WHEN YOU WERE A LITTLE BOY, DID YOU THINK YOU WOULD GROW UP TO BECOME AN ARTIST, OR WORK IN THE ARTISTIC FIELD? DO YOU REMEMBER DRAWING AND CREATING A LOT AS A CHILD?
A.M. – Definitely not, I could have thought about any other thing but never about arts, I didn’t spend much time drawing, most of my time was dedicated to make sport and, in fact, I was really good: I won thousands of medals in Judo, including the best of my state, and played at a semi-professional football team, but never drawing!
WHEN DID YOU KNOW THAT YOU WANTED TO BE A TATTOO ARTIST AND WHAT WERE THOSE FIRST STEPS YOU TOOK TO LEARN THE CRAFT?
A.M. – When I was 25 years old, I owned two tattoo studios but I had never took a tattoo machine before so one day I decided to try. That day really became the first day of the rest of my life.
Then I studied and practiced a lot, I repeated once, twice and a thousand of times all the flash tattoo drawings I had, I created my owns, and didn’t stop tattooing since
– WHAT WAS THE FIRST TATTOO YOU EVER DID? HAVE YOU ALWAYS WORKED IN THE SAME GENERAL STYLE?
A.M. – It was a colorful butterfly for my mother. In the beginning, like anyone else, I experimented with some styles I felt comfortable with, but It didn’t take much time until I realized that my ideas didn’t completely fit with an existing style.
I really loved strong styles like tribal tattoos so I started studying all kinds of books about tribal and black tattoos, I was obsessed about getting a perfect bold black, but soon I gave it my own point of view by adding color to sacred geometry or ink splashes to geometry patterns.
– WHAT’S YOUR TATTOO STYLE OF CHOICE AND WHY?
A.M. – It is quite difficult to say: my style is a mix of techniques of several tattoo styles, applied to my geometric-psychedelic designs like Dotwork techniques and trash graphic elements.
– YOU ARE AN INCREDIBLE ARTIST… HOW DID YOUR PROFESSIONAL TATTOO ART JOURNEY LEAD YOU IN THIS DIRECTION?
A.M. – Thank you so much, such an honor!
Creative journeys are really difficult to explain… since they are not very logical, there is no guide or a sequence of steps you can follow to get there, this kind of journey appears in your mind as a one-way road that you follow until you get somewhere else, you never know if it will lead you to a good place or not.
Of course, that creativity and a different point of view are helpful but, it is just 10% of the whole travel, you must do the rest by foot: thousands of drawings, paintings, mistakes, more drawings, variations to old designs, and tons of tattoos.
Hard work on re-inventing my own work every day has been my only rule.
– DESCRIBE HOW YOUR ROLE MODELS AND ANY OTHER SOURCES OF INSPIRATION HAVE AFFECTED YOUR TATTOO STYLE?
A.M. – My role models…then I have to talk about Xed Le Head.
He is the father of Dotwork: this technique is the base of my work and has allowed me to reach new textures and effects, I couldn’t make the geometry, shades, or such detailed splashes without dotwork or dotwork-based movements.
– DESCRIBE HOW YOU GO ABOUT CREATING A TATTOO FROM CONCEPT TO FINISHED DESIGN. AND ALSO DESCRIBE HOW YOU TRY TO PUT YOUR OWN UNIQUE TOUCH ON YOUR TATTOOS?
A.M. –
I try to separate the main idea of the customer’s tattoo (concepts and feelings that they want to express or transmit) from his ideal of attractiveness in a tattoo, so we never fall into common symbols.
It is very common that people think about existing symbols for their tattoos, like; a flower for a loved person, a wolf/tiger for a hard time in life that ended successfully, … but there are hundreds of ways to express what you feel, and some of them will be closest to your likes than a existing shape.
For this reason, I first ask them to explain to me what they want. Then, I ask them to choose some photos of my tattoos without thinking about their tattoo: I don’t want them to stop choosing what they want just because “ it won’t fit with my idea” or because “it is on a different part of the body”.
At this point, the only important thing is to see what means esthetic for them.
For some customers, the best piece is a solid black-based tattoo with strong straight lines that covers 90% of their skin, and for others, it is a colorful and organic design that flows with the body curves… This is already going to make a great difference.
Thank comes my part: my work is to merge their idea, their likes, and my technic fitting the body shapes of each customer.
– WHAT’S YOUR TATTOO STYLE OF CHOICE AND WHY?
A.M. – It is quite difficult to say: my style is a mix of techniques of several tattoo styles, applied to my geometric-psychedelic designs like Dotwork techniques and trash graphic elements.