On 10th April, she was in Rome to celebrate the opening of her chimerical art exhibition. Among nature, childhood and bright colours, you immediately get caught up by and feel involved with the artworks on the wall. It’s like falling into a dreamy yet very realistic world. It’s magic but also reality…  Abracad(abra)… hybrid!

“It was one of those rare moments in which you could feel the power of art and the passion all around, because Amanda truly painted her deep emotions and feelings onto canvas. She found a way to bring together happiness and sadness. That’s what she always says: no rain, no rainbow! Seven canvases on which hybrid creatures live to make you think and wonder. Seven characters in which are hidden different themes, from love to fear, from strength to fantasy.

From left to right: Marta Bandini, Amanda Toy, Ilaria, and Elettra Bottazzi

 

“As Amanda Toy explained, her paintings are her own vision, a transformation aimed at personal growth. Canvases play with the observer, and those big eyes are a key to self-exploration. The lady faces on the walls, at first glance, seem funny and cheerful, but… if you take a closer look, they will reveal the stratagem of life: not everything is what it seems. Here, as in our lives, there is space for happiness and joy, as much as for sadness and nostalgia.

“By this artistic mean, Amanda lets you get a closer look to yourself and be aware of this equilibrium. Abracadhybrid is her spell for a magical life!

You can see Abracadhybrid exhibition until 10th June 2015, at Gallery Parione9. You will also find Things&Ink mags, as the gallery has just become the first official stockist in Italy!

Photos by Diana Bandini and Matteo Rasero