Tyler B Murphy Interview Part 1
Tyler B Murphy is a tattoo artist at Sins of Style Custom Tattoo Studio on 181 Bree Street, Cape Town. He has also spent many years as a graffiti artist, skateboarder, photographer and rabble rouser. Tyler and the other two artists from Sins of Style, Dave Chaston and Lee Herbert, are exhibiting their works at Revolution in Melville Shopping Centre from 6 March under the title ‘Burning Zombies’.
This is the first in a two-part interview with Tyler, discussing tattoos, traveling, skateboarding and Burning Zombies.
How long have you been tattooing for?
I have been working full time since 2001. I got a weekend job cleaning and fetching at a tattoo shop called Wildfire in 1995. That lead me to a five year apprenticeship and 4 and a half years of tattooing. I had been working there for 11 years when I left in 2006.
How did you first start and what made you keep at it?
It all fell into place through graffiti. The good people at Wildfire commissioned me to paint a mural, from there I hooked up the Saturday cleaning job. When I finished school I started full time. I didn’t keep at it the whole time. I flaked out a bit at the turn of the century. Spent a year or so just painting murals for cash and bombing hard.
When you first started, how did you overcome the fear of fucking up someone’s skin?
You need to not care so much. You need a bit of a “fuck them” attitude. If you just pretend that you are drawing, it all works out. If you consider the permanence of it all, it can spin you out. Just fuck it, relax and draw. Calm and collected, doing good tattoos. It is during the planning of the tattoo that you need to really care. We are often way more concerned about placement and the potential to carry a piece on and collect more, than the client who is being tattooed is. You have to prepare it all properly, but then relax and put it in the skin.
What’s your favourite tattoo and who did it for you and where?
My Robert De Nero portrait on my right calf. Chuey from Good Time Charlie’s Tattooland did it for me at the Amsterdam show in 2005. I was touring around and fucked it up a bit, while it was healing. I went to see him in LA in 2008, and he came in on a Sunday to touch it up. It was his anniversary too. Thanks Chuey.
How long ago did you start Sins of Style and who else do you have working with you?
May 2008. David Chaston and Lee Herbert joined me after I had been open for a bit. We all came up together at Wildfire, learning from Manuela Grey and Simon White. Honest, polite people doing good tattoos.
Visit www.sinsofstyle.com and www.killerltd.com for more.
Check back new week for Part Two.
Tags: Interview, Tyler B Murphy
