Originally from Belfast, Chris Crooks is self made tattoo artist, and despite where he comes from ; he continued to infuse his ink with a modern Japanese tattoo style and built up himself an international reputation. His style includes steady colors and large flowing backpiece with a certain focus on movement. He tells us about his influences and how his work is also a legacy to the genre legends. His tattoo pieces are genuine such as his humility. He has been tattooing already half of his life and owns two shop including the private shop White Dragon, since he is 21 years old. A responsibility that he took very young. “ Tattooing is not a place and time to make mistakes so you have to learn fast.”
You had open your first tattoo shop at the age of 21, it's very early stage, how was this experience ?
From the begining I just wanted to do Japanese tattoos so even the name White Dragon was preempeting that I was only doing Japanese. It's pretty much made on purpose. I opened White Dragon too young to open my own shop. I wouldn't do it again because at the deep end it was very fast and a lot of responsibilities came along. It's also good on the other hand because I was learning to get better and better in the same time. I made it faster also because the responsibilities were on me. On the other hand, I had no one to give me directions. So it had his goods and bad sides. You have to learn from your own mistakes and tattooing is not a place and time to make mistakes...so you have to learn fast.
Can you tell me about White Dragon, now and who is tattooing with you ?
I have two studios in Belfast, the main is a private shop and some of the guys come that shop if they want to get some time to work on some specific motifs and the other shop I have a group of guys, good friends as Barry, from Hungary, who is doing black work, geometric, realism. It's called White Dragon Family Tattoo because we were friends before working together, so it's an important part to have that relationship with people that you work with. It was a walk-in shop but after like 6 months everybody was booked up, you know it changed now, it's not really walk-in aspect, its not the same anymore, people through social media, have all the ideas in the front and the customers are a lot more educated but just like anything you see on the internet : you can be educated with the wrong informations. The walk-In side stopped but the custom side can also be really stressfull.
Since the beginning you were into japanese style, isnt'it?
Prior to that, in Ireland, it was very hard to do Japanese style. This country is just so far away from that culture and doing even small elements of Japanese over the years was difficult. Even if as a tattoo artist, my job is to do what the costumer wants and I respect that, over the year's things changed and what people want too. To influence and lead to my style, and favorite genre, my process is that I don't want to sell a Japanese tattoo to some people randomly but instead I am trying to educate them to give them the best direction. In fact, I think, if you're passionate with this job and what you do, most people and customers, will end up opening their mind and getting it.
How did that passion for japanese started?
I always loved Japanese tattooing. That was it, and I always wanted to do Japanese. I love other styles to look at. I can see the art and enjoying looking at other styles but to me I am just a guy who loves Japanese tattoos. I always loved all the Japanese art, from a very young age. Actually, I wasn't really exposed to tattoo but I just saw the art. My grandmother was also collecting antiques and I have always observed all the imageries she had collected but seperate of the tattoo imagery. I loved already tattoos but I didn't really realize how much the two were going to come together in the future. Then, it all started when I was able to pay for some tattoo magazines and get one. Back then, you couldn't get any tattoo magazines in Ireland. Some guy, in one shop would order it for him and leave it there. If I would come along, then I would bought it. It was only those kind of limited ressources, and it was not that long ago, just 2000, but at that time we had no social media, just Myspace. It was definitely not an easy way to get access and to find influences and references. That's how I did, I was buying magazines and then I got to see more bodysuits from different Japanese artists. Obviously one of them was Horiyoshi 3, as a lot of Japanese tattoo families. From Europe I got influenced by Filip Leu and Luke Atkinson who were the most predominant. Like most thing happen in life, it just happen naturally... If you're looking for it you'll find it but to get in it : it was difficult. I needed to be influenced by a small amount of extremely good Japanese style tattooers but what I was doing in tattooing was already very specific to where I'm from ; Northern Ireland. It was a lot of paramilitary tattoos, so I thought : “How will I get people to do this (Japanese tattoo), when not many people are asking for that”. Also at that time, it was the trend of typical tribal, lettering and still American traditional flash but very typically influenced by Northern Ireland. Ireland is so isolated even in 1999/2000 years, the Northern Ireland tattoo industry was honestly more like back in the 80's and it wasn't connected to the elder tattoo community. A few older guys, did travel and did conventions and were in contact through letters but obviously it was very hard to stay connected. No matter where you are, things are not obstructions that stop you for passing them. And that was my particular one. At the beginning it was hard to get people to do what I wanted to do because they were use to pick something from the wall. I had to really infect them with a lot of passion.
