Inkers MAGAZINE - Starabroda

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Starabroda

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ITW STARABRODA

@pascalbagot

Tattooer on the road for twenty years, Starabroda shares with Inkers some of the lessons learned on the road. The road itself, rich in travel and encounters, is an inexhaustible source of inspiration for the Polish tattoo artist with an inimitable style, between New School and graffiti influences.

Travelling seems to have always been a part of your tattoo life, can you tell us about it?

I always got a huge passion to explore the world so when I started tattooing almost 20 years ago, from the beginning I had it on my mind that its perfect job which I can combine with travelling. Since that time I have build my place I call home in Warsaw Poland when I grew up. A place I’m always happy to come back to. Somehow, I managed to find a balance between life on the road and having home in one place. This way I never feel bored, either travelling or staying home.

How did you experience the Covid period when we were all stuck at home?

Covid sucks the big time! Of course it did changed my travelling routine, which is not so easy for me to get back on again. On the other hand, I found time to handle stuff back home I never got time for.

Travelling makes you grow personally, but also professionally. How important were they in the evolution of your career?

For me, as a tattooer, making guest spots and working with different people, also artists, is always a big motivation to constantly improve my tattoo technic, designing, or the approach to customers. This process is something you are never good enough in and you need to push yourself as a tattooer to develop. At least I think so.

What experiences do you particularly remember?

I admire and have a lot of respect for all tattooers who have true passion for what they do and everything that goes along with it. Every time I hang out around them is the time when I absorb a lot of knowledge.

How does tattooing start for you?

I was a teenager. Tattoos where considered by most of society as not popular and in my opinion where somehow interestingly beautiful. That was why I started. Easy! The rest was probably the same way how other tattooers my age started. I collected some money for my first machine and did my first tattoo. After two years of self learning, I got my first job in a tattoo studio.

You've been tattooing since 2003, did your style develop gradually along the way or did you start right away with those graffiti inspirations?

Not really! In the beginning of my experience with tattooing I did almost everything. My main goal was to learn the technic. Those were the early days for tattooing in Poland. We already had some tattoo studios opened up but customers didn’t really knew how good tattoos can look like and how big potential it has! So I started redesigning this old flashes the way I would like to have it done. Always I got big love for the graffiti art although I never was a proper graffiti artist. I started using the flow of letters I saw on walls into the tattoo designs. Then, I discovered New School tattoo style and again it inspired me the same way like graffiti to make my designs more and more dynamic especially the line work. The more I tattoo the more I realize that contrast and simplicity is the key for tattoos to resist the time. My style is a process of inspirations that finds me and experience I learn.

Do you prefer small pieces, it's easier when you're between two planes and unattached?

Small tattoos got this big advantage that you gonna finish it during one sitting! Big pieces are always a big challenge for the composition and I absolutely love it! You just need to wait for final result, sometimes a long time. All my tattoo designs I make freehand using markers directly on skin and I also find super interesting to use this tiny leftover areas of skin between other tattoos. I can play with composition and form to fill up and use all the space left. Super cool!

Next travels ?

Tomorrow I’m visiting Sweden for the first time and I’m pretty exited about it! Definitely I’ll continue visiting European countries. I wouId love to visit Canada one day and miss Asia a lot… Maybe next year:) + IG : @starabroda