We were lucky to catch up with Giacomo Russo recently and have shared our conversation below.

Giacomo, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Are you happier as a creative? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job? Can you talk to us about how you think through these emotions?

Everyday I ask to myself how would it been to have a regular job. In my case my passion/job take me most of the time of the day. I usually say I work 24h because even when I sleep, I dream art, tattooing and everything about my work. I think when people has a regular job is less stressfull because after they finish, they have the rest of the day for follow their things

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m a professional tattoo artist from Napoli (Italy), I was 16yo when I made my first step in the tattoo industry. I remember when I went to school, I always thought about the tattoo artists and the tattoo world. I started in that period to draw and trying to understand how the machine worked. I had a very bad attitude in that period because of friendship and people around me. My focus was to be rebel and nothing else. Growing in tattoo world saved my mind and my attitude of course.
During the years I had so much difficult with my shop because I was too young to approach this world, but my discipline got me strong enough to go on.
A day I was in the shop thinking about what was wrong with the shop, I start to think about the clients and why they didn’t choose me like artist. The answer was extremely easy, because my level was too low for styles where I wasn’t prepared. So I started to hire new professional tattoo artist with their style, and the shop step by step go on the top. I’m talking about the beginning, actual we enjoy tattoo conventions around the world and we win a lot of awards for our works.
I’m proud of us because we are like a family, we work together, go out together, we are not collegues, we are brothers and sisters. We are about 18 in the shop, each of them with their style and their attitude. It’s amazing.
That’s why I called my shop “Mentality Tattoo Shop” because we are all different people but everybody with only one mentality

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I lived the last years to find something that get me recognizable in my style. After a very bad period I lived something like a rebirth. I felt in my self a sensation like I was rebuilding my soul. I thought why don’t put this feeling in my project? And after that I enjoy to get this feeling in the drawing project

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

I want to talk about tik toker tattoo artist. In these days tattooers are working on that platform for promote theirselves. I totally disagree their choice because they forget the meanings of being a tattoo artist. They are more like clowns who ridicule themselves to sell more tattoos. We are artist, we live for art and tattooing, we need to let our soul go out with tattooing, not with tik tok clown things.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.mentalitytattoo.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/giacomorusso_tattoo
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/GiacomoRussoTattoo94/