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When I think about artists who do really great colorful biomech tattoos they are usually the spiritual, dreamer type. Markus Lenhard is different, a realist and hard sci-fi geek. Here are a couple of examples that will speak to his character. In his blog (http://luxaltera.blogspot.com) he wrote about the new movie Sunshine and methodically took it apart discussing all the things that would be scientifically impossible; it was four pages long. And in this interview when I asked what drives his biomech tattoos, he went on a rant about all the twisted shit that he likes to create on people’s skin. He talked about how each creation would function if it were real. This one would be perfect for scouts who have to run long distances while being communication specialists. That one would make your hand stronger and you would be able to carry bigger guns. In short he is a mad scientist of sorts and that is why I love the guy! So, lets talk to him.
Pyrrhus Darwin Castello: Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions Markus. How has your week been so far?
Markus Lenhard: Very busy, I shifted all of my appointments 2 hours forward so that I could get some errands done that have been postponed for too long but it seems I am still stuck somehow.
Anything special in the works?
I am currently working on a torso piece on my apprentice. It started out as a scratchboard design that went into the scratch-art project of Michele and Guy. We thought it had a lot of potential and decided to make some adjustments and make a full color torso piece out of it. I can’t wait to work on it again.
I have seen a picture of it in your myspace page. What was your inspiration for the piece?
I drew a dragon claw a long time ago that was being disassembled by biomech as an expression of how the new takes over the old. That has become my new logo for Lux Altera. Doing the whole dragon was just taking that concept a step further.
What made you choose the apprentice that you have now?
He can think for himself and is a nice guy. He was willing to make sacrifices, too, which was very important to me. I need to know that I am not wasting my time and energy on someone who does not want to do this or doesn’t know what else to do. Also he showed me that he is quite handy and able to think abstractly. I saw a bit of myself in the way he approached me. Right now he works in the studio that I left so we don’t really interact with each other that much anymore. He does nice work and I think it was the right time for him to start to explore the bits I passed on to him on his own. Experiences stick better if there is no backup running around. That’s pretty much how it went for me too, so I believe in that approach. Half a year of intensive watching and trying, listening to as much theoretical tattoo babble as possible, making thousands of notes next to sketches, being critiqued on every single piece, and after that see if you learned something. I am pretty much around the corner so I am not really gone.
Now, lets go back in time to the moment when you were born. When was this?
That was in the middle of November in 1979 gray and dull Frankfurt in the green and fertile heart of Germany.
What kind of family were you raised in?
My father is a very ambitious guy. Back in the day he always worked his ass off as a technical artist for big concerns and I can say he has achieved a lot since then. But I did not see him much. My mother was at home and I guess I had a good childhood. Pretty big mouth for a nerd so I got my regular beating at school but I guess that forms character. My dad always encouraged every single hobby I started, and I started a lot. None of which included any sports; mostly nature, music or art related.
Have you had any art training yourself?
No, I have not attended art school or any seminars so far. I have done some airbrushing (one of the more expensive hobbies sponsored by dad) but it was not my thing. I feel most at ease with colored pencils and now, even more so, with a tattoo machine.
When was the first time that you saw tattoos as something you would like to do?
Phew! I guess that was when I was 11. A cousin of mine got a bald eagle mug with a rebel flag behind it and I loved how it was on his skin from then on. I don’t remember his face really but I do know exactly how that tattoo looked, or so I believe at least.
How did you start your apprenticeship and how did you land the position?
That was pure luck and some pressure I guess. After I lost yet another shitty job I had to come to terms with what I wanted to do with my life. I was 24 and it was time that I started doing something that felt like it had a future. I wanted to do tattoos since I was 11 so I drew up a short folio with tattooable stuff and showed it to the guy who tattooed me at the time. He told me he knew someone who had just opened a new shop and he would have a word with the guy. That was really fortunate for me. Right away I cursed myself for not doing that a lot earlier.
So you have only been tattooing for 4 years now? Holy shit! I remember seeing your stuff a year ago and even then I thought it was really good. Who was your mentor?
