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

TAIOM, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

What keeps me excited about tattooing is that it’s a never-ending learning process. Even though I’ve been tattooing since 2003, I’m still thrilled by this craft and how it continues to be exciting and remains powerful. I learn from friends, clients, and coworkers every day, ever since I started doing it at home in Brasília. One time, a friend told me that to tattoo, you should drop ink and push it into the skin with a needle, so I tried it at home with China ink and a sewing needle, and those dots are still here on my knee, haha!

Back in those days, finding information about tattooing in Portuguese was quite challenging. So, it pushed me to learn other languages and travel abroad to meet people and see how they do it. Tattooing is an ancient technique with many different ways to do it. The more you can see other artists doing, the better for you to find clues to your own way. Researching the history of tattooing was really helpful to me in getting a wider notion of what’s important when marking bodies for life. That’s how I could go deeper and question many “why,” “how to,” and “maybe if” through the way. This curiosity, allied to a bit of rebellious experimentation, taught me what tattoos are all about, so it’s the most essential skill as I see it.

TAIOM, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I grew up in Belém, a metropolis in the Amazon region, located in the north of Brazil. Surrounded by bold nature and rich in native culture, it was where I discovered my passions for drawing and skateboarding, two interests that are closely tied to what I do today. After moving with my family to the modernist capital of Brasília, I became immersed in the urban culture of the 2000s, which involved cruising the streets on my skateboard, attending hardcore/punk concerts, and leaving my mark through stickers, tags, and graffiti. It was this DIY environment that led me to tattooing, coinciding with my enrollment in the Visual Arts program at the University of Brasília. I was fully immersed in both tattooing and art until my graduation in 2011, which included a research project linking tattoos and graffiti as marks on individual and collective bodies. Since then, I have been traveling and working around the world, focusing on custom projects and developing my own drawing style.

I am currently deeply involved in creating large-scale tattoo concepts that incorporate abstract shapes, lines, and textures designed to flow with a variety of body types while embracing each individual’s uniqueness. My goal is to collaborate with clients to create powerful visuals for their bodies that translate their concepts and values into wearable designs that are both comfortable and meaningful for life.

Another project I have been working on for the last few years is a drawing series called “visagens”. These drawings can be tattooed but are also suitable for paintings, prints, and zines. They are intimate and existential in nature, created in a simple and raw way, much like a draft of thoughts that can be difficult to express. It is incredibly rewarding when people connect with my drawings and bring me a deeper understanding of their meaning.

I view my art process as a dialogue where the media provides answers to things that were unclear to me before. It is amazing to share this process with my clients and extend the conversation beyond the studio. I like to reflect on the practice of tattooing and how it overflows to other areas of life and I’ve learned a lot from this exchange with people.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

To me, tattooing is much more than just ink on skin. It’s about building human relationships, making connections, and communicating our existence as individuals and communities. I’m deeply intrigued by the reasons why we choose to mark our bodies, the origins of this desire, and the limitless range of possible answers to these questions are so exciting. I look at tattoos as a powerful energy that moves us to transform ourselves and connect with others, so l strive to investigate these ideas in my own way. I hope to keep collaborating with folks that also understand their bodies as social and political entities, using their own visuality as a statement for their beliefs and values, empowering themselves and their communities.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

As a tattoo artist, I cannot work alone. Tattooing requires another person to be present, and building a relationship based on trust and respect is the most crucial part of my creative process. I am grateful for all the people I have tattooed over the last 20 years, and I deeply appreciate all that I have learned from them. Those experiences have inspired and motivated me to study and develop my craft, so I intend to give back to the community through my art.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.taiom.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/taiomvct/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/taiomvct

Image Credits
Luísa Dalé Silva