Hello guys (: Adding to all the the interesting interviews so far is Atana’s interview. Atanas is 21 years old. According to him he has 4 decent tattoos and one he does not consider as complete, I guess I can say he has 5 tattoos in total. All his tattoo are in black and white as he thinks that tattoos express more of a story and emotions like that.  According to him it is more appropriate for engraving the skin and leaving a message whereas colored tattoos are better for decoration.

He got his first three tattoos in Bulgaria. His first tattoo was made at the age of eleven with his parents. It is located on the right shoulder and consists of 3 symbols which are put together. On the one hand, the symbol refers to the Christian father, the Holy Ghost and the sun. Also, he has the element of live which is a famous sign ‘: the earth wind and see. This symbol has varying meanings in different religions. In Buddhism it means something different; it is a triad with no beginning or ending. He did it very spontaneous since he only thing he knew was that he wanted a tattoo with 11 but did not know what. Therefore he searched through catalogues with his parents.  When I asked why he was allowed to do a tattoo at such an early age he explained that everybody is tattooed in family and it is okay. His made his second tattoo at a later stage with sixteen.         


 He was growing up at that point in time and went through many different stages in his development. It started off with being a teenager and getting into high school and new social groups. Then he had a new social surrounding and friends and likings and styles and then h got back to tattoos.  He is really into symbols and their meanings which is why at the age of sixteen he spent a lot or preparation for it. He went to a tattoo artist and she designed his tattoo for him.  He and the artist spend a lot of time working on it together. They incorporated how she wanted it to look and how he wants to make it which resulted in a lot of drafts before they choose the design.                                                                                                                                                                                His third tattoo is a big project which resembles a combination of symbol into semiotics. He expresses his worldview with the symbols. It gives him motivation and strength. The different symbols are situated at the back between his shoulder blades. At the center of the piece is a big skull with four bones. On the left side of the skull is the White Pentagram; a five point star facing up. This symbol carries meaning as it is connected to his family believes he has been raised up with.  It also expresses the beliefs of the groups he was raised with. On the right of the skull is the combination of the sun and moon in one. This symbolizes the beginning and end, the light and dark and the old and new. Underneath the skull is a sand watch with angel wings. This signifies that times flies and you cannot control it in any way. Around different elements or symbols is a snake going around all elements. The snake symbolizes what goes around comes around; everything is in a continuous flow. On top of the skull is the all seen eye: Underneath the circle is the sentence ‘Sapientia Virtus Vires’ which means translated ‘Knowledge virtue of men’. It means that knowledge is a virtue. In the background are two daggers crossing. The daggers reflect his past interest into knives. This back piece took a total of 6 ½ hours. 

His forth tattoo was made 1 ½ years later when his brother was born. It is his brothers baby hand print with his name and date of birth around it on his left rip. He got this tattoo on his rips as his brother used to put his hand on the spot of the tattoo. When he looks at his rips he is thinking of his brother. Since he went abroad to study and work it is a reminder of his brother as he is carrying him with him.

The next tattoo is titled as the tattoo ‘which does not really count’. It was made in a rather drunk condition by his tattoo artist friend. They used her equipment after a party to tattoo him. However, the tattoo equipment did not function well which lead to the decision to do it only with the needle by hand. It ended up to be the letter ‘B.’ which is the first letter of his tattoo artist friend’s name. This tattoo reminds him of the crazy things he used to do.

After graduating and coming to Rotterdam he is his first piece on the arm. It is the word’ Revolution’ written with different lettering and symbols. Some of the symbol’s meaning originated from a song while others have a different meaning but overall bring positive energy.

Pain and body spots

When it comes to the pain of doing the tattoos he describes as climbing up a latter. It is also illustrated as therapeutic as he was prepared for the pain for the different tattoos. He went up the latter in the sense that he got the tattoos on more painful spots and the size of the tattoos increased
He chooses the spots on his body in the area of the back, shoulder, rips and arm for a reason. When he first made his tattoo he was not sure of his career choices at the time in the sense that he did not know where he is going.  Apart from that, he also wanted to leave the big body parts for bigger artist. He is also paying more for the tattoos and wants to get them done at different countries and places

How his surroundings perceives his tattoos

His nuclear family welcomed his tattoos whereas his grandparents had problems with it. They were concerned and guided by misconception to the extent that they see these things differently. They are more connected to the old stigma of tattoos that they are connected to more negative people and things. However, overall he did not have any problems with other people because of his tattoos. At the beach and in school he felt more looked at since he was the only person with tattoos but he never got any negative comments. Also, his older friends where partly older guys which had a lot of ink and tattoos. He beliefs that the they older guys were already in the tattoo culture so they liked Atanas tattoos. Moreover, they were into the tattoo culture and see the younger people being into it.

The act of doing tattoos

His tattoos are more a way for him of storytelling; different characters and pictures and a couple of symbols are chosen to tell it. In addition, he wants to do his tattoos not all at once since he wants to have fewer tattoos with larger amount of time in between. This allows him to be able to tell more stories in more time. Also, he always makes sure that his tattoos are well planned and conducts with a lot of patience; it is like a big project for him. He describes his tattoo as tattoo is a kind of a project in the sense that he works together with an artist and takes pictures together. It is a matter of building a a project together and working on it.  It is important for him to tell a story of his live, beliefs and feelings at that point in time with his tattoos. The main point that he makes is that we wants to have a proper reason behind his tattoos and therefore do it well thought out. All his tattoos are a kind of reminder and have and ideology behind it.  

Tattoos and perceptions

He beliefs that tattoos are getting more acceptable. This is also due to the media as they  appear in TV  cultures and are put into significance. Tattoos are starting to represent what tattoos are for they are representing personalities. Also cultures are getting globalized and technology as well as it helps with machines and designs. There is better technology and new ink offering new opportunities for the tattoo artists. However, on the other hand from his perspective tattoos is still something that is looked down upon, especially in older generations.

He thinks that people should not be judged because they do tattoos. If people do them in a wrong way they carry the consequences, they can only blame themselves that they did not put enough effort in their tattoos. He perceives tattoos as arts and arts should be good however people do them for different reasons.  Some people do it to follow the artist, for the work of the artist; it is not about  the ink put the arts. For him, tattooing and paying for tattoos is like paying a painting for a house. He emphasized that people do it for different reasons; some for meaning and others just as decoration. He stresses that for whatever reasons people do tattoos they are still carrying the consequences in the end.  However, he perceives tattoos are personal and that and society is judging.