Today we’d like to introduce you to Victor Policheri.
Hi Victor, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I grew up in Ely, MN. I had the good fortune to attend the high school, Minnesota Center for Arts Education, in Golden Valley, where I graduated in 1992. It has always been clear to me that I would pursue a life in the arts, and I have, all over the world. I lived in Minneapolis, and began learning tattooing around 1993. In 1995 I moved to Seattle where I honed my craft, as well as other visual disciplines, drawing and painting. For twelve years, I lived in Seattle and became an accomplished tattoo artist, working in several well-known shops, traveling the convention circuit in the US and Europe. In 2007, I moved to Barcelona because I wanted to see the world, and I could see that tattooing could offer me that. In Barcelona, I had more time to focus on learning to oil paint, while traveling and working all over Europe.
After 5 years there, I moved to Gothenburg, Sweden, where I stayed for 7 years. I had the absolute privilege there to work in several very high-end shop, in the company of many world-class tattoo artists. I cannot stress enough how absolutely priceless it is to work in the company of skilled, talented artists! You feed off, learn from, and inspire one another. Though it was a wonderful experience, I knew I would not stay in Gothenburg, and in 2018 moved back to Spain. I now live in Pamplona, Spain, where I am the owner of Rain Dogs Tattoo. The shop is quite slow, and when I am not tattooing I have a painting studio in the shop, as well as my classical guitar, for practice. I still travel to conventions 4 to 8 times a year, as well as traveling to the tattoo studios of friends of mine all over Europe, and recently, the United States. I am right now actually working for 3 weeks in the US. This morning I flew into Mankato, MN where I will work this week. It has been quite a deja vu all day, as I have not been in Minnesota in 20 years, and I briefly lived in Mankato in 1993.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Are there any smooth roads? If there are I have surely avoided them. When you shorten your story down to a paragraph, the roadblocks, obstacles, and potholes appear to have never been there. I don’t think there has been any part of my journey that was easy. But despite the rough bits, I can say it has been pretty amazing, and it’s taken me around the world several times. To start out, I did not learn tattooing in the generally accepted manner, which is to have an apprenticeship. Honestly, when I am asked to this day, I still recommend anyone who wants to enter the industry to do it. But that was not my beginning. I taught myself to tattoo through a few available books and asking around to a few artists I knew back in Minneapolis. It was a very slow way to learn. There was no internet and no Youtube to explain things when you became frustrated, required guidance, or had questions. With proper instruction, I believe my first 10 to 12 years of learning could have taken 2 to 4. I know it because I watch new generations of artists entering the industry and starting out with information it took me half my career to accumulate. But also really, I got into tattooing as the industry really blossomed from something considered seedy or criminal into a world-recognized art form. I had the fortune to ride that wave, as I came up in the industry as it swelled. These days it is easier and there is more information easily accessible, but it is also harder to rise and be seen, because there are so many tattoo artists everywhere. I explored and learned art and design as I learned to tattoo. It is increasingly common today that tattooers get degrees in art before even beginning to learn to tattoo. The bar has skyrocketed.
As far as some of the other struggles in my own journey, I also chose to move to a country where I had never been and did not speak the language. Barcelona is definitely a city you can live in without needing to learn to speak Spanish, if you stick to the center of the city, full of expats and English speakers. I did not do that. I lived with a Spanish friend I actually met traveling in Bali. He spoke English, but many of his friends, who would become my friends, did not. I struggled hard in learning Spanish, and it took me years to become any good at it. But as with tattooing, I chose to teach myself. Even if there are easier ways, it has always been my preference. Additionally, I have taught myself to play guitar and piano, and speak Italian. I am not as proficient in Italian as I am in Spanish, but my wife is Sicilian and I am dedicated to learning enough Italian that I could forge a relationship with her family in Sicily. My Italian is not great, but I have a wonderful relationship with my Italian family.
I would add one more significant detail to what can only be described as ‘struggles along the way’… living in other countries comes with the necessity of mountains and mountains of difficult bureaucracy. Each new country has required navigating some very tricky regulations, permissions, and hoop-jumping, often only possible in a language you don’t speak. The difficulties of some of these processes required herculean levels of patience and unbelievable frustrations that have found me in stress tears more times than I choose to remember.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Next August, I will have tattooed for 30 years. In that time I have worked across a wide variety of styles, though I believe there is a strain that ties my body of work together. Sometimes I have a hard time putting my finger on what it is myself. But I’ve seen my tattooing influenced and grow as I learned more through oil painting. I’ve seen drawing practice bring improvement to both disciplines. Through time I believe I’ve nurtured a vision that is a mix of realistic, surreal, and illustrative. My tattoos do not look like my oil paintings, and neither looks like my drawings. But I am told that my own style is apparent throughout my works. I am proud of them when I feel I have captured and embodied the original inspiration for the work, and in the process of creating it, brought something to life that is undeniably recognizable, something that speaks and breaths.
So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
That is an enormous question. There is no simple answer to it, I think. As an artist, you always want to have a legacy. You want to be remembered. I don’t know if I think I will be. I also don’t think that is a horrible tragedy. Through a career of creating, what I find more important is in some way, still feeling relevant to myself. Is there still discovery in my journey? Can I still find the fleeting touch of true inspiration and give life to it. I think, as an artist, there is a feeling of wanting to arrive at some level, at some mastery. But what I think is more important is merely that you are creating. You improve through the journey, and the important thing is that your journey does not end in your lifetime.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.viptattoo.com
- Instagram: viptattoo
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RainDogsTattoo
