MURKADO

What motivated you to get into tattooing in the first place?

• What motivated me was seeing the lack of Black tattoo artists, not only in the city but in the province as a whole; I feel like a lot of artists are inexperienced with tattooing Black skin.

When and how did you decide to become a tattoo artist?

• I got into tattooing in July of 2020 after an old coworker offered me to take his old and barely used tattoo equipment. Since then, I’ve tattooed myself and my partner a few times, along with many others in the community.

As someone just starting out, how have you been learning? Do you have any mentors that you’ve been learning from?

• I brought all of my questions to a close friend of mine, who works at a parlour. I’ve been able to witness his own come up in the tattoo industry as a Black man.

• Aside from him, I read and watch videos on tattooing and DM random artists for a little bit of advice. I’ve never had a mentor in this medium.

How did you develop your style of tattooing?

• I think my style comes from how illustrative my work already is. I like drawing things that could almost be like stickers and have really been fascinated on bold lines because of how they look from a distance.

Have you done more custom designs or more of your flash designs on clients?

• I think I’ve done a solid 50/50 split in regards to doing custom designs and my own flash to be honest.

What is your working process like when someone pitches you an idea for a tattoo? How do you go about creating the final design?

• When someone pitches me an idea, I try my best to ask them for references, so that I can have some sort of imagery in my head of what they want.

• Then I try and redraw multiple versions of what they sent and put them together in my own way. Sometimes I like to have conversations with clients as I draw their design over time, in case I think that things may change. Hearing their input is important.
  

Have you ever refused a design idea from someone and vice versa? Are there any types of tattoos that you would refuse to do?

• Yes I have haha. There’s some designs that folks have pitched me which didn’t really resonate with my own style and ways of going about work.

• I’ll never do infinity signs, small cursive script or any other type of work like that. It’s nothing against those types of tattoos or the people who can and have done these tattoos before, it’s just that I don’t want to do it, haha.

What are some types of designs that you enjoy doing or would like to try doing more of in the future?

• I’m a really big fan of drawing and designing hannyas and tigers to be honest. They really resonate with me in a weird way.

• I’d love to learn how to tattoo dragons and larger works, but that does require a bit more research. I want to play and combine traditional Japanese-style tattooing, along side my own street style of tattooing.

Are there any tattoo artists out there that inspire you?

• Yeah there’s a few that inspire me a lot. First off, the homie who gave me big pointers at first is @g5ink.

• A few more that actively inspire me are @andremalcolm_tattoo, @zantoru, @brody_polinsky, @jills_nipples, @horitomo_stateofgrace, @tattooluckyone, @friendsofyourenemies, @oscarhove and so many more.

Do you remember what your first tattoo was?

• My first tattoo was the word “ILLMATIC” on my left thigh when I was 19.

• It has a surplus of meaning to me, on top of Illmatic being one of my favourite tapes of all time. I don’t remember who the artist was, but it was in some shop in North Van.

How many tattoos do you currently have?

• I currently have 16 tattoos.

How do you decide on what type of tattoo design(s) to get prior to booking an appointment?

• Oh man that’s a tough one to answer, cuz sometimes it’s impulsive and sometimes it’s cuz I had the idea in my head months or even years prior to getting them. It’s random if anything.

What type of tattoo styles have you gotten done on yourself?

• It’s hard to define their exact styles because I have text and a graffiti tag on myself.

• I do have an American / Japanese traditional tiger on my arm, but I also have another tiger on my chest done in a style that I can’t put into words, done by @zantoru.

Do any of your tattoos hold any personal meaning to you that you’d like to share?

• The only one l’ll share that holds the least significance to me (which in turn holds the most) are the three 0’s on my left arm: an Angel number. It looks cool to me.

• I’ve never really resonated with any numbers, so it felt like the most appropriate digits to give myself, like some bar-code type shit.

What were some of the most painful spots to get tattooed for you?

• So far, the most painful was my ankle, which is actually one of my smaller tattoos haha. It’s right on the bone, it hits different.

Has having tattoos had any impact in your personal life?

• Tattoos have played a huge role in my self-esteem and insecurities by a lot I think.

• I never went out of my way to hide my tattoos from my family and they’ve also grown to understand that it’s a part of my nature to get tattooed. I came from an immigrant Haitian Christian household at the time of some of my first tattoos.

Do you have any favourite tattoos?

• My favourite tattoos that I have on myself are the three 0’s and the tiger on my chest.