Hi guys, I'm José González from Marbella, Spain.
I work at Ink-In Tattoo.
Here we are at the Barcelona Convention having a good time with our colleagues.
What I like the most about working at a convention in my country is probably the language.
I don’t speak English very well
but I really like any convention. I really enjoy them.
I like many styles, but it is true that horror is particularly...
I like it more for the amount of textures it has
and the truth is that I have a lot of fun doing this type of work.
I enjoy colour very much, it has a lot...
since it is necessary to change colours so many times, it is very entertaining.
It is very fun for me, but I do not dislike any...
I do not have a preference for colour or for black and grey
I have fun with all of them.
What's up guys? I'm Nikki Simpson and I'm from New York City in the United States
and I'm here at the Barcelona Tattoo Expo.
This is my first time doing this expo
and I absolutely love it.
I've never been in one room with all of my favourite tattooers
all here at the same time.
The calibre of the tattooing here is just amazing.
You can walk down any row and find some of the most
incredible tattoo artists in the world.
And not only do we do conventions in the US, but we do them here in Europe
and even though the US is something I'm very used to with conventions and all that
I know all the US conventions like the back of my hand
the difference here is quality of quantity, I think.
In the US there's so many tattooers
and that's amazing because it's getting so many people a chance to be a part of this
but here it's very selective
the artists are just top notch, top tier
and Europe is all about fine art, it originated here
and you can see it in all of the tattooing
and I've never been more inspired in my entire life.
This has been a life-changing weekend for me.
Hello, my name is Carlos Fabra, from CosaFina Tattoo, here in Barcelona
and I am very happy to participate in the Barcelona Convention again.
It is my fourth or fifth year here
and the truth is that for me it is very important to be able to represent my studio in my city, to be honest.
Yes, as I say, I think this is a very important convention here in Europe, the most important in Spain.
Having the honour to participate in it is something very important for me
and it helps boost my business and showcase my work around here.
Without a doubt, this is my favourite convention in Spain.
It is also among my favourite ones in Europe because there are many visitors.
The level of international tattoo artists present is very high and it is very well organised.
Well, coincidentally today I'm also doing a Dragon Ball tattoo.
I introduced myself with Dragon Ball tattoos at the Barcelona convention only two years ago
and I believe my recognition skyrocketed thanks to that.
Besides, I love doing these tattoos because thanks to Dragon Ball
I learned to draw when I was a child
and I believe that it is one of my favourite themes out of everything I do.
I practiced a lot before focusing on black and grey
and basically it is because I understand the shades of grey better than colour shades.
I find it much more difficult to understand what colour types to choose when working.
On the other hand, black and grey are much easier for me to understand
and it takes much less time working in black and grey than working in colour.
My way of working is quite fast
while colour slows everything down and makes me feel a bit more overwhelmed.
The secret to getting a clean black and grey tattoo is to spend a lot of time on saturation.
Try to make the shadow as little dotted as possible
and saturate the ink area a lot.
When it comes to details, I believe that many people know how to work well with black and grey
but to stand out you need to do something special.
I try to make my designs much more detailed than perhaps the ones done by other people
and I try that in the designs I make.
The designs are more important than the technique basically
because it is very complicated to do a beautiful tattoo
but with a good technique it can be achieved.
However, doing a tattoo with an elaborate design requires some prior creativity
which is what I like to focus on.
It is very complicated to manage your own studio
and to find a balance between living and achieving the concentration an artist needs
so a right-hand man is always needed. In my case, this person is my wife, my show manager.
Her name is Tania, and thanks to her I can focus on what I have to be focused on, which after all, is designing
putting in the hours that each design needs
and she's the one in charge of all the other more administrative parts.
She does a little more paperwork, she handles the clients and the most serious part of the business.
Thank you very much, and I hope you enjoy the Barcelona Tattoo Convention!