Florencio Rojas about Tattoo compositions

Certainly one of the prominent  high-ranking tattooers in Europe right now. Florencio Rojas deeply inspired by older generation masters, qualifies to inspire the older generation back. Even younger generations are talking about him. I was happy to interview the Argentinian who is happily living in the city of Eindhoven, Netherlands at the moment.

In the interview with Gordon Claus, renowned tattooer with almost 30 years experience Florencio talks about technical issues, psychology and diverse interests crossing the range over the paranormal activity.

You can partly read a great deal of the interview here, however you can read it completelyby ordering the issue 43 at http://Www.Tattoo-kulture.com

Moving into the new age of technology and consumption and main stream, there are however some people that stand strong and follow the  forefathers paths . One of these people is Florencio Rochas. Let’s check out his visible hard work and endless passion for the craft.

At this moment he’s one of Europe’s hot names in the under and overground.

Florencio, after seeing countless pictures of your unusual work in the Internet, it’s kind of time to find out more about what’s behind the myth, of which, a lot of insiders are talking about.

Please resume your story so far.

I was born in humble family with 2 brothers and 1 sister in 1984 in Pinamar a little town from the coast of Buenos Aires Argentina.

I always love drawing.

From the first memories of my childhood I remember my self with a pen and a paper, not far away from my hand

As young kid I wasn’t the most social person and I guess I find my place at the last raw of tables on the school where I draw all the margins of all my books

My first flirt with tattooing was when I was about 11 years old.

my town (Pinamar) is a summer destination and we rent are house to a group of young guys and in one of are visits to the house, I find one of them lying over the dinner table getting tattooed a PEGAZO on his stomach, the scene shock me immediately

I thought this is the most underground cool and toughest expression.

After that I keep doing my thing but I guess in back of my mind it was this image that I couldn’t forget.

The years pass by and when I was 14 years old a friend of my oldest brother show up with a home made tattoo machine and that was it!! I new I had to get my hands on it so I decided to break down my very best radiocontrol car and make a direct drive tattoo machine.

So there I was with 14 years old and a tattoo machine in my hands, you can imagine that with that age and living in a little town down in South America it was almost impossible to get grip on information or tattoo materials.

But we tried to find are way reading some magazines and playing around with ideas to solve are problems with tattooing.

I have to confess that the first years of my work in this craft where no the best quality tattoos as you can imagine

But we keep going and a couple year later tattooers from the big city (Buenos aires) open the very first tattoo shop in my town.

Of course I was day and night just seating in the door of the shop trying to get to know this guys that where the most amazing shit for me. With time we get to know each other and I start helping at the shop with groceries and cleaning,

After making a friendship they start to give me some information and tricks

and that’s how I begging  this journey on this deep ocean called tattooing

They keep coming for 3 summers on a raw and there is where I forge my love for tattooing and the basic techniques.

At that moment I dint know we’ll where I was going, I just have a big passion for drawing and this was they way to make it real.

The years pass by and they decide to not come the next years to open there summer shop in Pinamar and I was already 18 years old and I decided to open my own shop in my town together with my brother.

I had this shop for 2 years and then a big crisis hit Argentina and together with that my father fall in jail with a sentence of 14 years, that’s was a braking point for me and I decided to travel, I had the felling of discovering more and I close the shop and fly to barcelona, my destination was ibiza, where I arrive with almost no money, but confident on finding work. I arrived really early on the seasons so it took some weeks till I start working but the first day of work I did enough money to buy a nice meal on a restaurant at the sea. After settle down and finding my ways in Europa I start to discover more and more this vast and deep ocean called tattoo.

On the first tattoo convention of ibiza in 2004 or 2005 i don’t remember good, I come across a back piece of fillip leu a Tibetan skull black and grey and that was the moment I knew I had to work a lot harder, that back piece blow my mind. And there is where I took the courage on diving as deep as could and Lear as much possible.

