This is a clear example of how a tattoo on the skin is more intimate than you think. Anna, in the name of art, The Bigoted discovers the world of tattoo by game, almost by mistake. Drawing on a piece of paper, on the surface of a bag or on the skin of a human is something magical. The technique is a very important element for work but the instinct, passion and history it evokes brings the tattoo to another world.
Anna loves surrealism, vintage and Victorian art, consistently transferring them onto the bodies of her clients.Besides that, her desire to give more and more.
Hi Anna, when did you realize that tattoo art is your way?
I didn’t realise it immediately, I started without great pretensions, let’s say for fun by doing a tattoo on my husband, it was the drawing of our son.In the beginning, I focused a lot on the technique and not on the artistic side, it was a whole new world to me. I was 31 when I learned the technique, when the lines were straight and clean, I remember a tattoo artist told me that I was good but I had to invent my own style.I took an introspective trip to find my own style.I focused on art that fascinates me like surrealism and Victorian art, let’s say a vintage accent.The technique remains an important and coherent element towards my art.Anatomical heart and the sea for example are my subjects and I never left them.
Your lines are delicate but disruptive, depicting a surrealist dimension. What is the
deep message of your art?
Yes, my lines are very clean, the technique is still the basis.Surrealism is an art form that has always fascinated me. Surrealism is magical, everyone recognizes behind something unclear what they want.People see it as their own story.I use surrealism to tell stories, not to be direct, I like to keep the mystery between me and who I tattoo.I like this complicity with the client.
Do you remember the first time you tattooed? How did you feel?
The first time I tattooed it was for fun and I didn’t think of it as a job. I was in Rome, it was one rainy morning, I found the machine in my hand and before I knew it, I just dived. I was always manual, because I worked as a seamstress and then restorer, I was not afraid, I chose a drawing of my son who at the time was 5 years old. So it wasn’t a problem that the line wasn’t clean because it was a drawing of a child. I will never forget the feeling that I felt, something inside of me changed.
You have a huge following on social media, how do you present your art to the community?
Social media relations?Hate and Love, I’ll be honest.My Instagram profile was born when I started tattooing, I didn’t really use this social media.Tattoo being a visual work, I thought having an instagram account would help me get noticed.At first I chose not to be seen. But then I thought that knowing who is behind the machine would add extra value and build trust with my clients. I’ve always tried to be consistent with reality. What you see on social media is reality, my life.Even when I work with brands, I don’t want to pretend to be someone else. I had so much luck, I started at a time when Instagram was growing, at the beginning Instagram pages on tattooists republished my work and so they made me grow. I realized that today it has become difficult to grow from the point of view of followers, maybe we have reached a moment of saturation. Maybe social media has taken over our lives.
Your collaboration with Furla was beautiful. How did you feel about drawing on the surface of a bag compared to a human skin?
I’ve known Furla since I was a teenager, a 13-year-old girl. If you had the Furla bag, you were fashionable. I remember saving money to buy it. So when I was called in to collaborate on a project, it was a great satisfaction. Actually, my first collaboration in which I tattooed leather was for Jil Sanders: I made this one-of-a-kind piece where it was sold at auction in New York. Unique emotion. A bag that can last years and my design over. A great pride.
What is drawing to you?
The moment of drawing, I live in
different ways. Sometimes I feel the need to draw for example at the table in a Chinese restaurant. Drawing waves relaxes me. Then there is the drawing for work, when I prepare an illustration, I do not think of it as romantic but it is different. Or when I draw a commission.
Sometimes instinctively I want to draw one of my women. It’s my mood at that precise moment in which I find myself. It can be many ways, joyful thorny, the cloud woman or pink woman is behind a state of mind.
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