William from Oss slowly tattooed his whole body black, from his toes to his face and even his eyes. With every line he comes closer to himself. For some people the raw result is difficult to understand, but for William it is clear: this is him. But where tattooing helped him to process traumas, his body is now done: “When I walk into a tattoo shop, I will faint.”
This story is a sequel to Saturday’s story. In it, William told how he left his intense life behind him through tattoo. William was addicted to drinks and drugs, with tattooing he found the love for himself.
William frustrates that some people call tattooing ‘addictive’. “I hate that,” he says, shaking his head. “I do tattooing out of love for myself. Don’t use it,” he says. Moreover, customs has a necessity: “I couldn’t get out of bed without drinks or drugs,” he explains. Tattoos do not have the same necessity.
“Well, you could become blind, but I have experienced worse.”
No addiction, but William goes to the hole in his mission to cover all his body in an ink pattern, even his eyes. “I saw it with another tattoo artist, I thought it was beautiful and I took it.” Although most should not think about it, a needle in the eye, William describes it as a ‘cool’ experience. “It was exciting, but after ten minutes I was outside again,” he says. “With black eyes.”
It was not entirely without risks, you can blindly touch it. William shrugs. “If I had continued drinking, I would have been dead now,” he says Schamper. He is not reckless, but knows well what he finds important in life. “I do my best to achieve things, but when it’s over tomorrow, I would have had a beautiful life.” His sincerity and certainty are disarming: those who have already seen everything before the age of 30 know what is important.
“No matter how hypocritical, I would never advise people to take a tattoo.”
He himself does not let himself be fooled by the buzz of the tattome machine, but his skin is now done with it. His body has become hypersensitive because of the many layers of ink. “It has become a trauma: I recently fainted after fifteen minutes,” he says. Not surprising when you consider that the tattome machine is as large as a comb, full of needles that slowly move over his skin. Yet it has to be finished: “It bothers me that skin is still visible on my elbow, rib and leg, it gives almost light between that black ink.”
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Such a body comes with the necessary inconveniences: “The eye scan of my phone does not work, and to open my bank app I have to put on foundation. When I look in the mirror I think: dear who is that?
Only from his mother he thinks it is important what she thinks. “She was not a fan of those extreme tattoos in my face in eyeballs,” he laughs. Then Linda magazine. She turned an interview with him. “Despite everything, my mother has always been proud.” He certainly adds: “What the rest thinks can be stolen to me.”
“Don’t just take a tattoo, I would advise others.”
William now lives for art, not for the approval of others. “I used to wear neat trousers, a tight suit, my hair neat … People think I hide behind my tattoos, but when I see pictures from then, I know: that was a mask. I looked neat, but went down on the inside.”
Now he no longer makes himself black, at least, not inside. “When I look in the mirror, I recognize myself,” he says. He thinks that society can learn something from that attitude: “We all add our identity to belong to something, but sometimes you have to ask yourself: for whom do you do that? People with whom you have nothing to do with? It is important that you always remain connected to yourself.”
Tattooing is now all his life, he himself also puts tattoos with others under the name Blackbeards.inkalthough he detests its superficiality in the tick time. You don’t have to put anything for the age of twenty. You think you know, but you really don’t know anything. ” He calls himself a grandfather in the scene, with a mission against the ‘bune tattoos’: “We do this for ourselves. Just walk past us. “
