TOTAL TATTOO UK: Ryan evans super black and grey realism
Ryan Evans | Interview by Perry Rule
Originally from New Zealand, Ryan Evans has been working at Kamil Mocet’s north London studio for the last couple of years – ever since seeing a post on Kamil’s Facebook page asking for artists to join him. I first met him when he was newly arrived in the UK. It was at a time when colour portraits were just beginning to make waves across the tattoo world, and Ryan’s realistic colour roses really stood out. His quiet, almost shy, personality somehow allowed him to slowly infiltrate the industry. I remember people approaching me at conventions asking if I had heard of him, describing his work as “amazing” and “incredible”. So now, after far too long, we’re finally sitting down to record an interview. It’s a chilly morning, we’re in a café, and Ryan has bought the cakes...
“It was a bit difficult when I first arrived in the UK,” Ryan recalls. “Business was slow. Because of the location of the studio here, there’s no passing trade; it’s appointment only. So I had to try hard to get my work out there and be seen. Now I much prefer it like this. I do my own thing and then go home. I work five days with Kamil and one day at Hardy’s New Wave Tattoo. The balance is great. I like the change of scenery. They’re such contrasting environments – a traditional shop and a private studio.
Ryan studied art at school, then spent many years working in various outdoor jobs in the countryside. But one day he picked up a sketchbook and reminded himself how much he enjoyed drawing, and that’s when he decided he could maybe make a career out of it. “I’d always been fascinated by tattoos and thought it would be a way of supporting myself through my art, so I decided to go for it. But I never had any idea it would be as much hard work as it is!”
I asked Ryan how it all began. “When I started out all I had was a folder of really horrible drawings that I was taking around to studios,” he tells me. “I didn’t have any friends in the trade, and there was no one to tell me what I should do to get a job. I got turned down quite a bit until a German called Pete said he would help me out. So then I used to hang out at his shop, go home, go back to the shop, go back home. I still wasn’t really meeting any people, but my ambition. It would never go away. We don’t really talk any more. He was pretty dysfunctional. Nowadays you’d never get away with being so unprofessional. There are so many good artists for clients to choose from and you need to treat your clients right. In these days of social media a reputation can be destroyed in no time.”
Ryan goes on to tell me that his first apprenticeship was a disastrous affair. He had to look after the shop owner more than the owner looked after him, and after a time he realised he would need to move on to a busier street shop if he was ever going to learn his trade and hone his skills properly. “I don’t think I learnt anything much until I went to work at Matt Jordan’s Ship Shape Tattoo in Auckland,” Ryan told me. “I worked there for a few months before I came to England. Matt really taught me how to apply myself and I learned far more from him than anyone before. At the time I was using coils. I didn’t get into rotaries until I worked with Kamil and he steered me towards an injector. I have never really used a coil since.” It had been less than three years from first picking up a machine to coming to work at Kamil’s studio, which is a testament to how quickly Ryan’s work improved and developed.
It’s a brave move to up sticks and relocate to the other side of the world, especially when you arrive in a new country without knowing anyone, so I was curious to know why Ryan had chosen to come to the UK. “I wanted to be based in Europe,” he explains. “And I decided England would be a good base, partly because there is no language barrier. So I started off with a two year visa and planned lots of trips into the rest of Europe. I think I’ll probably stay for another year or two, then go back home. I would ike to spend some more time with Matt and Steve. Their shop’s really cool.”
Given that New Zealand has such a fascinating cultural background, I was interested to know more about the contemporary tattoo scene there. “When I was very young, I remember seeing a tattoo on my uncle’s shoulder and being intrigued by it,” Ryan tells me, “but tattoos didn’t really feature much in my childhood. Now, though, tattooing is very popular in New Zealand. In fact I think we have one of the highest percentages of tattooed people anywhere in the world. A lot of that is because of the Maori and Polynesian culture, but the general public also seem very into tattoos. The weather plays a big part of course. And there are some amazing artists in New Zealand because of that. People also seem to be getting the same kinds of subjects as here in the UK – realistic black and grey is everywhere, and traditional is very popular too. With social media, everyone sees imagery from all different countries now, and whilst there are some tattooists whose work really stands out, most are doing very similar subjects the world over. Classic stuff like roses will always be popular.”
