 |
Uncle Allan
Interview by Crash
|
This interview was originally to
take place in February '07 at the
Milan convention. It was an extremely
busy weekend for me. I'm
pretty sure I conducted 4 or 5 interviews
during the convention and Allan's
was the last to be done before heading
back to Zurich to get my knee tatted by
Mick. I was totally exhausted and asked
Allan to be in the room by 11pm, I think,
Sunday night. Well, it was about 2am before
he showed up after one of those long Italian,
tattooer-fest dinners. Needless to say, I was
done by the time he showed up and we agreed
to try again the following year…same Bat-time,
same Bat-channel! I want to say that Uncle Allan
is one of my favorite artists these days. His work
was powerful already by the time I was exposed to
it and met him, and in the last year, year and a half,
I think he's really hit his stride, pushing the boundaries
not just on himself, but on traditional imagery
as a whole. Some of the best and most respected
tattooers in the world draw inspiration and influence
from Allan and vice versa. There's more than a few
reasons for this...but one of the most important is
his incredibly friendly and open nature. Enjoy!
CRASH: Okay, only one year late.
UNCLE ALLAN: Whoo-hoo!
The Uncle Allan interview. Hey, last year when I said,
"You'll be better next year," I was right. Remember
that?
Hell yeah.
All the new stuff I've seen has been awesome.
Thanks. Thanks a lot. I hope so.
Give us your name, your shop name and its location.
My real name is Allan Larsen. I go under Uncle Allan. I have
a shop called Conspiracy Inc. in Copenhagen, Denmark.
And where did this 'Uncle Allan' moniker come from?
Ah, good story.
One of my
friends, back
when I was an
apprentice, he
got tattooed on his
back. And, of course,
with all the plastic wrap,
he couldn't get his shirt back on.
And he said, "Ah, Uncle Allan! Uncle
Allan! Help me!" It kind of stuck and
he kept calling me 'Uncle Allan' and
all of his friends started calling me
'Uncle Allan'. It went as far as me
getting an email account under that
name. In Denmark, there's kind of
this tradition that all tattooers are
called 'Tattoo-' and then their names
like, 'Tattoo Ole', 'Tattoo Sven', and
so on. And it's a kind of cool tradition
but I didn't want to be 'Tattoo Allan'.
I had to get a different nickname before
someone else called me 'Tattoo
Allan'. That's why 'Uncle Allan' stuck.
And it sounds more nice and relaxed.
Instead of—people associate tattooers
with big scary guys or whatever.
So I thought Uncle Allan doesn't
sound that scary. I'm not really that
scary so it fits well, I think.
That's awesome. So how long have
you been tattooing?
Since late '99. Which makes it what?
Almost 9 years.
And uh, you served an apprenticeship?
Yeah.
Where was that at?
That was in Copenhagen as well. It
was a different shop. A Canadian guy
had it together with Danish tattooers
and a piercer and so on.
It sounds like a joke. (laughs) Never
mind. So there's a Danish guy...
A Danish guy and a Canadian guy and
a priest and a Rabbi...
|
|
| |
