Posted on January 30 2020
Benedetti works as a hand poke tattoo artist in São Paulo , and has been tattooing
professionally since 2015. Her interest in tattooing began back in 2013, and since then
Benedetti started working more professionally with her art, participating on local art
exhibitions and independent art events until she felt confident enough to give the
tattooing career a try. Today she works at an cultural atelier in the state of São Paulo,
but whenever she travels around, the tattoo equipment goes in the bag.
Was Hand Poke tattooing something you went to after machine tattooing, or has the
hand poke style always been your preferred method?
A: The initial idea actually was to work with handpoke tattoo until I have saved enough
money to buy a tattoo machine and its kit. With time though I started creating a taste
for handpoke to a point where I felt 100% comfortable with it and kind of forgot about
the machine. When I decided to get one,I just tried it out a few times and realized that
this method wasn't for me, or for the public that usually goes after me to get a tattoo
haha. Maybe one day I'll try again but for now I just wanna focus on geting better
everyday at handpoke tattooing and self improvement.
What was it like the first time you put needle and ink to skin?
A: I was at a friend's house with two other friends that were willing to let me do their
first tattoo, and I was so nervous cause I've never tattooed a person before either,so
when they decided who would go first, I was already sweating and my hands were
shaking and I legit thought I couldn't do it but the second I poked my friend with the
needle, I just loved it! Of course the tattoo didn't come out very good -I also apologized
every single time I poked her haha- but at this point I was already determined to
continue tattooing people for sure.
Have you always been a tattoo artist?
A: I've always enjoyed drawing and painting a lot; I was a little closed person and I've
never really liked school either so when I was on senior year, I started looking
massively about tattoos on internet, and started asking why not eventually try to make
something myself. When I finally finished high school I started looking more into
handpoke tattooing and how to give the first step into this new world. My friends and
family also gave me a lot of support on this which was really important and motivated
me to keep going; So yeah, I would say that since I managed to turn my legit interests
into business, it has been with tattooing, and I don't plan to stop any time soon.
Do you have any memorable/ funny stories you can tell?
A: Well, in the tattoo world you never know what kind of request you're gonna get or
what kind of person , so there’s a lot of very unique stories, but I'd say a memorable
time was when this girl came up wanting one of my designs on her chest, and as I
started tattooing her, she started complaining about the pain, and asked for a break to
leave to drink and smoke; so when she came back she was drunk and stoned. I was
very very new to everything, so I wasn't really sure if I should keep tattooing or not.
After she convinced me to keep going, she started talking about how the pain was now
really good and it was turning into some sort of sexual pleasure to her, and it was really
funny. There were a few friends with us on the same room watching the entire situation,
which made it even funnier.
So Single Needle Tattoo Kits, I believe that home tattooing is inherently risky, but
people have, and will continue to tattoo themselves, therefore making a safe and
affordable kit is the way forward... What's your take on this?
A: Well, I confess I started with home tattooing as well, once I had no one I knew to ask
for help, or that worked with handpoke tattoos at all so it was just me, myself and a few
friends that let me give a try on them for a play -shout out to my sister, she was really
supportive and offered herself as a tribute to me many many times, and still do haha- .
But my researches about tattooing were massive and constant, I was really looking
forward to educate myself as much as I could before doing anything, so I studied first
aid tutorials, hygiene and types of materials and how to keep everything as sterilized as
possible (etc) which now I see that it was of great importance to me and it helped me
understand a lot about organization and professionalism, especially after the amazing
girls from the Atelier offered me the opportunity to start working there. It's different
when someone got a needle and tattoo people at home in their living room on their
couch with no previous cautions, that's unsanitary and really really dangerous, you've
got to educate yourself about the human body first, how it works and the dangers
involved, for you and for the people around.
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