Legs, arms, hands, fingers and every other part of the human body is like a blank canvas for a tattoo artist who “paints” on it different kinds of things, subjects, figures.
“The ink of a pen is simply the blood of a heart”
Tattoos have always existed. Since 500BC people used to paint their skin in order to mark their spiritual identity, they wanted to witness their belonging to a particular religion. However many religions have banned tattoos: in the ancient Rome, emperor Costantino banned them and Islam also prohibits permanent tattooing. However, people continued to get tattoos; in some ways they were seen as a sort of criminals, as the Italian philosopher Cesare Lombroso said during the positivism era. In his essay “L’uomo delinquente”, he connected tattoos with the criminal’s immorality, saying that they “encourage” men to mark their skin as they regress to a primitive state.
Obviously and thankfully, over the past few years this distorted idea of tattoos has changed, but prejudices still exist.
“My body is my journal, and my tattoos are my story.”
Every tattoo artist has his own trademark style that makes him recognizable to everyone.
“Tattoos made my skin more ‘me.’
Kevin Valerio Zamarian is an Italo - Colombian tattoo artist who lives in Milan and works in two tattoo studios. Due to his work he travels a lot, usually Kevin works in Ancona, Padua, Bari, Zurich, London, Madrid, Barcelona, Berlin and in Slovenian as guest. He has a very particular style and his tattoos are very original.
Do you have any particular source of inspiration or do you find inspiration from different sources when you tattoo?
Lately, there is a particular emotion, which somehow I missed but that now I find again thanks to different partners who have been part of my life, which gives me the biggest inspiration. Then there is also my crew, TVC, with whom I skateboarded and lived my first beautiful crazy experiences. They are my family, so to sum up my inspiration is the concept of LOVE, is a message that I absolutely want to transmit because… let’s face it: who does not need love? Anyway I estimate different tattoo artists such as Mambotattoer, Davidcote, Illia Zharkov, Whistonthewhale, Marine Perez, Tymur Lysenko, Snt, Nangeroni Matteo, Brindi tattoo, Tommaso Serpentini, Fresh Flower. I also find inspiration in artists such as Salvador Dalí, Fortunato Depero, Giacomo Balla, Pablo Picasso, Carlo Carrà.
Do you use any particular technique when you tattoo?
As you can see from my Instagram profile I constantly experiment new stuff, but if there is one thing that has never changed, is the technique: you can find the “dotted” technique in 95% of my tattoos. I like this technique because the healing time is really quick and furthermore I love doing the shade “dot to dot” effect because it really relaxes me.
The shape you give to your tattoos could remember the surrealistic art,
because the subjects you draw seem to be distorted. Is this a way to stand
out from others tattoo artist, like a signature?
Yes, a lot of tattoos are related to surrealism which is a wonderful art movement. I try to give my style and signature to every tattoo I realize, but I am not fixated only with one kind of style because everything can influence me. At the same time, I can’t follow the same line for too long, because I find something beautiful in everything. My current project is called “LOVE” which is the research and sharing of love in all its shapes, things, people and everything related to universe and life.
What do you think about prejudices towards tattoos?
Personally I think that nowadays tattoos are legitimized but at the same time I think that the image is really important. For example it would be better if a bank manager doesn’t have any tattoos because he has to remain formal, in a way. Tattoo belongs to the world of aesthetic and a good tattoo artist is first of all an aesthete who knows how and what to suggest to his client. So I think is really important to speak and reason with the tattoo artist before get a tattoo, because our body is a temple that we have to respect.
In your opinion what will be the new trends or styles that could be more
requested in the future?
Nice question. Internet has helped art to grow really fast because many information are shared so the development of art is quicker than before. I wouldn’t give an objective opinion because there are a lot of tattoo artists who strongly influence
the scenes regarding the technique and originality. I think that the artists who I named before can influence the scene but I believe that nowadays one of the most avant-garde tattoo artist is Mambo.
“Show me a man with a tattoo and I'll show you a man with an interesting past.”
Follow Kevin's work on instagram.
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