By Tiphaine Deraison, Photographies portrait : Immortalizr / Tattoo : Dane Mancini
You've got more than 10 years of tattooing experience behind you, how did you start?
Native from Trieste, Dane Mancini, aka Dane Soos, never studied art and learned on the job. At 17, punk rocker at heart, he hangs out with the kind of person that your mother doesn’t want to see you hanging out with. In 1997, he watches a guy getting tattooed, decides to get into ink too, and realises that he is where he belongs: « I really loved that scene which gathered people and music I loved, I felt that I was made for tattooing ». But some other adventures will happen before Dane becomes that tattooer with a traditional dark, bold and solid mark we know. After a few years, I understood that there was another kind of tattoo. I had a lot of bad tattoos on me, I realised that there were other tattoo artists, and I started to be interested into their work. I have been tattooed by Crez, in Venise. When I got my first tattoo with him, I was so curious about everything, what was going on, the new influences and technics, that I asked many questions like: « why are you doing this? Or, why are you using that ... ». At the end he asked me: « why are you not doing it? Why don’t you become a tattoo artist? ». He gave me some advice. When I came back home, I called a few friends and started to scratch them. I bought my first machine in 2000...But I did crappy tattoos for many years. I was still a « punk kid », I wasn't good at tattooing, But I was telling myself – who cares? Tattoing was like a game to me.
What made you improve at last?
After a few years, I wanted to be more involved in tattooing, but I didn't know to draw. I made a few calls and I found a seasonal shop close to the beach. The first thing they told me when I started was: « all right, you don't have to draw, just seat here and when somebody wants something, you do it, as requested ». I learned to work fast, and to be as clean as possible. If I wanted to, I didn’t have to work for a year because of the money I earned working there, but I wanted to have experiences. I met this guy in Rimini, but from Rome. We became friends but he wasn’t really a tattoo artist, and he was being tattooed in that shop in Roma, which he pushed me to see. I wanted to check it for myself, so I called the shop, and told them I knew this guy. They told me to come working on summer and once I was there, the owner and the tattoo artist influenced me to open my own shop, and take some risks. At this point, Sergio from Rockshop Tattoo pushed me to open my own shop. Once again, when I came back to Trieste, I didn't have to work for a while... I didn't know what I was really doing or how to open a tattoo shop. There were plenty of tattoo shops at this time in Trieste, and there were some difficulties with administration and paper work, but you know, when you've got money in Italy, it’s all right...we are a bit sneaky. So, when I finally opened it, I realised it was really useful for me to have a place to work.
Do you think that you reached your goal?
Yes, but what I like is to travel. I started to travel more and more. Now at the shop we are two tattoo artists, one manager and one apprentice - Darko. We are all friends...it has been 12 years since I opened Inkamatic and I still learn every day!
Do you think there are specific properties to Italian traditional style?
When I was younger, and more into traditional, there was that kind of Italian traditional school with some tattoo artist like Heinz, Miss Arianna, Stizzo.... with a solid work. Now, I am more into French style, with something more obscure and less proper and classic. Would you try different styles in tattooing? Everything made with simple lines is the kind of tattoo I like. In my opinion, the simplest is the best. I like graphic style, with a minimum of colours, I like symbols because they speak by themselves. When you want to say something, you just have to create a symbol and it tells a story. Every symbol that we use isn't a figure itself, it’s what you do with it and how you modify it that speaks much more to yourself.
Did you get that kind of tattoo?
Yes, for example this one is from my friend Pedro Soos – It means Secret Order of Saturn – It’s a secret group we've made, we are many around the world but... it’s not so secret anymore for a while but we are just a bunch of tattooers who like to meet and see each other at conventions, we are all more or less doing the same style, revisiting traditional. We tattoo each other and we try to exchange guests spots. What inspires you to tattoo every day? Everything! From books to music, we all listen to music at the shop, while we tattoo. By the way, the shop manager is also singer in a grindcore band called The Secret... You said that you liked to travel, do you still enjoy it today? Finally, I try to do at least one to two guest spots per month. I am doing less conventions now ...I changed my priorities these past years, I stopped drinking and doing crap, I had some tough years so I kind of had a break of everything to focus on my life, and find myself again. It was a couple of rough years for me. I still like tattooing, but in another way. Tattoo is so important to me, if I had to do it again, I would. What is your latest tattoo? A friend of mine, Andrea Mallus, did this funny frog with an orange ying-yang, not so long ago, he is doing a lot of those funny things. www.danemancini.com Instagram: dane_soos