Lights. Camera. Ink?
Tattoo perfection inspired by great movies; an explanation and exploration.
It’s Friday night, I’m out with my mates and the drinks are flowing. The good times are rolling. But then, without thinking, I roll up my sleeves. D’oh! The questions begin. All present can see amazing tattoos lining my arms and before I know it, I’m having the same conversation for the one hundredth time this week. Not that I don’t enjoy talking about tattoos. It’s just I’ve had this one so many times before…
I guess that is what got me to write this article. See, the conversation always follows the same predetermined pattern; one that is unmoving in its exchange. It goes, without fail, like this. What are those tattoos? Why did you get them? Who did them? Would he tattoo me?
What are those tattoos? Well, they are many images on my skin now, thanks to the wonderfully talented and all around amazing tattoo artist, Kamil Waiter (everyone calls him Dero, so I will from now on too.) Mostly, my tattoos are about films, or history or something else that is very important to me. And then the explanation follows on about each individual one.
General Jack D. Ripper from Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove. Animal Mother from Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket. Barry Lyndon from Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon. Seeing a pattern here? Yes, I adore Stanley Kubrick films. But that’s just the left arm. My love of film spreads to my right arm too with another portrait of Lord Hidetora Ichimonji from Akira Kurosawa’s film, Ran. There’s even a portrait of the man responsible for the music that always plays alongside my writing; Ludwig Van Beethoven. And then the explanations begin.
Sadly, not a lot of people have seen all of these wonderful films, or listened to the music either. Sure, one or two will have seen maybe one or the other. But all of them? Unlikely. This makes the following explanations seem somewhat shallow; until you have seen the film or heard Ode to Joy, it’s a pretty hard thing to understand. But rest assured, I do try. I normally say something like this: ‘Each portrait is about catching a moment in a film that changed the way I looked not only at the film, but also at life in general.’ That may sound lofty, and I suppose it is, but it’s how I felt at the time. I still do.
Artistically, it’s the most passionate and permanent thing I can do in salute to these moments. Whether it’s the utterly unforgettable Jack D. Ripper’s precious bodily fluids rant; one where I shuddered to see a little bit of that madman in myself. Or whether it’s Animal Mother’s crazy charge through enemy fire – after telling his so called comrades exactly how he felt about them; that sheer honesty and insane courage really captured my mind. Or even if it’s Barry Lyndon, smashing a glass off the face of the man who has stolen his heart’s desire; that complete contempt for authority and unreasoning love made me shake my head, safe in the knowledge that I maybe one day I could do exactly the same thing.
Or maybe even the moment in Ran where Lord Ichimonji realises that two of his own sons have betrayed him and that the rest of his family has been killed and that his rule is at an end; when one realises at the same time, that life is oh so fleeting, and that chaos really does reign at some points in our lives. Ran (or ‘chaos’ in the Japanese translation) reminds me of it every day, standing not only as wonderful work of art and epic piece of film, but as a warning of what to expect from life.
But all these explanation are hard to put into spoken words and it’s only if the person has a mind like my own – one where movies are placed at the very centre of how one views the world and themselves – that a viewer can begin to get an understanding of what motivates someone to get a tattoo. So not only are the portraits I proudly wear on my skin a salute, an homage and a kind of mark of respect; they are all of them, a piece of movie history that is carved into my skin, lest I forget and fail to head the warnings placed therein.
Of course, it’s quite difficult to say all of this at the bar. But hopefully now, dear reader, will have a better understanding of why we tattooed people do the things we do. Going through pain, turmoil and spending a disproportionate amount of time and resources decorating ourselves the way we do. All I can say is that for those who have not tried getting a tattoo; before you run away in fear or have your judgement clouded by preconceptions, please, don’t surrender to such temptations until you have undergone the path of the needle. Maybe then you would get a better understanding of it.
Perhaps this revolutionary idea is best summed up by what one of my best mates said at the end of the evening; ‘I totally hated tattoos before I saw your ones. Now…it’s got me thinking about one of my own.’ Because that’s what truly great art does to people; inspires them. And, if nothing else, my tattoos inspire me on a daily basis.
But what about the other question? Would he tattoo me? Dero has done all of my tattoos. He has been tattooing now for just over ten years; and yes you have guessed it, his speciality is producing high quality black and white portraits. He can reproduce on your skin just about anything you care to imagine or show him. But it’s unforgettable portraits that he loves doing the most. Dero is currently working at a studio in our very own Edinburgh, called Plus 48 tattoos, located in the St. James Centre. As for getting him to tattoo you? You will just have to drop by and ask him…