Most of the input I had came from Guy; 90% from his book Reinventing the Tattoo, but also a lot of personal conversation and critique. Most of the stuff I learned before I read Reinventing was later discarded as wrong or useless.
Of course you wouldn’t advise people to just learn by buying the book.
I can’t advise anyone anything without knowing them. There is no “one size fits all” recipe. Everyone has a different approach and needs to be shown stuff in a different way. The book by itself is great for people who are comfortable on their own. I find that the consultation of somebody who has experience is vital to cut some corners. Hygienic and technical stuff is better shown and critiqued in person than online or drawn from books. Machine theory and artistic tips, tricks and assignments are easily transferred over books or the Internet. Everybody that is ambitious should talk to and look at as many good tattoo artists as possible. If you start out on your own, tattoo conventions are great for that. Being in an apprenticeship, whether good or bad; anything that can be gathered from a top-shelf artist can only be an advantage in the long run, even in the form of a book.
When do you think you started to find your own voice in tattooing?
As soon as I stopped looking at other tattoo artists work. What can be done in this medium is not restricted by what has already been done.
For a European you seem to be tattooing a lot in the USA. Why?
Not really, no. I have only tattooed at Guy’s place so far for the collaboration we are working on but I have never attended a convention or done a guest spot in the US. I would love to do that but for that I need more time and that doesn’t seem to happen. Plus I am the father of an almost 2-year-old girl, so life is very demanding right now.
Having children is a tremendous step in a person’s life. Has it impacted your tattooing in any way besides the time aspect?
Pretty much only the time aspect. I slowed down a bit. It is always hard to tell anyone who is not a parent what that does to you. It changes not only your daily cycle but also your way of life and how you look at your own place in the world, which is freaky. What I do has a way deeper meaning now than it did before I was a dad. Plus I get a very rewarding feeling from something that has nothing to with art or tattooing and that is something I would not want to miss.
I have to say that it is quite astounding that you have come so far in your career so quickly. How did you get to know Guy?
Thanks man, it was all a bit much the last few years but I am slowing down now because of family, which feels good! I got into contact with Guy when I wrote him an email asking his opinion on something I did. We had contact off and on after that. After the first session on my arm we had a lot more contact.
You have done collaborative tattoos with Guy. Can you tell us what it is like working with him?
He is very relaxed and funny most of the time. I let Guy pretty much guide me through the process because I was quite stunned by the fact that he offered me that opportunity and I didn’t want to fuck anything up. My influence on that piece is not as obvious to most people as it could be but it is also not a typical Guy piece; I really love that about it. It was shit load of work. We both miscalculated the amount of drawing we had to do and the amount of time that would go into tattooing. That DNA stuff is cool but demanding as hell! I can’t wait to start on the upper arm.
Were the collaborations the client’s idea? How did that come to pass?
It was a big brainstorm that we discussed mainly on a private area on Guy’s forum.
Whom would you like to collaborate with in the future?
Anybody whose work I love so I get a chance to steal it without pissing anyone off.
You also have had work done on yourself by Guy. What was that experience like? I have heard that it is really beautiful where he lives.
It is really nice there! I am living in a Rotterdam in Holland right now. About 20 feet below sea level so nature around here kind of sucks.
Visiting an old country that has relatively recently been introduced to people is something I really enjoy. I am outside as much as I can be when I am there. Being tattooed by Guy is interesting. We drilled 30 hours in one week into my arm, that also builds character!
How much do you think Guy is inspired by the place he lives? Can it be seen in his tattoo work?
That’s a question for Guy. It certainly seems that way. It’s hard to imagine that he would not strive to create the perfect environment for his way of working. It certainly does that for me.
What type of places do you find to be the best for your creative mood?
Doesn’t really matter. Having contact and discussions with people I like is very inspiring. The more relaxed I am the harder it gets. I work best under pressure at this point.
There are some really cool pics on your myspace page of the Tattoo Wars competition that was held in Hell City. Can you tell us what the competition and convention in general were like?