For some years I was working on the summers in ibiza and then traveling around the world and for 2007 I meet a beautiful Dutch girl in barcelona.

love hit hard and after some month we decide to go and live in the Netherlands and begging a family together.

Destination this time was Eindhoven and city in the south of the Netherlands which I didn’t new much about, but for my surprise the neighbor of my wife’s business was dragon tattoo from Greg Orie and soon I will discover without knowing that I finish on one the most influential areas of the Netherlands for tattooing.

Today  we have 2 kids one boy of 11 years old and one girl of 8 years old I still living in Eindhoven the Netherlands and tattooing in the region is going strong With inspiring artists like , Dave de Crome, bobeus , Jeroen Franken, Kim Anh , Jan Netten and many other that keep pushing me

Oh I love the Part with the remote control car. Highly unusual.

I suppose when you learn things by yourself it’s the hard way but it’s definitely also a good way.

Interesting to hear about your drawing ambitions. I totally can see it in your work that you have been doing for many years. It’s quite refined.

What is the hard part about sketching? Is there one?

Sketching!

i think sketching is base of drawing, for many year I spend time drawing without thinking true what i was really doing, drawing a face starting from and one eye and building it up with no sketch at all, or just some and that can make more difficult the learning process.

I think anyone can take a lot of time and effort and create something really nice but for me. the Japanese drawing works in another way, is not about a perfect proportion but the very simple expression of a brush and all the motion that you can get out of it, after recognizing this details  I start making a lots of sketches without caring much about the perfection of it, just using it as a work out. learning how to find the motion and expression, because I think is there where is the most important part of drawing.

Sketching is the map of your drawing, you will soon learn how to draw a nose or an eye and a mouth but the difficulty is knowing where to put the nose the mouth and the eyes to make the face you want.

Almost all my paintings are build up on the same way where the sketch, the drawing and the painting is all done on the same paper

I use a brush and a really light orange for the base sketch then I build it up with a harder orange then I use grey to clean up the sketch and then black to make the line drawing after that I apply colors and details

I do this because I believe is the best way to learn, every time i paint I have to deal with proportions and forms and that way I train my skills.

The hardest part of sketching?

I don’t think sketching have a hard part, sketching is a place where you should feel free to play around and see what come out, is there in the little imperfections of your sketch where you find your own stile i guess.

The most difficult part maybe is learning where to find that mistakes and use them on you favourite pieces.

Agreed, sketching and drawing for Japanese style is immensely complicated. It looks simple but it’s very difficult to understand. It’s not child’s play. I can see that you have done your homework.

There is also a historical side which is very important. And obviously Japanese culture also has a great place in what we do.

The wrong kimono design on a Warrior and oops?

So it’s all about the construction?

Yes I believe historical side is really important

I think what it makes Japanese tattooing so big and amazing is the mix between culture, religion and folklore that involves the craft.

Is not only a drawing developed for tattooing, it also involves meaningful parts of society like cultural events and religion.

Study the right way to draw something is not only Lear how to make that face or warrior is also knowing who is and why is he there. Japanese tattooing is really a vast world so is also complicated and difficult to find the right source of information. And even I do my best to Lear us much us I can, I still doing some mistakes but im always discovering new stories and tricks.

Well, presuming your family history and your journey so far you have proven to be passionate and dedicated in life.

Talking about the construction of tattooing, what is important to you and do you have a favorite theme?

Construcción of tattooing.

I think tattooing have several rules and when I look at a tattoo I spect to see this reflected on it, strong line work, solid application of the ink (color or black and grey) and a harmony with the body.

Construcción of tattooing.

I think tattooing have several rules and when I look at a tattoo I spect to see this reflected on it, strong line work, solid application of the ink (color or black and grey) and a harmony with the body.

The construction of a tattoo is really important and we have to recognize that paper is not the skin, things work different…

 

Read more about Florencio and Tattoo Kulture Magazine and support print media.