Hello Laura Egea! Thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview. It's always a pleasure to do an interview with a female artist. I'm so glad that the number is growing. I'm sure you're a huge inspiration to many young girls who want to start tattooing. Hello there!! For me it is a great pleasure to be able to answer your questions because I think your magazine is one of the best magazines in the world.

Q: How was your start in this business? Was it hard to learn the basics?
A: My start was complicated. When I started there was no information that you can find now on social media. Luckily I had a friend who tattooed a bit and she was the one who showed me how to assemble the coil machine and some very basic things. From there I was able to gradually develop my own technique, although at that time I always had doubts because I couldn't know if what I was doing was good.

Q: Do you have any formal art training?
A: I was not lucky enough to be able to do a tattoo seminar until much later, but I had a good drawing base. I had been painting in oils since I was seven years old and at that time I was studying in the fine arts career. So I applied all my previous artistic knowledge from other disciplines of art to tattooing to develop a tattoo technique on my own that might work. But like I said, I was never sure if this was good because I didn't have enough information to be able to verify it.

Q: How long it took you to get regular customers?
A: I got clients really fast but the type of tattoos I did were more of a commercial type at first. After about four years of tattooing, I started to develop my own style and that's when I started to have clients who really looked for me and even traveled to get a tattoo from me. I think that was a big step in my career as a tattoo artist.

Q: Do you remember your first tattoo?
A: My first tattoo was a realistic black and white scorpion on a potato. The first time I tattooed on human skin, was a very punk tattoo, some flies on a girl's pubis.

Q: What do you like the most about color tattooing?
A: I like everything about color tattoos. I love to create an atmosphere between realistic and fantasy style, that can work using the shine that the effect of the sun gives on the hair, create a sense of depth using color contrasts, the luminosity in certain areas of the tattoo. For me the most important thing is to be able to express myself through my tattoos and the use of color makes this possible.

Q: What type of designs are the most difficult? Portraits, animals etc?
A: I love doing portraits of cartoon characters as well as animals because I find my inspiration in nature. For me the most difficult and important thing is to provoke a feeling in the person looking at the tattoo.

Q: How long does it take to finish a portrait tattoo?
A: Well, it depends on many factors such as the size of the area to be tattooed, the details of the design, the type and tone of skin. Normally I need an eight hour session to make a side of a forearm, a bizeps or a twin leg. To finish the whole sleeve, I would need about 5 or 6 sessions.

Q: Any clients who want to get it all done in one session?
A: Normally I can tattoo the same person in two consecutive days or at most three, although on some occasions I have tattooed the same person more days in a row. I remember a girl who came from England and decided to stay up for four days (sessions) in a row to get her leg done. I think she holds the record on my list for the longest consecutive sessions, although I don't recommend it.

Q: Do you accept reference images?
A: I like when the client sends me reference images to understand a little better about the idea they have. I try to understand the concept and what they want to have. When I have a clear idea.

Q: How important is to be open minded with the clients and their ideas? Have you ever turned down a client?
A: For me, if client has an open mind is essential for the good result of the tattoo, since I also need to be able to express myself through the tattoo and to tell stories with different interpretations. It is difficult for a client to understand, but I think that the trust in the artist is essential to obtain a good result. Yes, I reject clients very often for many different reasons. Sometimes is because they ask me for different type of the work that I do, other times is because they have specific ideas of what they want to tattoo and I think that we are not going to get a good result, etc. Before rejecting a client I always try to advise them as much as possible, I try to open their mind.

Q: I don't think I saw any black and white tattoos... Do you plan maybe to experiment the feature?
A: I used to do a lot of black and white realism tattoos but over the time, I have been defining my style and redirecting it towards color realism. I think that although I consider it more complicated, it allows me to express mysel bettter.

Q: What this journey taught you about yourself?
A: I can be happy doing what I love. During this time I have had the opportunity to meet great artists who I admire and who are now my friends. I am very happy to have found my way in this world and I hope this continues for many years to come. I have discovered myself and I have seen myself in my tattoos, I can express myself through them.

Q: Any advice for the new artists?
A: First think about what you really like to do. This is not an easy path, but if you really love this, it will be worth it.