q & a: bobby Magnante

Where do you draw inspiration from?

I find inspiration in my clients and the ideas they bring me. I find that when a client gives me the most freedom, I am able to achieve the best possible art and usually come up with ideas beyond what the customer could have asked for or imagined. I also am influenced by the work of other tattoo artists that I admire along with low brow artists and painters.

What is your favorite type of music?

I love all types of music except for rap. I can’t stand this hip gangster-wannabe society that we live in. Everyone is ‘urban’ or from ‘the hood’. Everyone has a ‘homey’ who is RIP. So ultimately my heart lies in the punk/hardcore scene I grew up in.

What do you like to do on your days off?

I spend time with my little girl and wife. I am a family man with a set of family values that I want to instill on my kids. I spend my days playing with my daughter and my nights creating tattoos for clients and friends.

If you weren’t tattooing professionally what you be doing?

I would be a complete basket case in some institution! Because without tattoo I can"t envision myself in this world. Tattooing is my world, there is no ‘without tattoo’ for me. It’s all or nothing.

What are your major pet peeves?

I have been in the tattoo industry for 20 years now and I know my business. It’s frustrating and sad to me to heaabout how another ‘striving artist’ is going to ‘try their hand’ at tattooing. This is a lifelong commitment, not a hobby to give a shot at. Tattoo requires all of you or nothing. They way people approach tattooing today is not how it works. Tattooing is about patience. These things take a lot of a lot of time to complete and a very strong commitment on the customer’s part to follow through with their appointments and complete the job that we started- patience in the approach, the creating, and in the doing of the tattoo. Sometimes this doesn’t fit in with the mentality that so many clients have of “I want it right now.”

Describe your approach to tattooing.

I strive to appeal to the tattoo collector, a client who is somewhat familiar with the images people tend to generally choose for a tattoo. I look to inspiration in many forms including the tattoo industry, as well as reference books on a particular subject matter, as well as songs, old movies or an idea that the “tattoo collector” would bring to me. The most enjoyable, as well as most artistically and visually well designed tattoos that I create, happen as the result of the client giving me the creative freedom to run with their ideas and come up with a completely original piece of art for their tattoo. I strive to do larger scale tattooing usually in blocks of 4-6 hour sessions. I like to have that amount of time to work solidly through a design so I can completely be in the tattoo flow, and as I work I get more and more into the piece. It’s hard to get into a tattoo an hour at a time. That’s why the longer sessions are preferable to me