Name: ADRIAAN MACHETE
Age: 30
Location: BERLIN
What attracted you to tattooing?
I've been creating stuff since I'm a kid, drawing, making altars, and when some friends of mine were tattoo artists in Mexico city I was fascinated of the mix of art and taboo.
How did you get into the industry?
It took me some years of learning how to illustrate and I practiced making tattoos on friends, then one day everything happened so fast. A German magazine reporter asked me for an article and after that, people knew my work and I got more and more costumers and I got more articles in other countries magazines which helped me a lot for people knowing my art.
Was it hard to find an apprenticeship?
I had the good luck to had an amazing tattoo artist friend who taught me the basics, so I could learn in no time.
How many years have you been tattooing?
6 years
What inspires you?
Mexican iconography, art noveau and Alfons Mucha, renaissance paintings and sculptures, morbid symbolisms, tarot, numerology.
Who are your favourite tattoo artists?
Kerry Anne Richardson, Håkan Lugnetefterstormen, Chris Conn Askew, Jasmin Austin.
How would you describe your tattoo style?
A mix of beautiful and macabre, women, animals and symbols celebrating life and death in a Mexican neo traditional style...
What have you learned in your years in the industry?
That tattooing is constantly reinventing itself, there's no limit of creativity, which makes me nervous, happy and continuously pushing myself to create..
What advice do you have to people considering careers in tattooing?
Follow your heart and soul and trust in your own art.
What are some of the best things you have experienced as a result of your career?
Travelling and discover new cities and people, developing as an artist and as a creativity soul, finding out that nobody knows the exact truth and nothing is impossible in life and art. Everybody of us will die one day, why not make the best out of our lives.
Where do you currently tattoo?
Machete Death Gallery
Boxhagenerstr.81
10247 Berlin
