The wonderful thing about art is that it takes so many forms. We typically think of art hanging in a gallery like a painting or a statue. There’s also music, dance, acting, and the list goes on. But even if we drill down to just focus on the visual arts there are categories within that field finally getting the respect they finally deserve. The most rock and roll of them all? Tattoo art! And nothing could be more true than the tattoo art of Star Wars, now showcased in its own track at Star Wars Celebration. So allow me to introduce a Star Wars tattoo artist who’s taken the fan community by storm: Piero “Tat-twin” Bockos!
Piero Tat-twin is an Italian tattoo artist, born and raised in Perù. He has a Master in Design and is a resident tattooer at Phobos Tattoo Gallery, in beautiful Verona, Italy. He’s been tattooing for over 10 years and specializes in New School and Realism. He’s an appreciated award winning artist working conventions and doing guest spots all around the world. And if you haven’t met him behind the tattoo machine, chances are he was wearing some armor!
Star Wars art has always been a big part of both his life and his brother’s, both long standing members of the “fighting 501st”. They joined in 2003 and they’ve always used their art to help the Club. They’ve designed posters, t-shirts, logos, etc., both for their local Garrison and legion wide. You can meet them at most Star Wars events: from the 1997 Special Edition release, to the 2007 501st Rose Parade Spectacular (including the Documentary Star Warriors), to a cameo as the Jedi Council guards in the hit fan film hit Dark Resurrection.
As a tattoo artist, Piero is a member of the team Ink Fusion Empire which -among many others-partners with Lucasfilm Ltd to bring their world famous Tattoo Pavillion to Star Wars Celebration. As a member of the team, Piero has been attending every Celebration since CVI in Orlando, making sure fans went home with the BEST possible “souvenir” from the show! As a matter of fact at Celebration Chicago just last year he took home the 1st Place as Best Black & Gray Tattoo of the show!
His love and knowledge of Star Wars and his passion about costume accuracy (he’s also a prop maker)show on all his tattoos, attention to detail is definitely one of the highlights of his work.
Piero is also one of the featured artists on the Star Wars body art book The Force in the Flesh Vol.2.
In the last three years Piero has been the Italian ambassador for Ink Fusion, bringing his experience to Cartoomics (Milan based show with over 90k visitors) where he runs the Tattoo Pavillion with a crew of amazing geek artists personally chosen for the show.
He also spends his time wrenching and customizing old school choppers and muscle cars, but that’s another story!
WHY STAR WARS?
“Me and my brother have ALWAYS been fans. I’m old enough to have managed to play with the Kenner figures, and have memories of watching ROTJ at a theater. Even during the “dark times”, we would get our hands on anything Star Wars including books and comics. In the late 90s we started contributing to the biggest Italian fan site at the time with comic strips we created. That, collecting and costumes helped keep Star Wars alive for us. The Saga influenced our career choice, since both of us became designers. When I switched to tattooing I discovered the world of SW tattoos, and the book The Force in the Flesh (first published book about Star Wars body art). Thanks to my buddy Jeremiah McCabe I found my new tattoo family in the Ink Fusion team! A bunch of likely minded geek tattooers who cared about each other and went crazy over pop culture tattoos! Marc Draven took me in and invited me to my first join Star Wars Celebration as LFL licensed tattoo artists. Dream. Come. True!
Today I’m lucky enough to have a whole lot of my tattoo work focused on Star Wars.
I’m fascinated with the ‘used’ look and the design of props and costumes of a galaxy far, far away, such a rich universe, I think I could keep tattooing Star Wars forever!”
LINKS
facebook: Piero Tat-twin
instagram: @pierotattwin
email: info@tat-twin.com
Line Art
Tattoo Art
Life of the Tattoo Artist
Many thanks to our partners at Jedi News, Fantha Tracks, Rebel Scum, Force.Net, and Bantha Bricks for supporting SWAM 2020 and sharing our posts. What a great way to share the magic of the art community! Check them out and see just how big the galaxy really is!
