An expert on realistic tattoos and globally recognized, George Mavridis gave HeartbeatInk an exclusive interview about his career and the art of the tattoo.
What impelled you to become a tattoo artist?
That’s a long story…When I started doing graffiti during my teens I was very annoyed that we had to go over each other’s work. That’s how graffiti artists work; we each go over the work of the other. Then I thought that I would like to do something that would be more permanent, that would be there forever. From then on it just happened to appear in front of me… I was younger and the older guys in my neighbourhood – the cool guys - would take me along because I liked drawing. I would draw on their arms with a pen and then I would do tattoos with small amateur tattoo guns. This got me hooked on becoming a tattoo artist.
When did you start doing tattoos? Was it during the 90s?
From 1996 to 1999 I was an amateur artist. In 1999 I opened my first studio called Cover Up along with a friend of mine, Andreas, in the Pasalimani area of Piraeus. I had just completed my national service in the Army. Soon after, I felt homesick and I wanted to return to my hometown. At the end of the same year I opened Magic Needles in the centre of Thessaloniki. Before you ask me about the name, I was young – 21 years old - and my sister gave me the idea when she said ‘magic needles’ in Greek. I kept that name until 2004 and then changed it to Tattooligans.
What inspired the name Tattooligans?
I was a little hooligan. When I was a kid I used to go to the home and away matches of the football team PAOK, long before I got my first tattoos… At some point in 2004, while I was watching the Greek National Team at the semifinal and final of the European Cup, I realized that I was sitting in the stands with the same people that I got into fights with. I saw that essentially we all believe in the same thing. So in my studio we may believe in different things but we all have a common denominator: the tattoo. We are the hooligans of tattoo: tattooligans.
In other words art unites. So, for you, is tattoo an art?
Only art. Beyond that it is also a way of life, but for me it is only art.
How did you learn?
I taught myself. Countless hours of work for many years. Of course even if you are self-taught there is no way that you haven’t been helped by someone at some stage of your development. Even just a comment from someone, even if it is negative, but well meant, is a help.
Petros Lambrou who is from Thessaloniki but works in Cyprus, when he worked at Magic Needles one summer, he told me three very serious things that I will never forget. ‘Stop doing lots of tattoos and trying to make money. Try to do one and do it well even if you get paid less and at the end of the day don’t go out for a coffee but stay and do more work on it’ which is what I did.
He also told me: ‘Stop talking so much. The more you talk the worse you get. Just draw’. Because many young guys who are into tattoos have a large mouth and are know-it-alls etc and I was one of them. Unfortunately, there always has been this stupid side to the tattoo scene. So at that point, it clicked and I thought what the hell am I on about, I’ve been at it for three years and I’m already judging. So I cut it out, came back down to earth and started drawing a lot.
And in the end he told me: ‘You have a big problem. I am not going to tell you what it is. I am just saying you have a big problem. If you have the brains to realise what it is and I think you are a guy who will, forget everything you are doing now and start learning it all from scratch. It’s different to the way you know it and you are doing it all wrong’. The moment he said all that I went crazy. I forgot it all and started learning it all from scratch with a lot of hard work and effort…. However I think that, even now, I am learning and evolving.
So even if you have arrived at a very high level, there is still room to evolve?
The evolution of the human kind in general never stops. It simply is slower and more gradual from one point onwards. It reaches a certain margin at some point and is slower. Meaning, if you unravel that which is inside you and concentrate, your evolution may be strong. In my case, when I started focusing solely on tattoos a few years ago, my evolution soared and reached its peak between 2009-2012. It wasn’t possible, previously, to dedicate myself to such an extent for clearly financial reasons. I had two jobs, the studio and a night job so I could make ends meet…
What happened exactly during the period between 2009-2012?
During the 3rd Athens International Tattoo Convention (2009), Pili Mo’o who was a judge at the competition told me: ‘You are very
good technically, you have an old-school technique but your tattoos are realistic’ and he urged me to go to Las Vegas to the Biggest Tattoo Show On Earth* and say that I have been nominated by him, to make sure that they would take me. And that’s what happened. That same year I won 3rd place in the colour category from about 1000 contestants…It was magic! I couldn’t believe it!
From that moment on, I went from working 12 hours a day to 15. I dedicated my life exclusively to tattoos. Colours, needles, tattoo guns and all of us here at the studio were one big family. We travelled together, gave all our money, tattoos all day long. There is a lot of effort to it other than just being able to draw. You need patience, people who can work together as one so as to have a common goal. We all helped each other; they helped me and I helped them.
The thing is that after taking part about 50 different times I got tired and so did the guys. But we accomplished what we went there to accomplish. I mean everyone became well known, not just me. Nowadays I choose to go to 4 - 5 tattoo conventions a year and I don’t necessarily compete unless I have a piece I think deserves to go on stage.
How has your realistic style ended up?
I do and dig realistic tattoos. Now I like bringing out more feelings and atmosphere in my realistic tattoos. It doesn’t really matter to me to make it ‘real’ but to make it thematic. As far as I know, I am one of the first in the tattoo scene to start doing thematic tattoos. I mean, scenario-location. Just like a movie, I start with a face and through the face will emerge a specific thought and that thought will create something else and so on. Entire stories evolve through the design.
How do you see the level of tattoos in Greece?
The artistic level is very high in Athens and Thessaloniki. In my opinion, in Athens Proki, Ozone, Betty, Luca and Sake are very good and from the “older” generation Mike the Athens, Yorg and Vasso. In Thessaloniki, which is also a city full of art, Kostas Tzikalagias, Alex Gotza, Nikos Katsoulis (he has a long history with the art of tattoos in Greece), Thomas Gramm, Live2, Agios, Nast and Dovas are very good.
What do you have to say about the tattoo scene and the size of it today?
The fact that today you can have a tattoo without shocking people is positive. It used to be that you would not only have trouble in the workplace but you would also be denied entry to some nightclubs and bars, whereas now you go and you are cool. I like the fact that people, young people, want to get tattoos and I am glad that I am a part of that.
However everything has its positive and its negative side. The bad thing is that the tattoo is not perceived properly by most people. When 10 people with tattoos come into my studio and 9 of them want correcting, that confirms that there is no cultural education. Also, as for the artists, they should only do what they are good at. Everyone has the right to art, but you have to show respect. You find a scene prepared by people who have labored hard. Don’t violate what others have started before you. You were born and found it all prepared. You want to do tattoos? Come along, have your phase, but respect this art. You have to have ethics and be conscientious.
*George Mavridis went to the Biggest Tattoo Show on Earth again the next year (2010) and won first class awards, one of which was the Best of Show award which he won again in 2012 at the same tattoo convention. Between 2009-2012 George Mavridis has won about 100 awards from taking part in top tattoo conventions around the world.
Photos & interview by Ino Mei.
