My Dear Friends of Inked It’s crazy as it sounds i don’t really think of myself with a lot of tattoos i know that’s like ridiculous but i guess yeah i mean like walking around with like my girlfriend or friends or just like people that i’ve really been in public with before and them you know.
Telling me after the fact like you know that like every single person walking down the street like sitting on the train is just like giving you looks jiren to you i think that kind of reminds me that like oh yeah i do look like a crazy person even though i swear i’m not.
A crazy person um i guess it’s more of reactions of like my friends and other people that remind me of yeah i’m i guess i’m a tattooed person yeah i know true smelty adulted.
My name is ben bazakis i’m from san diego california i was only there until i was eight and then i moved up to san francisco the reason for that is because i used to be a ballet dancer and that was kind of my whole childhood wake up go to school dance as a kid it was a like family tradition to go to like the nutcrackers every year.
I think i was like oh be fun to go on stage and just like run around and um they put me in a local nutcracker production and then just kind of through that’s like the gateway to ballet started when i was about six and did that soul i was.
18 and haven’t done any of it since then there was never a moment that i saw somebody with a tattoo and you know i was like i need that i mean being in the ballet industry in that world you don’t see any tattoos um.
You’re not allowed to get tattoos so yeah so when did you get that first step uh got it on my 18th birthday not like i i think i just got it because i was like oh i’m 18. i can get one why not um my mom was there with me did that um.
Dennis kind of didn’t really think about it until my second which was maybe a couple years later and that covered up my first one and so after my second one um i was getting tattooed once or twice a week for like three years.
So my second one was out of the russian criminal tattoo book and i think after i got that second which was from that i kind of just started like looking more into that book and then like the other editions and it’s kind of like what if i just get a bunch of russian criminal tattoos and that was.
The initial plan so like my first five six seven were all russian criminal tattoos you know you could tell what the person’s done where they’re from um kind of like a story behind them and uh.
Yeah i it was just love the imagery um and it was an easy thing where oh i had like a whole book of these ideas i can just get them all then like got on instagram to discover like other artists and seen other tattoos and then that uh evolved into just getting a bunch of.
Random the first couple were on my arms and then i went straight for the hands and fingers because i was going with that um original plan of getting all russian criminal tattoos when i was 23 um so again not shortly after then uh.
Went on to the neck well i guess like the first layer of the four layers that like was my neck got the like typical lettering above the eyebrow and um then it started like focusing on that area so a year and a half later i pretty much.
Had like one layer over my entire face and head you know one of my favorite things is layers so as you can see there’s many many layers on there the first thing i did was the arm and that was really early on i mean i just got like a geometric from the elbow down um again really well.
Done uh but i just had an idea i think i was saw someone with a black dot arm in there and kind of before it became a thing did the elbow down i think like a month later then like.
There’s nothing on the top part i’m just went ahead and did that the next thing they got blacked out would be the neck um originally it was a biomechanical piece uh that i wanted black and gray it was great but uh the artist kind of like lasted me on the second session was.
Kind of convinced me to put some color in i went with it um i liked it but then later on i just realized that i need to do something with it so then i uh threw a layer on one side through layer on the other side and then i just feel like the layering didn’t work on the neck that i did so i.
Just decided to like black that out kind of clean that up this year um i’ve gotten tattooed by the artist a few times before and i’d like to think that he has a heavy hand so i kind of knew what i was getting into even though it was kind of like a.
Last minute we just uh when i went to see him we were just blacking out my chin so we did that and then he just thought it’d be like a fun idea to black out the ear and i’m not one to like say no to uh especially an artist like him that just.
Like always like kills it with any ideas that he has had to like really convince myself not to like throw up and pass out for the uh 30 minutes that lasted but uh yeah even for like four five days after i got it i’d wake up and it’d still be bleeding.
But at the same time like it’s probably my favorite tattoo absolutely worth it and i’m surprised it healed so well and i’m glad because i i mean if it fell out i wouldn’t like try to go for it again i mean maybe but like wouldn’t enjoy it.
First one was above the eyebrow uh that said nosferatu i still am but i was like really heavy into uh like black metal death metal and kind of that imagery like pretty much all the stuff on this arm is from uh like black metal bands or like satanic imagery so just kind of went with that theme and i.
Think that just kind of like unleashed the whole face and then uh got some like lettering on this side of the jaw something on that side and then i didn’t even really feel a change i didn’t really think was a big deal uh to me it was just another tattoo i didn’t go into it like nervous and.
Thinking like wow i’m taking this big step it’s on my face it was just another tattoo probably helps that my parents even though yeah i don’t think anyone in my family has a tattoo uh they not once you know.
Showed any signs of like hate or like anger towards me they at this point like love them tell their friends about them uh want me to take like selfies and send us them all the time i love my parents my my family we’re all very close there’s never been any drama yeah i just know my parents and i know that they.
Would never at least to my face uh you know show me their like dislike with them and yeah luckily after all this time that hasn’t happened there’s only one time or one kind of idea that.
My parents i feel like would kill me my girlfriend would probably break up with me and that is uh i’ve always wanted to get my uh eyeball tattooed or injected but uh i guess that’s not happening i mean it hasn’t gone in the way of any job opportunities or career things so.
Far i don’t think i would have just worked anywhere where they would look down and you know be anti-tattoos so yeah i’ve always worked in just restaurants so the customer service industry probably helps that i’ve only lived in my adult life in san francisco and in new york so both to cities that.
Are very you know open so like just being who you are i also managed to tattoo studio and sf so i haven’t come across anything that tattoos would get in the way of if you could go back and start all over.
Do you think you would still go on the same path i coverage wise yes um that’s tattoos that i have no i mean.
Yes or no i mean i still always think about like oh if i did kind of keep and stick with the theme and that first idea of like getting russian criminal tattoos all over myself i probably would like to go back and start over and like do that i mean obviously i feel with everyone.
There’s tattoos artists that you don’t discover or come across or that aren’t even tattooing until you’re at the point where you don’t have the proper space or the space you want to give them so yeah i mean i if i can go back in time and tell myself like hold off.
In you know seven years i’ll be this artist in you know berlin that you want to get tattooed by and dedicate your whole body to you know there’s always that but um at the same time yeah i mean.
I don’t hate any of them there’s ones that i would definitely change and cover up but uh i’m happy with how it turned out you
Taking one look at Ben you would never guess he was once a student at one of the most prestigious ballet schools in the nation, but that just goes to show you should never judge a book by its cover. We spoke with Ben about his fascination with Russian criminal tattoos, the many layers of ink he has on his body and much more in this riveting episode of Heavily Inked.
Welcome to Heavily Inked. In our newest series, we’re going to speak one-on-one with tattoo collectors and artists about what it means to be a heavily inked person. We’ll get deep as we go through the motivations behind their tattoo choices, the way they’ve been treated in society and much more.
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