Really, I was stunned at how well hell city was organized! The location, the crowds and the artists, everything was really great. I had a blast. I met a lot of people that I have only briefly talked to on forums or myspace and made a couple of friends. Tattoo Wars was cool because I had a chance to see Aaron at work up close as I was on stage to help out most of the time. And of course a chance to hang out with Michele and Guy whom I just don’t get to see often enough.
You also met Gabe (creator of Tattoonow.com and owner of Off the Map Tattoos in New Haven, Connecticut) there. What was he like?
ML: He smelled really good.
Ha ha. No wonder he gets so many clients. How did Saber get to be the lucky one to get the chance to be tattooed by Guy Aitchison and Aaron Cain?
He had two bare arms, which was exactly the real estate the two were looking for. I guess he knew the right people at the right time and was in the right place. He is a very cool guy
What is your relationship with graffiti?
I have none, really, except that I really like the looks of it when done well. I don’t like tagging, which in my eyes is just pure juvenile egocentric behavior and optic pollution.
What do you think is the biggest difference between European and American Tattoo artists?
First off, what is the biggest difference between Europeans and Americans? I know more American artists than European ones, so I guess from that I could conclude that Americans are more social amongst themselves; but I could be totally wrong about that. What do I know? I feel there is a more mature tattoo industry in the US than in Europe.
You would think that the art side of things would be more evident in Europe, but for example in Finland there really aren’t that many tattoo artists who paint or work in other mediums. What have you gained from working in other mediums other than tattooing?
I don’t like to generalize like that. I don’t think that art is more evident in Europe at all. I know almost no one who works extensively in other media. It is more of a character thing I guess but that is a generalization and that never does anyone any justice.
Whenever I touch anything that is not a tattoo machine I feel like it is some kind of weird device that drains my energy. I have been so focused on tattooing the last years that any switch to another medium right now feels weird. From the scratchboard project I learned that given a chance, you might find other levels of your own artistic language in a new medium. I am very eager to start painting and working with 3d rendering software. It’s a big step to make at the moment.
Sorry if that sounded too harsh. I just meant that Europe has really amazing art history. I just thought it would be more natural to have deep respect and focus on that history.
Maybe, yeah. It depends on how much the history influences the person that you want to look at. I think that it isn’t country specific and varies from person to person.
Consider people like Guy Aitchison, Paul Booth, Robert Hernandez, Filip Leu and others who have had great influence on the tattoo art in the 90´s. Who in the new generation do you think will be looked at as the ones who pushed the envelope?
Those guys are still pushing it, so I am not sure. This is a young trade and the really cool stuff happens right now. It really depends. Art wise I think there is a lot that can be done. I just don’t know if names will ever get as big again. In any trade, the names that last the longest are the ones in the beginning where most stuff has to be developed from scratch. All the fine-tuning and building up doesn’t get as much credit which is normal. I am quite happy to still be seeing tattooing in a time of massive development. Quite exciting!
Speaking about fine-tuning and building, who would you give props to?
I am impressed by so many people at the moment. Anybody who is eager to pop out of the tried and true approach gets kudos if it works. Nick Baxter has a nice way of doing things and came up with a couple of very nice effects that made me want a time machine so I could go back and do it before he did. Cory Kruger is someone who influenced me heavily when I started, the Kerns too. Lars Uwe from Berlin is one of my personal favorites when it comes to technique and color schemes. He has a sick twist on the traditional tattoo, which I really enjoy. Jeff Gogue is someone who is really good at rendering expressions and has sick color schemes and flow. There are a lot of people who deserve to be mentioned.
How much of your work is custom tattoos?
100% I don’t even have flash in my studio.
What if a regular client comes in for a reproduction piece, would you do it?
It depends what it is. I am not fond of that, and my clients know it. I would never do it if it were from another tattoo. If it were a regular client I would surely do something if it had personal value to them but I’d rather keep it small, as it is nothing I would put in my folio.
How important is the vibe of the tattoo? To make it clearer; would you rather be tattooed by someone who did amazing work but was an asshole, or by someone who was a great person but only a mediocre artist?
