Hello Andrey Lukovnikov! Thank you so much for taking the time to do this interview. Please start by telling us something about yourself, what made you become a tattoo artist? My friends probably, they made me do it. Back at school they were asking me to draw “fancy patterns” on their arms with a regular black pen and it was making them so happy – they were like: “You will become a tattoo artist some day!”

Q: How long have you been tattooing?
A: I am tattooing for 3 years. My friend, who is also my business partner Tymur Denysenko showed me how to use a tattoo machine. Now we are working together in our RL tattoo studio. Rl stands for right handed and left handed.

Q: Why a tattoo artist?
A: My dream was to become an artist and I became a tattoo artist, so my dream came true. Tattoos always used to get me excited and when I saw a really high quality tattoos it made me want to do it myself.

Q: Do you have any role models?
A: Yes, of cause. I like works of many tattoo artist and most of all Dmitriy Samohin, Denis Sivak and Jeff Gogue.

Q: Seems like you enjoy doing color tattoos a lot.
A: I really like painting, mixing the colors, getting different shades. That is really magical, especially when human skin is a canvas. But I also like working with black and white, or using grays and some color.

Q: What ink brands do you prefer?
A: The products I use for tattooing are “Intenze” tattoo ink and “Eternal”. I haven’t try anything else, honestly I'm very satisfied with these products.

Q: Tattooing is a very creative job. How do you get inspired?
A: I try not to forget how to paint on canvas and on paper. But in general I draw with photoshop using pen tablet.

Q: Nowadays, people are coming up with many creative ideas for their tattoos. What was the most bizarre request ever?
A: Here in Ukraine people don't get too crazy with tattoos yet, but yes, we have some aliens who want to have an hieroglyph, that is really bizarre for me.

Q: Your second passion is digital art, tell me about it.
A: Tattooing is my main job, but sometimes I draw illustrations for music album covers or advertisement. Drawing illustrations is different than making a tattoo sketch, you don’t have so many boundaries here.

Q: What would you change about your style? Would you start working on something completely different?
A: I have some thoughts about this. I will try to get better and keep growing as a tattoo artist. I hope I will come up with some good stuff.

Q: Do you have any advice for the new artists?
A: Draw even more than you draw now, develop your personal style, learn how to take critic to consideration, keep an eye on professionals and believe in yourself.