Jose in Ink: Queer Tattoos

Queer Tattoos

Jose Vigers is a gay artist and tattooist living between London and Berlin. Patrick Cash met him to find out more about his life and work.

By Patrick Cash

Tell us a bit about yourself.
I’m originally from Australia, I’ve been living in Europe for the last 7 years since I was 20. I’m an artist primarily and for the last two years I’ve been tattooing. I’m based between London and Berlin but more London as time goes on. But Berlin’s an interesting place, which is changing very fast. In the time I’ve been there it’s doubled in price. It’s a mecca for gay people, for punks, for young travellers, club people. In Berlin everyone talks about ‘queer, queer, queer’ and in London everyone’s like ‘I’m a lesbian, I’m trans, I’m gay’, it’s less sort of an umbrella of otherness. I always try to be in Berlin for New Year’s, because they let off fireworks, the whole sky is lit up, and the whole city vibrates.

How did you get into illustration initially?
I did four years of a three-year art degree before I failed my last week. I went to Berlin and just started exploring all the things I was interested in originally, like comic books, animation. I haven’t found not having a degree a disadvantage at all, and in some ways it’s an advantage because you’re outside of the system.

And what was the bridge from illustration to tattooing?
When I began living in Berlin, I was living in squats and house projects and in these places you would get drunk with a friend and it’d be like ‘let’s tattoo each other’. You’d do a handpicked tattoo with a needle, prison style. I went from that, from tattooing myself, to tattooing my friends, to tattooing people for money. I bought a machine and I taught myself, and then I came to London to do a guest spot at Shangri-La and worked for Lesley Chan. The only places I’ve worked in the tattooing industry have been run and operated by women. And I’ve slowly gone from a guest artist in London to a resident artist.

What was your very first experience of tattooing like, were you nervous?
It was on myself, and there’s a recklessness with it and a dangerous element that appealed to me. Nervous isn’t the right word, excited would be a better word.  And you know we tattoo ourselves every day with experiences, it’s just that this is kind of making the internal external.  And it’s scary because it is permanent but you know that’s not a thing that worries me.

What is Shangri-la’s ethos, how do you feel you fit into that? 
Lesley is a very open person, and very accepting and very flexible. For example, if I have to tattoo someone who is body sensitive for whatever reason, they might be trans etc, then I can do it outside of opening hours so it’s more private, there’s not a whole bunch of people looking on. Shangri-La is very relaxed and like everything you don’t expect a tattoo shop to be as a queer person.

Do you think tattoo shops are sometimes intimidating for queer people?
The thing is to be a woman in the tattoo industry is difficult; to be a queer person is a mountain. For example, the London Tattoo Convention has just gone past and it’s mostly dominated by white straight men.  And this is one of the most liberal in the whole world. That’s crazy, especially considering how many gay men, lesbians and trans people have tattoos as part of their identity as a queer person.

So tattoos can be part of queer self-identification?
Tattoos are an intrinsically queer thing. The trans people I’ve met in my life personally, it’s been very much about their transition – taking control of their body, making the internal external, having these signifiers that sort of say ‘this is who I am, now’. And gay men get tattooed, lesbians get tattooed. I think there are two ways to take an alienation from the straight tattooing majority, you can be defensive and aggressive or you can be like ‘no fuck this, I’m going to create my own space and my own place where people can come and experience tattooing.’ This is something I like about Shangri-La, because the straight people there who identify as straight and live in the straight, hetero world are still very fluid with their ideas and their person.

 
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