Our guest today comes from Greece. I must confess, when I first saw Evan’s pictures, I couldn’t help but think about heroes, ancient Greek myths, and the music style of the band – “Occult Heavy Metal / Progressive Heavy Metal” - it gave me food for thought about the pantheon of gods. If you think so too, have a listen to the latest release of the band – ‘Towards the Damned’ which was released on December 7th, 2019. But let’s get back to our main topic - tattoos.Reflections of Darkness [RoD]: When did you get your first tattoo and what was it? Did it take much time until you decided to get it done?
Evan: My first tattoo was the tornado clock representing time travel, it’s part of my Donnie Darko 1/2 sleeve, I can’t say that it took much time to decide what I wanted since it’s one of my favorite movies, maybe it took some time to decide how I wanted the time travel concept to be illustrated.
RoD: How many tattoos do you have? Could you please tell us their story?
Evan: I currently have 12 tattoos. Some of them have a meaning but not all of them have interesting stories. The small phrase “bleak fears” on my chest is the story of my personal struggle with generalized anxiety disorder, so getting this tattoo done was part of letting go of the stage of denial of my mental disorder. I also have a funny one, many people ask me what the hell the number 43 on my forearm means, the answer is that it means nothing at all, we were drinking at a friend’s house who happens to be a tattoo artist and I don’t know why but I started doing this sketch of the number 43 and I told my friend to ink me up, lucky me that’s not as embarrassing as the tattoo that our other friend got, he got the word WORTH in the toes of his right foot with a small penis drawn inside the letter O. Coolest tat ever!
RoD: Have you already got all the tattoos that you wanted or will you get some new ones in the future?
Evan: I’m planning to do plenty more and I can tell you for sure that I will get a big Neon Genesis Evangelion tattoo, it’s my all-time favorite anime and a true pop-culture treasure.
RoD: Have all your tattoos been done by one tattoo artist or by different ones? How do you choose the tattoo artist? In addition, who draws your sketches?
Evan: My tattoos are being done by different artists depending on what kind of tattoo I want to get, some of the sketches were done by the tattoo artists, and for the portraits we just used photos.
RoD: Getting tattooed hurts, how do you cope with the pain during the sessions?
Evan: Deal with the fact that it’s going to hurt and mentally prepare for it, carefully choose the body part in which the tattoo will be placed, some body parts hurt much more than others, take a pain reliever 30 minutes before getting the tattoo done but be sure to get acetaminophen aka paracetamol cause some others like aspirin will make your blood thinner and will make you bleed more during the session, be sure that you don’t go on an empty stomach cause you might get dizzy and also bring a candy bar or something with you to eat during a break and DO NOT DRINK ALCOHOL before or during the session.
RoD: Do you regret getting tattooed sometimes?
Evan: F*** no!
RoD: What is your taboo in terms of tattoos? What kind of tattoo would you never get done and don’t like to see on other people?
Evan: I hate nationalist, fascist and generally tattoos that contain hateful ideology and hate speech.
RoD: Some people say that the drive to acquire body art is addictive while others say it fails to meet the true definition of an addiction, simply calling it a passion. Is it really impossible to stop?
Evan: Tattoos aren’t addictive according to the clinical definition of addiction. Addiction is a pattern of substance use or behavior that can’t be easily controlled so I would say that body art is simply a passion, it’s easy to stop getting inked, and I personally haven’t had anything done on me the past two years.
RoD: Currently, tattoos are a new trend; many people do not care about the meaning, they just want to have something coloured on the skin, to be in trend. Those people often just go into a tattoo salon and ask which drafts they have. Tattoo artists are not artists any more, they produce consumer goods. Not all of them, of course. How do you feel about this situation?
Evan: Well I can certainly tell how you feel by the way you formed the question (just messing with you, lol). Tattoos are body decoration, not every design needs a special meaning. Tattoo salons always had drafts, you can’t always depend on your creativeness. Musicians play covers for money, directors do movie remakes, etc. and tattoo artists sometimes just ink the skin without creating a new design.
RoD: I would like to talk about the social aspect of tattoos, too. Previously, many people believed that if you have a tattoo, you will be never be successful and will not find a “good” job. Have this state of mind and people’s perceptions changed or are these prejudices still alive?
Evan: It may sound cliché but I don’t think that people’s perception has completely changed over that matter, it has gotten better for sure though. I think that nowadays it’s more of on which body part you have a tattoo and what kind of tattoo it is, I don’t think that many people would hire a person with face tattoos but I think that almost everyone would hire someone with a 1/2 sleeve tattoo.
RoD: Which advice would you give to people who are going to get their first tattoo? How to choose a tattoo artist? Colour or black and white? Any practical advice?
Evan: My advice would be that they have to find the style they like and be sure of the size of the tattoo. The Internet has made it easier to choose a tattoo artist because you can just visit their social media and see the artist’s work. People who want colorful tattoos have to keep in mind that they must take real good care of it and always use sunscreen cause UV rays will make colors fade faster than black, having black and grey tattoos doesn't mean that you don't have to take care of them though.
Links
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SerpentLordband/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/serpent.lord_band/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1hHrzew1A9UfDntvOzVM6g
Project by Daria Tessa and Daniela Vorndran, Interview by Daria Tessa
Pictures by Chelf Creations
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