Did you actually work on other art figure as painting ?
The responsibility of having a shop and being married young, having kids, had an impact too. There was no time for me to do painting. I was drawing 100% of the time for tattoos because I'm a tattooist first. However, I have so much respect for tattooist creating, I dont even know if I can... because my focus is on tattoos.
You're doing a lot of large piece, backpiece... What is you main focus in your art process ?
I'm very lucky, because people didn't know anything about Japanese style at the beginning of my career, I was able to do...what they knew about Japanese. So in conclusion, what was I wanted to do ! So it turns out it created a whole freedom for me. If they were coming to me with this authentic traditional japanese I would have been more contained. This is why I've been lucky in a way. I got to do the tigers, the dragons... and all the designs I wanted, the way I wanted them influenced and as big as possible. I mainly have been influenced by Filip Leu. For every tattooist that does Japanese, it is in my opinion, a big part of the influence because he was doing such ground breaking large scale with an energizing work. Horiyoshi 3 also influenced me especially for the imagery and the real authentic home of stale in my opinion it was a massive influence. It's so authentic and traditional, as an irish person I'm not gonna play with it. It's like a theatral act. You can try to make it different as much as you want but it's never gonna be as authentic. To be authentic you really need to try to put you and stay into it as much as possible. I don't do traditional Japanese, but I use the imagery and it's predominantly that genre so it's natural inspired. I guess to be respected you have to bring something. when I was doing it, I was really nervous as a foreigner. I'm Irish, doing Japanese tattoos. What I do, I interpet it as being this elements of Japanese style but it would not be true to say I do Japanese tattoos. I travel a lot and respect a lot and bring as much as I can into what I do, but I wouldn't want to disrespect the culture by saying, “I do Japanese tattoo”.
You've travelled a lot... what did travelling bring into your work ?
I've traveled in Japan about 15 times. I've been tattooed by Horiyoshi 3, which was an awesome experience, it was only a small piece, because it wasn't possible to get a big piece as I already got my back from Filip Leu which was another dream I realized. I also got tattooed by Shige (@shige_yellowblaze) from Yellowblaze and that was also an awesome learning experience. When you want to do Japanese style tattoo you have to go to Japan, that's where the real energy is. If you try to operate as a vaccum while doing it, it's not gonna work. You have to go there and being surrounded by the culture and the images. That's why everytime I go, I comeback completely energized. For Japanese tattoos, it's not only about the imagerie but it's about the respect for the body and the dedicate of Japanese tattoo on an extremely large coverage of bodysuit which are also not extreme. If someone is wearing clothes, you have no clue they have tattoos. That's the beauty of it because you are not seeing it all the time, when you do see it : it's “wow”. Thats why Japanese tattoos are always so impressive because you don't get to see them very often. You've got a certain type of person getting Japanese tattoos, a certain type of clients who would spend 100 hours doing something that is just for them and not one hour that is dedicated for everybody else. It's different reasons why people get tattoos. In my opinion, that particular way of doing it, which is “for you first”, is very important.
How did you prepared you to get tattooed by Filip Leu ?
I put there elements of important things that I wanted to include, some family stuff, some imagery that is related to my personal thinking of what I wanted to mean. But really, I love the tattoos this way and his way and I know it's how it will be the best tattoos. If you have a lot of demands… you put the tattoo in a box and the tattooist is not gonna as much enjoy the process.
How do you process with the costumer ?
I don't plan it as much as I should. Probably because I did it for so long, I like the energy of it's happening rather than sticking a full completed image in the back. I like to add the elements and than do free hand motifs. Which is a quite common thing to do for Japanese tattooing with the background. It allows you to make it really custom to the person and the body shape. Some people are larger, smaller, taller and I think the background is like stitches to the main piece, so it's cool to do that naturally on the person.