I like to get the double deal when I get my own tattoos. Being tattooed by a great person who is a mediocre artist only makes me happy for as long as I know the person, and spending time with dickheads is not really my thing. I try to keep people that I don’t like off my radar. I am not a good liar so I normally get into trouble because I start taking the piss. Sometimes I also just leave. I do respect everybody until they piss me off with an attitude I can’t stand and after that respect has to be earned if they care, if not, excellent!
I also try to be a nice guy to my clients and not give them a hard time. I sift those clients out beforehand who I think I would get really annoyed with or just couldn’t stand. Having a longish waiting list helps with that.
When you are working on a new tattoo idea what kind of atmosphere do you have set up?
I have the television running or some podcast that I can turn my attention to whenever I feel like it. Especially stuff I find interesting. I seem to need some input when I want to have output, weird.
Have you ever had a movie running in the background while working on a piece and when you have shown the drawing to your client had them say "Hey, that reminds me of that one movie?"
Naw. Doesn’t really work that way. I am of course inspired by movies that are visually striking, but not unconsciously while drawing with a movie in the background.
What movies fall into the "visually striking" category?
Visually striking movies for me have been Star Wars, Transformers, Lord of the Rings, Alien (all of them), Akira, The Hulk, that kind of stuff. I find pretty much any nature documentary visually striking but especially the BBC productions are awesome.
Here is a question from fellow tattoo artist Nate Beavers.
Do you consider yourself a visionary? Can you actually see the image in your head before transferring it to skin?
Pretty much, yes. It depends a lot on my mood, of course. Sometimes I just go with the tried and true on autopilot. If nothing starts to sculpt on my inner eye I am in for a miserable day of bad drawings.
Do you use computers or do you draw by hand?
I like using computers to speed things up. I do a lot of sketching directly in photoshop, which makes life a lot easier. Some say it’s cheating, I say it’s working with another medium that allows me to do more stuff in less time. Using all the tools that are available is working efficiently.
How well educated do you think the people in Europe are when it comes to custom tattoos?
I get a ton of custom work but most people are very shy about it. They don’t really know the possibilities or have any imagination about the whole process. It takes a lot of educating, but once that’s happened they are unstoppable and start to speak very openly about what they do and do not like. It’s funny that someone who came in for a really shitty piece of flash can become a tattoo critic with the highest demands in no time. I can’t speak for all of Europe. Every country is different. I only know two of them, and Germany is not a country where I have tattooed for a long time, so I can’t talk a lot about that.
Do clients realize how stressful it can be to make high-end custom stuff all the time?
No, I guess not. How could they? I am not a guy who whines about how much shit I have to do for them to be happy. I guess it’s more correct to say that I do the biggest chunk to make me happy anyway, so who am I to whine about that?! It is my freedom to not pick up the phone or not answer my email when I don’t feel like it. People have to deal with that from time to time.
You are a really big science fiction literature fan. Have you had the opportunity to create sci-fi tattoos yet?
Other than biomech you mean? Not really, no. I’d love to though.
To me, biomechanical tattoos have a sort of spirituality to them. At least Guy Aitchison, Carson Hill, Mike Cole; the artists seem very spiritual. Then again, biomech tattoos that artists in Europe do, seem closer to H.R. Giger's mechanical bleakness and to be abstract for the sake of abstraction. What motivates and drives your biomechanical tattoo work?
