There are a select group of artists working around the world that approach the skin as a canvas and produce custom pieces that are more fitting in a fine art gallery than on a person’s back. Totally Dublin spoke with tattooist Shane Guerrini to see if he’d tattoo our name in Elvish on our inner wrist.
The aim of The Pigment Project is to create a publication and a photography exhibition which documents tattoo art. Care to elaborate?
Pigment is a collaborative project between some of Ireland’s top photographers, international tattoo artists and the clients who wear their bespoke works. The initial aim was to try and show the general community the level of talent in the tattoo industry, specifically the artists who come to our island and who would be better than incredibly talented photographers to depict it. Thankfully we have an abundance of extremely talented photographers in Ireland and we wanted to let them be creative in portraying the work as possible. In Dublin there is a really strong creative community but I have found that tattooing as an art form is not really acknowledged .I have spent the last few years working for Dublin Ink, travelling to conventions around Europe and approaching artists to come to Dublin. At this point we have 36 international guests which sort of set the scene for project.
I was at one of the Thread Magazine launches with a friend Kate Coleman [editor of LeCool] and, over a few beers, we decided we would get the project started. Unfortunately Kate was unable to continue with the project due to work restraints so I took it on myself to approach the photographers and continue the project. The first photographers I approached were Sean and Yvette, the response from the guys was super positive and a week or two later we were shooting the first of the nine artists. The fact that Sean and Yvette had already shot for the project really gave us the credibility that we needed. I continued to approach all the photographers explaining that the project was unfunded and that it was a project to get involved in literally to do something creative and new. Again the response was amazing most of the photographers I approached were delighted to get involved and were constructive in how to complete the project.
Eight months later once we had shot all of the artists and clients, I approached Shane O’Driscoll from ForTheLoveOf to come on board and complete Pigment. I had worked with Shane previously on a tattoo art exhibition called FTLO Perception and knew that he was the man to finish Pigment with! And that brings us to now I guess.
You have chosen a select group of photographers and tattoo artists. What differentiates them and why were they chosen?
The tattoo artists were chosen on artistic merit and the photographers were chosen exactly the same way. In both genres of art they are the cream of the crop, be it in Ireland, Europe or even in the world. I picked artists who I knew were doing incredible work, photography or tattoo art. You only have to spend five minutes looking at the contributors work to know that are all incredibly talented.
The project is a collaboration of many people including those who help fund the project. How will their contributions aid the project via the Fund:it page?
I think that these days it is extremely hard to walk around Dublin and see someone who doesn’t have a tattoo, so for this community to see art that they are obviously interested in (if their body is anything to go by) they would get involved! Same goes for photography, if you see a photographer that you know and like their work then obviously you would want to support and be directly involved in what they are doing. That is what fund it allows you to do, be a contributing factor in an idea and obviously we want this idea to go the distance.
Any contributions will go towards the publication printing costs and actual exhibition prints, as I said before this project isn’t something that any of us got involved in for money. This is just a group of people trying to do something creative, new and something that will resonate.
Do you hope to raise awareness within the modern day tattoo art and culture?
Yes, it’s definitely going to raise awareness. It will raise awareness in Ireland which is our goal; to go towards the general public and Irish creative community rather than reaching towards the tattoo. The hope is that tattoo art will be more recognised as a form of art (not just to the tattoo community) the artists who we have involved are global and in the tattoo industry everyone knows them, they are massive. It’s visual and it’s figurative it’s new and mostly it’s extremely good. As far as breaking down preconceived ideas of the art community all you need to do is look online, Tracey Emin’s My Bed just sold for over £2 million and if that is respected in the art community, how is this art form not?
As Dublin Ink is expanding ever so quickly do you have any future plans?
The Pigment Project is not necessarily a Dublin Ink project, although it is representative of artists that work there or have worked there. As far as the studio goes we just hit 100,000 fans on our page which massive for a small studio in Dublin or anywhere. We’ve always ran from our own steam. It proves if you put your head down you will go somewhere. If I invest my time into creating awareness for the tattoo industry broadly then it’s going to benefit every good tattoo studio in Dublin and in Ireland. It will bring tattoo art to the forefront and hopefully it will stay there for a while.
Pigment Exhibition launch takes place on Thursday 21st August at 6.30pm in The Library Project
Words: Seana Henry / Photo: Noel Bowler