Our conversation moved on to the things that inspire Ryan. “At the beginning it was magazines. I loved seeing the black and grey work of people like Carlos Torres, Robert Hernandez, and of course Matt Jordan. We’d get a lot of magazines coming into the shop. When I started out I did both black and grey and colour, beginning with small pieces while I found my way. I enjoyed colour, but I’m more comfortable with black and grey. Lately I’ve stopped taking on colour projects altogether.” I asked Ryan the reason for this decision. “I find black and grey easier and I prefer the end results. It looks better when it’s healed and it holds longer. When I started out, because I was in a street shop, I did whatever came in. There was only me and my boss Pete and so I did script, tribal, a bit of Japanese…and I definitely didn’t do them all well! But during that time I noticed there were bits I was better at, and enjoyed more, and so I naturally moved towards them. I found myself encouraging customers to get a custom piece along the lines of what I wanted to do. Then it started to snowball. The more you do, the more you have to show people, the more people see, and the more they ask for you to do something like it.
Realism is a style that gets a lot of criticism, with many people questioning its longevity. I wondered what Ryan’s response was to these comments. “I would like to think that black and grey holds up pretty well. Obviously if you have a beautifully subtle colour piece and you blast it in the sun, then it’s going to fade. Lal Hardy showed me some black and grey tattoos that he has on him that were done more than twenty years ago and they still look great. I like to think that if you put a lot of contrast in, and put it in right, then it will hold up fine – as long as the client does their bit and looks after the tattoo. Also, all the recent developments in inks and machines have helped. But obviously only time will tell.”
Aftercare is particularly important for realistic tattoos, with all their intricacies and subtleties, and the tattooist has to trust that the client will follow their advice. I asked Ryan what he recommends. “I usually put on a little cream and a dressing and send the client home with the recommendation that they keep it on for 3–4 hours. Then they should wash their hands, remove the dressing and get straight in the shower. Using mild soap on the palm of their hands, they need to gently wash the tattoo and rinse away all the soap. They should then dab it dry with a clean towel, give it 5–10 minutes to air dry, then apply a small amount of aftercare cream. That process needs to be repeated morning and evening until it’s healed.”
Ryan puts a lot of thought into the originality of his images, and this is something that really makes his work stand out. “I try really hard to find good references. Most of the time I look for unseen images and try to avoid the obvious. It’s best if you can take your own pictures.I study the images and look for strong contrast, even mid-tones, highlights, and smooth transitions between dark and light. Composition is important as well as placement. You don;’t want things to look like a sticker on the body. As I have gone along, I am finding that bigger is definitely better, so rather tha putting four things on a sleeve, I now often just put one. That comes back to how long it will last; if the details are much larger then they hold up much better.”
“I use the computer to compose an image,” Ryan continues. “Sometimes taking several elements from different pictures and putting them together. For instance, with the clown girls I’vebeen doing lately I may take the face from one model, and the hair from another, and maybe a hand from another, and a hat from somewhere else, then draw the makeup on, which means nobody other than my customer is going to have that image. I have has to find my way around Photoshop in order to do this.
Technology is having a positive effect on tattooing and it’s helping it to grow in all areas - machines and inks as well as image building.
Looking ahead, Ryan is focusing primarily on black and grey, his intention being to continue to improve. For him, reference is where it all begins – with high-resolution, well-balanced photos – and he believes in taking the time to do accurate stencils, marking out every tonal change. “I just try the best I can to copy the image as sequentially as possible. Creativity is not my strongest point, as if I had to sit down and draw something off the top of my head I would really struggle, but I really pay a lot of attention to what I am looking at. It’s quite a lengthy process, which means I don’t get to do too many larger pieces. I do sleeves, but currently only about ten percent of my work is larger than that. I’m looking out for people wanting bigger pieces.”
What of tattooing in general? How does Ryan see it developing? “There are so many tattooists now. It’s very saturated,” he says. “I guess the ones who are pushing things forward will remain busy until the next generation of innovators comes along – which is obviously worrying for me. I go online every day and see new artists who are amazing, young, and have only been tattooing for a short period of time. The Eastern Europeans seem to be incredible. It helps to keep me on my toes and it’s partly why I work so hard to keep improving. I don’t see my work as being that good! I find it hard to take compliments because I feel I am just doing basic black and grey.”
Ryan has a pretty good balance to his life. He works six days a week in two contrasting studios and he tries to visit another country every month, sticking to his original plan of seeing as much of Europe as possible. Quietly confident, he is not a naturally loud and gregarious person, preferring to let his work do the talking instead. We think it speaks volumes.