I want to turn people into twisted shit! I guess that’s as unspiritual as you can get, which suits me. Using the anatomy and warping it around to create weird illusions is fun. Here is an example of the “nerdularity” hidden in that. Take an arm for example, because it’s such a nice and dynamic body part to work with. Imagine you could inject someone with nanotech mites that twist the crap out of your arm and reformulate your skin into something that could keep you alive in a different atmosphere or no atmosphere at all, something that is hard but flexes at the right points, and is tough enough to work as a radiation shield and insulator. All the junk that is created by that process is broken down to its atoms and then recomposed into diamonds that grow out of your arm in convenient places. Those could have any shape, crystalline growths, embedded orbs, raw pitted pebbles that leave holes where they are secreted away, or nicely facetted crystals. Based on that idea you could make whole sets of themes: a soldier who has bigger, thicker armored plates, embedded weapons, insectile or vile looking shit growing out of his arm, a scout who needs to be light and fast has more communication tools like antennae, or a drone with all kinds of probes and lenses to look in all directions. Just for fun, let’s have one where everything has gone wrong and turned the poor guy into a gnarly looking plant thing with all kinds of ugly protuberances and useless but cool looking junk growing everywhere. You know I could do this for hours but I’ll spare you. I always turn into a 12 year old when I start this.
I think it would be really fascinating to see you and Nick Baxter collaborate. You embrace the technological side of our society, and Nick in a way sees it just as a necessary evil, that he uses to make his opinions heard. What would you do with Nick if you had the opportunity?
I can’t imagine Nick not being totally crazy about wicked tech. We are talking fiction and art of course so the real world is kind of unimportant. To me it is in anyway. I guess that’s my problem, ha! I’d have a longish chat with him and we might go really crazy. I think we would enjoy this. Also because I think that we both have pretty sophisticated opinions and can agree on many things even though we differ on other subjects. Nick expresses a lot of what is going on inside him through his art; I don’t. I just want to make things that look nice. I have a better time expressing myself verbally.
Another one from Nate.
Can you make some suggestions in reference to the color schemes and blends that you use? There are so many variations in color, what is the best way for a tattooist to study this?
What I find very important for folks who want to do a lot of color is that they grab a color wheel and learn to use and understand it. Sometimes it will be really easy to find two cool colors that compliment each other really well. If I am stuck on two colors, I can check the color wheel and they will be very close to complimentary; like red and green for example. But that is plain and boring, so what if I want to get more out of that effect? Let’s mute the green to an olive and lighten the red to a bright pink. I really like this combo. It also works if you mute the red to a dark bloody tone and turn the green into a screaming nuclear glow. Both are better than just green and red, which looks striking, but misses the personal touch. It’s pretty simple if you understand what makes colors complimentary. Once it gets to three or more main colors, it gets really juicy. There is great color wheel software out there, too. I use Color Schemer; it has a lot of extra tools next to the usual color wheel functions.
Which of your favorite books would you like to transfer to the skin?
I don’t even know where to start. If I read a book I imagine stuff in a way that I find awesome looking. I guess any story would be good; there are favorites of course. At the moment, that would be the revelation space universe of Alastair Reynolds. Guy and I are both into that stuff and we have started to collaborate on a painting that will be a scene out of one of those books.
Can you tell us more about the collaboration?
It’s going to be a view over a huge spaceship that has been infested by its captain through a plague that merges flesh with technology. The whole thing is just one big biomechanical mess.
What have you planned for your back piece?
Something vast and epic looking, maybe some sick spaceship scenery a la Stephan Martiniere. Who knows? I am not planning that far ahead. First I get my other arm covered and then we shall see. My back needs more lasering right now, as does my chest and ribs; lots of real estate to be recovered.
Why do you think people don’t bring artists book-based ideas? I think it would be really cool to try to make a tattoo of a literary hero, rather than one from a movie. It might be more difficult, but I also think it would be more rewarding.
I think about 90% of the time when you read a book and then watch the movie you are disappointed by how the people look or the way they did stuff, because it was way cooler in your head. There are only a handful films that I know that did stuff better then my brain collaborating with the author. I guess I would be a tough client for something like this. Maybe people just don’t think about the possibility.
Could it be the nature of tattoo culture? Do clients who know what custom tattooing is tend to rely too much on the artist in the creative process because they admire their work? It’s good to give artists their freedom, but could this result in "dumbing down” of the client?
I think people don’t really gain a lot of artistic knowledge throughout the process if they are not artists themselves, so I am not sure about that. I guess if they came with an idea for something like this to me they might as well want my take on the whole thing.
What about fractals that fascinates you?
