GALERIE SCHIPPER	im	INTERDRUCK
Tobias Werner :: Index
The collapse of the wall of Berlin and the unification of East and West Berlin happened in 1989. In 80's, West Berlin reminded "Nina Hagen", which had something dark image like underground. On the other hand, East Berlin didn't seem to provide any information about their culture. In the beginning of 90's, I dropped in Berlin on business. I felt Berlin was a healthy culture compared to Tokyo and London. I also went to East Berlin. It seemed that it had no culture with many souvenir shops. However, Berlin is very famous for Techno and Electro Metropolitan now. Also, Berlin is becoming the center of TATTOO in Europe, behind such an image. Every year, many TATTOO Artists from each European country participate to TATTOO convention and it is a great success. (I really want to go there.) Tobias said there are about 140 (!) TATTOO shops in Berlin now and a half of them is in former East Berlin. When he opened his shop in 1994, there were only three TATTOO shops in East. (At that time, the population in Berlin didn't increase so much, though.) He was not surprised at that dramatic increase of TATTOO shops, but also he thought it was because the quality of craftsmanship improved in Berlin. It must be the point of the Germany artisan view. Tobias is now 33 years old and a very popular artist with 7 years career after his independence. His works have European or Germanic taste with a traditional TATTOO as sacred Heart. They sense Cubism and Russian avant-garde with changes of the wide of lines. (It would be cool if you got TATTOO "RED STAR" by him.) Moreover, there are some works that create an atmosphere like illustrations of 30's and 40's. He became a TATTOO artist by chance. Because TATTOO was illegal in former East German, and even many prisoners or sailors didn't have TATTOO. At first, Tobias studied TATTOO by himself with his own skin and then with his friend's skin. (Later, he covered some mistakes for them.) After the collapse of Berlin's wall, he also learnt it from many artists who he met on his travel. However, he thinks he wouldn't have spent a lot of time and had troubles, if he had trained. He has kept many regular customers with his companion even in Berlin where are a lot of TATTOO shops. Some of them are from Spain and Italy. Tobias complies with demands of his customers, but he puts a great deal of effort into his original design. And he thinks it makes differences from other general shops with an assembly line. Recently, he has adored Stephan Chaudesaigues. When Tobias went to France, he had TATTOO by him and learnt a lot from him. Tobias hasn't exhibited his works to TATTOO convention, even though he lives in Berlin. He thinks he will be too busy once he exhibits his work. By the way, his girlfriend, Simone (professional cameraman) doesn't have any TATTOO. He said it's not easy to find someone who doesn't have any TATTOO and they are very conspicuous. END Japanese Text on Bughouse Tattoo:
	:::  KÜNSTLER  ::  AKTUELL  ::  ARCHIV  ::  GALERIE  ::  KONTAKT  ::  LINKS  :::
Datum/Date:	::: STARTSEITE :::	::: BACK :::