At just 35, Amayra is already establishing herself as one of the leading figures in contemporary tattooing. An artist brimming with inspiration and a seasoned technician, this Spaniard from the island of Tenerife tells us about her career, from studying fine art to tattooing and her adoption of the neo-oriental style, which she interprets with great originality. Thanks to her perfect mastery of movement and colour, Amayra breathes real life into her creations, to which she adds a very personal touch of magic.
What role does drawing play in your career?
I've been drawing since I couldn't write my name and it was always clear to me that I would devote myself to something to do with art. I studied drawing and sculpture at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. I've painted in watercolours, oils and spray paint, and I've also done sculpture in stone, resin and 3D modelling. In short, the visual arts have always been part of my life.
What influences do you recognise in your work?
On the island of Tenerife, which is volcanic, the stones have very characteristic shapes, as if they were melting, and these undulating forms, combined with the sea and wood, have always mesmerised me. Movement and fluidity have always been part of my graphic style. I remember that when I was a teenager, while I was talking on the landline telephone at home, I would make automatic drawings in the directory where the telephone numbers were written down, and the shapes I drew were always concentric waves that extended until they filled the whole page.
What other inspirations have fuelled your creative universe?
I also really liked the Final Fantasy video games and I used to draw the characters and monsters of Yoshitaka Amano, the illustrator of the saga. But in general, Japanese art has always attracted my attention. I particularly like the balance between simplicity and attention to detail. I also love Japanese legends, the Yokai and all the mythological animals of their culture. The dragon is probably the subject I've drawn the most in my life, and the Japanese dragon in particular.
Among the artistic disciplines you've had the opportunity to learn about, have any of them had an impact on the way you tattoo?
Sculpture, because it has enabled me to approach tattooing in a more enveloping way. A tattoo is a two-dimensional image on a three-dimensional surface, so you can play with the volumes of the body to create optical effects. I also like to place tattoos in areas that coincide with the natural movements of the envelope and I take great care to ensure that, whatever the posture, the tattoo is not distorted. I learnt at art school that a sculpture is only good if, seen from all points of view, it remains an interesting figure. I see tattoos in the same way. That's why I make sure that even the least visible areas look good, and not just that the photo looks good to the eye.
Can you tell us how you got into tattooing?
It was fate that brought it into my life. A friend of mine from art school gave me some plans for a homemade tattoo machine. The idea was to tattoo it, so I put together a toy engine, a pen, a fork and that was about it. I didn't know anything about electricity, but I thought that if I cut the wire from an old hairdryer and connected it to the motor, it would work. Spoiler: it exploded in my hands. On top of that, I switched off the electricity in the nuns' dormitory where I was living... For a whole weekend. It was my first attempt at tattooing: a total disaster. But instead of giving up, my curiosity got the better of me and I started looking for studios where I could really learn. I've been tattooing for 15 years now.
Your style is now evolving into the neo-traditional genre, has this always been the case?
My style is a mixture of neo-traditional with a lot of Asian symbolism, which I call neo-oriental. When I started out, I mainly did realism because that's what my customers asked for most, even though I've done practically all the styles and learnt a lot from each of them. Thanks to this, I can now apply a wide variety of techniques and textures in my work that I've learnt from doing all kinds of tattoos.
Has your Asian influence manifested itself in ways other than your taste for Japanese art?
In one way or another, I've always had Eastern influences. For example, my father had a furniture shop that he brought over from Bali, and the Balinese sculptures fascinated me. Since then, I've started collecting masks, mainly from Bali, but I also have some from Japan and other parts of the world, as well as some I've made myself.
You seem to have mastered colour to perfection. How did you develop this skill?
With a lot of practice. I initially used high machine tensions to fill the colour because I thought it was quicker, but I realised that with a lower tension, the ink was more solid and less damaging to the skin, which means that the colour remains intact during the hardening process.
I imagine you've developed a precise technique for maintaining their brilliance over time. Do you have any lessons to share on this subject?
There are two important factors for ink to remain solid and brilliant for longer. The first is knowing where to place each colour, creating good contrasts. For example, a yellow will be brighter next to a violet or black than a cream. It's better to push the needle in deeper and make fewer passes over the same area than to make too many passes at a shallower depth.
You mainly work on large pieces. How long do you spend preparing them?
I generally spend several days on each design. On the first day, I do a few quick sketches and go to sleep. The next day, I choose the one I like best and continue working on it. And so on, until I'm happy with the result. In any case, with the big drawings, it's often necessary to do certain parts directly on the skin to understand how it moves on the body. When I do this, I can tattoo after drawing freehand, or take a photo and continue working on my own.
Your backgrounds stand out for their moving, fluid, almost psychedelic aesthetic. Do you recognise this influence?
The truth is that I've been experimenting with psychedelics for a few years and the visions I've had show me wave patterns, fractals and Balinese ornaments, which I've adapted to my designs. But what they've really given me is the clarity to understand what style resonates with me. Often, we have so many influences that we lose our own identity, and it's necessary to reconnect with ourselves in order to connect with art.
What kind of psychedelics are you experimenting with?
This is a bit of a controversial subject, because I'm not interested in drugs, I don't even drink alcohol or smoke, but I have used psychedelics as medication. At a time in my life when I was depressed and, despite sport and therapy, wasn't getting much better, I decided to do an ayahuasca retreat. Since then, I've taken other psychedelics, like mushrooms, always with the idea of finding out more about myself and the way I express myself, which has also influenced my art.
Your posts on social networks, in which you evoke the importance of felines and the figure of the jaguar, reflect emancipatory thinking. Do you think art has power?
For me, tattooing is a ritual and images have a lot of power, especially those that you wear for the rest of your life. I have a lot of respect for the skin and what I tattoo on each person has to be in keeping with their essence, to define them and give them strength. To achieve this, I like to talk to you beforehand. If that's not possible, I send out a questionnaire with a few key questions that help me get to know the character and reason why each person wants to get a tattoo. One of these questions is which animal they feel most connected to. I think we all have a power animal that guides and helps us in our lives. For me, my spirit animal is the jaguar. It helps me to face my fears, achieve my goals and protect what is right.
Drawing, painting, sculpture, tattooing, but also 3D and mechanics, are there any limits to your artistic expression?
I'm an eternal learner, so if I come across an artistic discipline that I'm not familiar with, I want to practise it until I've mastered it. I haven't yet had the chance to make rugs, for example, but I find it interesting. The plastic arts have no limits for me, but music, although I like it a lot, I find more difficult and for the moment I limit myself to singing to my clients while I tattoo them (laughs).
Of all these disciplines, where does tattooing fit in?
It's the most complex artistic discipline and the one that has given me the most challenges. In my opinion, there are several arts involved in tattooing, such as painting and illustration because they are the basis of the design and colour of the tattoo, sculpture because it plays with the volumes of the body, kinetic art because it takes into account the way it moves with the skin, fashion because it is a print that is made on the skin like an ink suit and photography because it is the only thing that the tattooist keeps of his work.
Apart from art, what other activities do you do to get away from it all?
For me, art is a form of meditation that helps me to relax, but these activities are too sedentary. So I combine them with martial arts, like MMA and aikido, and I also spend time in nature. + IG : @amyratattoo www.amayra.art