That I don’t understand them. Making fractals is like playing with fire when you are a kid. It does all that fascinating stuff that also looks cool and you only have to feed it or to steer it the right direction. It’s a lot of fun.
Is there any kind of spiritual connection with the stuff you have incorporated in your tattoos?
No, I am not a very spiritual guy. More like a mad scientist.
What made you change your studio name from Toe Tag Tattoo to Lux Altera?
ML: You have no idea what Toe Tag Tattoo sounds like pronounced by Dutch person. It’s like too tuch, with the ch pronounced like the sound of someone clearing their throat. Made me sick.
And when I started doing this I was somewhere completely different compared to where I am now with my tattooing. I did not know where it would take me than and I was more into horror stuff. Lux Altera really suits me I think it’s a bit nerdy and a bit cool. Guy once said it looks equally good chiseled into rock or on the side of an interstellar liner. I loved that.
That does sound like a rogue space ship, or a planet on the edge of the galaxy! Did you have any other cool ideas for the name?
Not really any cool ones. I had a lot but I buried them all again. This was not easy.
It is from the song from 2001: A Space Odyssey called “Lux Aetera” which is pretty awesome. Lux Aetera means eternal light. It’s cool but used a lot on the web for spiritual stuff and I am not really in tune with that so I changed it to Lux Altera, which means “Different Light”
Is the new studio already up and running?
Yeah! I am proud of it, too. I have all the nice things I always wanted except a spot where I can paint but I might have that soon.
What kind of atmosphere are you trying to create in there?
ML: A nice cozy atmosphere; that’s what I want my clients to experience. They know I work clean so I don’t want to make them look at white walls and furniture. I hate the hospital look. I have a big fish tank and a television. Dark walls and floor and only the light I need to see what I do, together with the ambient light of the tank it creates a really mellow atmosphere. There is a lounge area where I can sit with my customer and relax, smoke a cigarette, or drink some tea. It’s a private studio, so there are no other clients running in and out and it’s not on a main street. I do only one person a day so there is no hassle or hurry. I have to collect more art to fill the walls but I have time for that.
What art do you have in mind? Will there be an overall theme?
No not really, I just want to hang up stuff I like looking at myself. I have one wall covered in insects. That’s a bit of a theme as I have a thing for those little robots, but the rest can be quite random.
I really like the ceiling art piece that you have in your studio. Has a cool art nouveau feel to it. Where did the idea come from?
Thanks; I wanted some kind of tattoo related rosette that would complement the chandelier, which is in a baroque style.
It also reminds me of Craola’s art. Has he inspired you in any way?
He does some really sick stuff. I just stumbled across him on myspace 2 or 3 weeks ago. I tossed some things in there that I just enjoy to do like a snake and a dragonclaw picking at each other and the rest evolved in Photoshop where I also made a rosette from it and adjusted the color to look like copper. I wanted to do a view more for the corners of the room.
Cool. Do you have any guest artists lined up?
No, not yet. It’s pretty quiet here. People don’t seem to be as excited about guest artists as I would like them to be. I would like to get a few top names into my shop that have a reputation that has reached Europe; that would be great.
How many custom tattoo studios are there in your town?
I think about 5 including mine. Good ones, too. Rotterdam is good for tattooing in the Netherlands.
What have you got planned for the rest of the year?
Well there is not much left of 2007 so I will take it easy. I have stuff planned for 2008. One thing I really want to do is to learn 3d modeling software. There are so many applications for that in my work that I just have to do it. It will be interesting to see what that has to offer. It’s very ambitious, though, so I hope I get it what I want out of it in my spare time. I would really like to do a few guest spots in the states, New York City would be nice and California would be also fun. My other arm will done, more collaborative work with Guy, finally start painting and keeping it up, a few conventions in Europe, that sort of stuff.
Any last words?
…er, no…
Thank you for your time and I wish you all the best.
Thanks man. Likewise. It was fun talking to you.
Markus Lenhard - email
Rotterdam, Netherlands
http://luxaltera.com
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