How to forget about a song

“This book is a collection of photographs I have taken in my studio in London. It is the place where I paint and print. A temple of creation and intimate space. I felt the need to highlight the connection between the people I tattoo and the place where I create. It is an effort to transcend tattooing by celebrating the tenderness of a body that has just changed. I use photography by need.  Tattoos are ephemeral; they demand to be documented. Tattooing is not just adding ink under the skin: it changes a human being and therefore modifies the environment around it. By portraying people in my studio, in front of my paintings, and making them interact with sculptures and objects, I try to comprise the practice of tattooing into the bigger picture of art creation. By stepping back with the camera, the studio becomes the stage where these people exist. I can see relationships between them and the environment. Artworks become props for portraits and people become the life characters of my paintings. I can keep track of a tattoo within the context of the body where it lives and of the environment where the person exists. Everything merges.” Servadio