Toni Le Busque's stories.

I have made a decision and it goes like this-

If someone came to my art studio with a picture of say…Van Gogh’s Wheatfield with Crows and asked me to do a drawing of it I would say no.

Fact is I can’t do what Van Gogh does because I don’t see things like he does.

I don’t ‘do’ what he ‘does’.

My skill set doesn’t match his.

So I would most likely send the person off to someone who could or would copy Wheatfield with Crows.

Alternatively I would say to them that I will do them a Wheatfield with Crows but not like the one Van Gogh did.

I would base a drawing on Van Gogh’s Wheatfield with Crows, or I would look at a design they had drawn up and ‘collaborate’, but I wouldn’t try to copy it for them.

Because that’s compromise.

And if there’s one thing I do know about myself, it’s that when it comes to drawing I have never compromised.

I might not sell a lot, but I don’t sell out.

Anyway, the point I’m making is that I haven’t been applying that rule to tattooing.

Up until now.

I may not get a lot of tattooing work because of this decision, just as I may not sell a lot of drawings, but from now on, if you get a tattoo from me, you’ll know it’s an uncompromised piece of my art.

Because even though my tools and materials may change to suit my purpose, when it comes down to it, I am, above and beyond everything else, an artist.