Bright colors always had been an important part of your work ?
Colors always have been important in my work but strangely every time I tried to do softer colors like pastelry or water color, it always ended up super strong. It's also why I tattooed mostly man because the images are angry, large, with extreme colors, so I get that type of person who wants strong images and not so much softer or feminin images. When I try to do a feminine motif, like a phoenix, it will end up looking angry. (laugh)
You became also an influence in japanese modern style...
I think the moment you think you have arrived somewhere you are going to lose the momentum to keep going forward. I do not have confidence in my position. If I looked at it and reflect on that, I think if you are full of confidence there is no way to improve. If I influenced people, that's awesome, I just hope that I am a good example as in being respectful of Japanese tattooing and passing that on and I hope I won't pass the stuff that I got wrong. That would be terrible (laugh).
Any motif or design you really appreciate the most ?
Probably the simple things because the background in Japanese, like the waves are really how you can tell someone's style. Yellow is yellow, green is green, but the stale of the background is very important. That's why I like Koi, it's very simple, but that's a one thing where you can bring so much energy in. Where a large back of a Samurai ; is first extremely fun to do for the details but also : that's where you have to “walk the line”, because in Japanese you can't put too much of yourself into a Samurai. In contrast, the background is where I get more freedom. There's not a right or wrong, even if there is definetly a righter way to do. There is totally more freedom, that's why I like things that are very simple. A back done with a Koi must be great, because all you're gonna see is the movement, energy and the flow.
Movement and flow are something you want to develop in tattooing ?
You have to develop it. All times a tattoo artist needs to continue pursue the flow and composition. When you do a Koi, it can look like it just lay down on the table because there is no flow included. It is the one part of my tattoos that I can be confident about it. I feel like I gain more and more flow in my ink because it doesn't look like static but it looks like there is energy in there. In all forms of art I tend to think that it doesn't matter if it's paintings, sculpture or whatever... if you can see the person's energy that did it and put into the tattoo. This it it. That's art. It can be neat and so immaculate and so, impressive... but where is the energy ?
How was your experience as being tattooed by Horyioshi 3 ?
It was a very nerve wrapping experience. Being tattooed by Horiyoshi 3. There are a lot of “etiquettes”, especially in Japanese culture and being into Japanese tattoo culture, you don't want to fail. You want to be respectful, because he is the roots of the tree and you could be a leaf way over here doing Japanese. It is very inspiring also stressful. Probably the most fun I ever had with a human being that you can't communicate with. You travel and you want to learn and when you meet someone like this legend, you want to ask so much but then you realized there is already that much energy in the room... you dont have to say anything. You can just walk away and feel that you're already part of something. Whenever you are finding that through a tattoo you got ; it feels like something special. It was nearly the same with Filip. Obviously you can communicate more with him and it can add an extra level of spirituality. I found some kind of real true tattoo energy in those experiences, that is not as common and a bit lost nowadays. But with some people, like those tattooists ; it can feels like you are in some sort of church.
Finally Chris, any funny story to share ?
Few weeks ago, I tattooed an asian guy from Vancouver, Canada and he was getting tattooed for two days. On the second day, my next costumer comes in, to talk about his design. He was also an Asian guy from Vancouver. I was like ; “Oh, no way”, so I turned to the other guy that was getting tattooed and told him : “hey, do you want to meet that guy, he is fromVancouver”. It turns out they knew each others and played basket-ball and Ice-skating together ! They haven't seen each others for ten years and they reconnected as friends in my shop. Next thing I know, they started to travelling together. As a tattoo artist I realized, you have that sort of intimate relationship with people that you can make people connecting. That's also an important part of tattooing to consider in my opinion ; tattoos are there forever but the circumstances and when customers are going to get tattooed and the relationship with the artist... that is equally as important. If as a customer, you have a bad experience, it doesn't matter how the tattoo is... because you walk away without a real connexion with the person who probably spent 50 hours with you sitting on your table. It's spending 50 hours with strangers that are, by the end, not strangers at all, but close friends. @chriscrookstattoo http://whitedragontattoostudio.com
