Hello, my name is Charles Huurman.
I'm the owner and a tattoo artist in Utopian Tattoo Tribe in Valencia, Spain.
Well the reason why I wanted to become a tattoo artist is because I wanted to
live off something I would actually do for free.
The only thing I would enjoy doing for free was painting and drawing
so soon enough I found a good reason for doing it on peoples' skin.
The first tattoo I ever did was a real fuck up...
It was basically a cover-up of a tribal in the ribs
so you can just imagine how that went for our first tattoo
like of course I couldn't finish it.
Well my style has had like a great evolution over the years
because I actually started being a dotwork artist
after that I transitioned to realism
and basically I would say that I am not a realist anymore
I call it abstract realism or avant-garde.
With avant-garde, what I am trying to say is that I try to create new things every time
so it's normally like something realist with something abstract.
Well the tattoo artists that have inspired me the most
basically, I would say have been Csaba Muller, Nikko Hurtado and Dmitriy Samohin.
Basically, Csaba Muller, he's just like a creator
like doing something realistic with something randomly crazy.
Now we see it a lot, but when he was doing it, it was new.
And then with Dmitriy Samohin, it's just that level of perfection and how professional he is
how hard he works, so definitely that's a big inspiration.
Well my first tattoo, OK, my first tattoo I got when I was 16 years old.
Basically I walked into a beauty salon
where they had like a signpost outside that they did tattoos
so I got a tattoo that's now somewhere underneath all this black.
And anyway, good experience.
Well my conclusion would be that it's not something any artist should do.
Basically it's like two full-time jobs.
They're not compatible.
I'm still trying to figure it out, so I find it like a real big juggle, definitely
being a tattoo artist and owner of a tattoo studio.
Initially I opened a small studio in Kilkenny, in Ireland
and when it was time to grow bigger, we were going to do it in Dublin
but as I grew up and was born and raised in Valencia, in Spain
something made me change my mind, just pure intuition
and man, do the big studio here in Valencia, in Spain.
I would say that my favourite tattoo has been a back piece I did on my buddy Roy from Limerick, Ireland
just because it was complete freedom, it was a really, really creative piece
and because he was a good friend.
Basically portraits. I love portraits.
The only thing is I like to mix them with something artistic.
So currently I've been mixing them with abstract things
something like a hyper-realistic face with something abstract, for me, is like yin yang
like the perfection of reality plus the craziness of abstract.
Now I'm currently wanting to do the same but with hyper-realism and neo-traditional elements.
Well the advice I would give to apprentices starting out in tattooing
it will be definitely two things, like work 10 times more than everybody else
and spend like 70, 80 percent of your time designing and 20 percent tattooing.
So basically you do that, you'll always try to do the best possible tattoo
and not only a good tattoo, but the best possible tattoo - the difference between those two things is huge.
So if you do that, you'll just have to work hard day-by-day and you'll become really successful.
Well the seminars I'm running and taking part in
I actually do them in a selfish way.
Why do I do them? Because I actually get to learn from the other artists doing the seminar
and from the students who come to the seminar.
So it's not seminars of learning how to tattoo
it's basically seminars of techniques.
Let's say for example we invite an artist who specialised in Japanese tattooing
well I can ask him all the questions and all the explanations of how he develops his art.
Or let's say it's a dotwork artist or let's say...
It's surprising how much we learn from each other in the seminars
because we we are in the right conditions and the right setup
just to learn and ask questions from each other.
Well I find that having high-quality tattoo artists in my studio
is actually like something that really benefits my motivation
because every time I am happy with my work, I think I am doing really, really good
some new artist comes and shows me that I can do much better, basically
so I would have to say that the high level of artists in my studio, the common guests and residents
is a real big motivator for me.
So today was a real fun tattoo I did.
I basically did Pinhead from the film 'Hellraiser'
and for me it was like really, really inspiring tattoo because it had so much detail.
Basically the face is divided into all small squares
each square with a different texture, with different shadows, with different things on it.
So basically it was a bit of a challenge to do it in one day
but the client was awesome and he sat down like a champ so we did it.
Well my favourite horror series or horror movie...
Well I actually have to think harder.
So because I'm actually... I would have to say Freddy Krueger.
I mean it just brings childhood memories, so it's just about memories for me.
For me the best part of Halloween is that it's the day after my birthday.
So, no seriously, the best part of Halloween is just that people get to dress up in costumes
get up to have fun and it's an excuse just for people to get together.
What I like about horror style is the energy.
I like to do tattoos that are eye-catching and that people see from a distance
and that stick on your mind.
So basically for me with horror tattoos is the power of it, you know like it remains in your brain.
So just powerful images.
It brings up all, it wakens up all our instincts of survival.
Thanks very much for watching.
It's a real pleasure for me that you took a bit of your time to look at my work.
Like as an artist it's what I want to do, to show my work.
So thanks very much and happy Halloween, hope you get loads of candy
and hope you're safe!