new german interview!!!

[BRANDON BOND]

heres the text in english for your viewing pleasure


Hello, Brandon,

this is the text we would like to use for the editorial about you. It
contains a lot of the stuff from the Brazillian interview, mixed with
some additional text by ourselves. Please note that English is not our
mother´s language, so words and grammar may sound a bit odd at times;
but we have a lot of experience in translating stuff into German (not
the other way around, obviously), and our German is much better… ;-)
Down below you will find the first layout (please don't mind the
colours, cause they are only simple screenshots out of our
text-program).




So, here it comes…

If you happen to visit the United States this year, maybe you should
try and find a place where you get the chance to meet Brandon Bond. The
recent winner of the ‘Tattoo Artist of the Year’ Award and owner of the
‘All or Nothing’ Tattoo Studio in Atlanta will be appearing at certain
shows and teaching a new seminar for professional tattooists that
covers all of the questions he gets asked a bazillion times a day and
more.

He will speak about different aspects of successful tattooing, covering
a variety of topics, including image selection and creation, placement,
execution, and a lot more technical and artistical aspects. But beside
these very interesting and undoubtedly insightful topics, he wants to
lecture about the business itself too, especially on the matter of
promotion. How to present yourself and let people know about you and
your abilities is as important as the given talent and the development
of good techniques. „If no one knows you´re good, then it´s really
worthless“, he says.

Listening to him, you notice immediately why Brandon has been awarded
with more prizes than he can probably exhibit in his studio. Of course,
he is one of the most gifted talents around the block - a look at the
pictures accompanying this editorial will prove that to you - but
instead of loosing himself in the art, focussing on that point of view
only as so many young and inexperienced artists do, it is his
impressive grip on the bigger picture which proves that talent and
professionalism can come a long way together. Especially when you take
into account how much fun he has with his lifestyle, life being an
endless party, enjoying himself together with his studio team at each
and every opportunity, ever willing to take himself not seriously, it
is his work itself and the responsibility for this crew, ‘his’ crew,
that he takes very seriously. One might find Brandon´s omnipresent
sense of business a bit strange. But the truth is that Brandon knows
really well how much it is worth to be able to fend for oneself and for
the people depending on you, especially if you´re an artist who wants
nothing more then to concentrate on your art. Being able to sell
yourself as well as your art is fundamental if you not only want to
survive in the hard contested business, but to have success as a
reknowned artist as well.

Brandon is tattooing for twelve years now, originally starting because
of his strong affection for it: „I loved tattoos, I wanted more
tattoos, and I was fascinated by the whole process, the lifestyle, the
artwork, the application, and it looked like a fun way to make a
living, it turned out to be a lot more than I had hoped for… it´s
f@#king amazing.“

By looking at the many different examples of his work, it´s obvious
that Brandon is experienced in a lot of different styles, which is what
he believes to be required from tattoo artists: versatility in every
way. „Since we are all required to perform a variety of styles every
day, we have to stay on our toes and produce amazing art every time no
matter what the request.“
When asked about his influences, Brandon says that his work is, in some
ways, reflective of his own bodysuit, which was tattooed by Joe
Capobianco and Eric Merrill mostly, although his own style is very
different. „I wanted to combine realism with illustrative execution
techniques. In other words, I wanted it to look like a painting based
in realism. To do a piece 100 percent realistic is extremely boring
visually, but to give it life, color, vibrance, and intensity, to make
it jump off the skin and b1tc4 slap you, now that is the goal. So
that´s what I wanted to do before I retired, and I am knee deep in it
now.“

His philosophy, his way of tattooing shines through regardless of the
style or motive that is required of him. What fascinates most is the
fact that he very rarely uses negative space (using the skin´s own
color to highlight something). To him, skin seems to be like a canvas
that must be painted all over to get a complete picture. „Negative
space on a color image is a lazy tattooer. If you´re going to color
something then why half ass it? I color from line to opposing line; if
there is a highlight, I put white, or yellow, or green, or blue, or
SOMETHING! We are not in the 1950´s, and I don´t want my art to look
like it came from them either. We are trying to produce the 2025 type
s&!t at my studio, my favorite question from people is ‘is that a real
tattoo?’“

This kind of devotion, combined with his versatility in styles and the
capability to combine them into something new and interesting, resulted
in the kind of success ‘All or Nothing’ is experiencing right now. The
studio is nearly bursting from trophies and awards. „We had to make our
bathroom at the shop the trophy case, because I´m not the only one
winning them; we have an army of artists who all seem to win something
at every show somehow.“

It´s obvious that this massive ‘army’ has made a worldwide impression.
About 75 percent of Brandon´s clients come from outside the State he lives in Atlanta GA, USA.
Tattoo magazines and the internet bring them in „like pitbulls to a
steak“, he says.

Always thinking big, the studio even offers shuttle service to and from
the airport and pays for travel expenses (like flights and hotel) if
the client is getting large scale work. „We seem to shuttle someone
around almost every day of the week.“

But even with so much work to do, Brandon and his crew use every
opportunity to have fun and relax, to make jokes and celebrate. On
Halloween Night, they arranged a hell of a party, one example for the
formation of a unique family that shares talent and experiences freely
around, furthering each other´s abilities and getting the best possible
results. Funny stories happen every day as well as weird and strange
things. You come around and see a lot when you´re Brandon Bond. Asked
about the highlight of his career so far, he hesitates before
answering: „The first time I ever fired a client.“

He says, he spent so many years eating s&!t and working harder than
anyone he worked with, always being the first one to arrive and the
last to leave, a workaholic in every sense, and the time came that his
appointment book was so overflowed that he no longer had to be the guy
that would tattoo anything on anyone at anytime. „Now I only tattoo
what I want, and I am really not even taking on that many new projects,
I still work constantly, but I do what I´m into now, and that is a
glaring example of hard work paying off.“ And we could nothing more
than agree.

Taking the chance to promote himself one more time when asked about a
message to the world, he says: „Buy my book! It will be released this
spring available through www.allornothingtattoo.com and
www.brandonbond.com. It will be very weird and exciting, and full of
art, short stories, photos, and chaos.“

Saying goodbye, he continues to give a lot of good and helpful (and
some more unorthodox) hints. „Come, get tattooed, don´t do drugs, carry
a loaded gun and don´t pull it out unless you plan to kill someone,
strippers are people too, give `em some money, get a dog and take care
of it, make as much money as possible everyday, have a lot of sex,
always know that…“ As we said before: You might miss something out if
you haven´t met Brandon Bond.