Freshly arrived in Los Angeles, in the United States, after having travelled all over the world, the Russian tattoo artist Andrey Kolbasin tells us about his love of art. In painting as in tattooing, he shows an uncommon talent as well as a total investment. Nourished by the works of the great painters, in love with religious imagery, Andrey associates today with his influences references to the traditional culture of Russian tattooing, thus making the synthesis between two periods of his career.
You are a versatile artist, at ease in different genres. Have you had any artistic training?
Yes, my work always has several images and styles and that's because I've been working for a long time and every two or three years I need to try something new, to modernise what I already know how to do. It's important for me not to stand still, to keep moving forward. Even though I never graduated I studied to be an artist, independently and with teachers in different cities and countries. I really liked the teachers at the St. Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts and the John Angel Academy. There I got to know the technical knowledge of Caravaggio. I am still studying and I am still interested. I'm planning to try to get into the Academy of Art in Los Angeles, as a draughtsman and animator.
Is it this curiosity for art that leads you to tattooing?
Tattooing found me by itself. When I was 12 years old, my friends came to me and asked me to tattoo them. They showed me how the machine worked (the handmade machine was very ugly, rusty, but very functional). From that moment on, I became a tattoo artist. Every day or so I would either get a tattoo or spend time studying the art of tattooing. I didn't understand what I was doing, but it was very interesting. Of course, I could draw and it was easy to understand what was expected of me, but understanding how the device worked and the support of the skin was another matter.
Russia has its own tattoo culture, how do you see it?
The traditional Russian tattoo culture originated at the time of the 1917 revolution. Mass incarceration led to the formation of various groups within the prisons, which designated themselves by symbols and abbreviations. The Russian-born tattoo is a prison language, even a cryptogram, which is still used, although less systematically. I started my career with similar tattoos and now I am interested in this subject again. I decided to combine classical Renaissance painting with the beginnings of traditional tattooing, as these are two important eras for me. These tattoos have many symbols and it seems to me that my creativity finally combines beauty with deep meaning. Now I am actively trying to study social realism.
How do you learn realism, by copying?
Yes. My childhood was poor and that pushed me to make exact copies. I copied magazine posters, audio cassette and CD covers, all sorts of interesting images. One day I made a big folder with 52 pages of illustrations and it turned out to be a comic book. Every year my passion for drawing became stronger and I started to study anatomy, colour and composition. Then I studied with the masters and accepted their knowledge. I read a lot of books and manuals and, of course, I drew a lot of pictures. When I started tattooing, the cult of realistic tattooing didn't exist yet, but from 2006-2007 I made my first attempts at transferring realistic images to the skin. I got better results when I bought good professional equipment.
What place does painting have in your artistic activity?
It is in the first place. My wife is often jealous of the easel. When I have free time, I run to draw. It is my only love, the rest will come later.
What specific periods of painting interest you?
I am very inspired by the works of Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Velasquez, Van Dyck, Da Vinci and others. This period is very close to me. Everything is so anatomical, realistic and correct. Everything is elegant in its own way. The compositions are strong and the plots are interesting. My favourite subjects are religion and mythology. The classical school of Italian, German, Dutch and French paintings is respected in Russia. This is what we appreciate and cherish, knowledge. In tattooing, I have also introduced the knowledge I received in schools.
Where is the balance between the canvas of the painting and the skin of a client?
Tattooing is part of the fine arts, but with its own rules and canons. In painting and tattooing, two things are important: talent and good equipment. In the case of tattooing, the equipment is not yet perfect. A lot of effort is still needed to take advantage of all the possibilities of painting. Some of the techniques can of course be done on the skin. I really like to play with light and shadow, texture, working with an aerial perspective. My trump card is anatomy. I really like to do portraits or hands, the body, because there is always the possibility to enter the image and feel the bones, muscles and extra volumes under the skin. You also have to play with colour. Everything I can draw, I can do in tattooing. The only difference is that I can paint a canvas for twenty sessions and I only have one for tattoos. This leaves no room for error. To do this, I draw often, so that I always know what I am doing and can be sure of the result.
Another of the limitations to overcome is the loss of colour intensity. Of course, I would say that it all depends on the type of skin. Young skin heals very well, but it also ages faster, because it is thicker and renews itself more often. Older skin is thin and the colour stays on better. Technically, young, white skin is easier to tattoo and it is easier to immerse the pigment in the middle layer of the skin. With older, tanned skin, everything is more complicated. To deal with the difficulties of healing, it is necessary to understand how to work with the medium and how to set up the material. To put it simply, the pigment is not homogeneous and the skin does not always have the same shape and structure either. You have to feel what you are doing. I try not to gently caress the skin and feel sorry for the client. I try to put a lot of ink on it so that it can stay for a hundred years. I give recommendations for care; I forbid sunbathing and sudden temperature changes. All this destroys the pigment and the tattoo fades. In the future, there will be safe inks with light-resistant pigment - then clients can sunbathe safely, but there are no such colours yet.
Religious art has come back in force in your work, how do you explain this?
My religious tattoos are what I like. I'm a fan of icons and church frescos myself. I really like the theme itself and would like to continue to develop in that direction. The prison tattoos are also about religion. It's all closely related and I try to do it beautifully, in an original and unique way. The images come from different sides. Sometimes I think of a subject and create a sketch, like the Virgin and Child or the icon of the seven arrows. Sometimes I see a beautiful picture of a girl and it inspires me. The images are born autonomously. It's free creativity.
The tattooist provides a service, his job is to reflect what the client wants in the tattoo. How do you find the balance between your artistic satisfaction and the respect of the order?
Oh, it's an eternal struggle. I do what I love. If people pay, then I'm happy, if not, I look for a canvas to experiment on. I only have one life and I don't want to spend it serving clients. I have a lot of fans, they tell me: "Andrey, I like your drawings, do what you want". If a client has wishes and wants to change something, I always listen carefully and then we make a decision together. If it suits us both, I change the design, otherwise it stays in its original form. I have a catalogue of sketches where everyone can find something interesting. I stopped doing commercial tattoos in 2011. If this is not suitable, I recommend good artists that I know personally.
Do you use digital tools?
No, because I don't have time to study them.
Which tattoo artists do you consider to be masters?
It's simple, there are two for me: Dmitry Samohin and Guy Atchinson. One has an excellent technique, the other has an excellent sense of composition. They are my father and my mother. + IG: @andrey_kolbasin
