01 jan Conversation with CYNTHIA SOBRATY

CYNTHIA SOBRATY, they/them, lives and works in Melbourne, Australia

How would you describe your work?
My work is a mixture of a lot of different things. It is not traditional tattooing, as it is loose and sketchy most of the time. My main mantra is to try and do things I haven’t seen before. Colouring outside the lines, and incorporating a lot of variety of styles and influences.

How did you come in contact with tattooing? How did you learn?
I was looking for work and stuck in the capitalist existential crisis most artists face of just wanting to be creative all the time but also needing to survive. At this time I put up an ad to teach drawing on a classifieds site, and had my portfolio on there. Through that my current boss found me and asked if I would like a tattoo apprenticeship. So i was very lucky in this regard! I learned from my boss and from observing the other artists in the studio I did my apprenticeship at.

Where do you find inspiration for your tattoo art? What makes you happy/curious? Do you work with art in other ways than on skin?
I find inspiration in a lot of things. I am obsessed with popular culture and am very visual. My influences span from 18th/19th century fashion and design, my experiences as a qpoc person, drag culture, anime, myth and lore, contemporary tattooing, abstract art and the idea of wabi sabi.

What makes me happy/curious is taking an old idea and spinning it on it’s head. I like to try and work with people to create symbols of their own instead of repurposing old symbols with old meanings. For instance, a feather to represent freedom, wanderlust. How can we create a symbol specific for you that no one else can have? Can we create an asbtraction of a feeling? Can we create a demon, or a character to personify something? People do not consider their own capacity to create, and often automatically rely on pre existing images. There is a lot of power and fun in making something more unnusual, more unique, that is tailored for the indivdual and the artist.

I am a bit of a creative jack of all trades, flailing my art limbs all over the place. I am working on an album at the moment, and I am also in a band called NOT QUITE WHITE, which is a PoC “girl” band who write songs about our nuanced experiences as poc people. I am a performer as well, and am doing a solo show at this years Fringe Festival in Melbourne called “Neuromantic- a queer cabaret” which is a collection of pieces that I have wanted to perform for a long time, ranging from poetry, storytelling, comedy, drag and original music. I am a very over analytical person but am more motivated then ever to put things into fruition, even if I feel like they or I am not ready or ENOUGH yet, becasue the reality is the world is burning and there is no time to waste.

Talking bout tattoo culture, What changes would you like to see? In what way can we as tattoo artists make a change?
Tattoo culture is definitely more commodified then ever, with people regularly seeing things they see on social media and taking images to artists and saying “I want this one please”. It has become more like fast fashion rather then curated fragments of imagination seen into fruition. It’s easy for artists to get swept up in this fashion framework of tattooing as it is very commercially viable and lucrative. It is harder to be an artist who does many different styles because they cannot be marketed as easily. And so artists start to pigeon hole themselves, and limit their spectrum of ability to create new and different things. Much like everything else in life I want tattooing to be more inclusive. Instagram is a doubel edged sword in this way. Now it’s easier for queer artists to find one another and for people to find queer tattooers. Insta can provide solidarity and community, but i also feel it is the bane of many artists self esteem. We have to use it to propel our business, but it also means subjecting ourselves to a scope of comparison to other artists that hasn’t really existed before. How much damage this is doing to our imagination is invisible and scary. Insecurity is rife and we are quicker to cut each other down because we fear being cut down ourselves. Other tattooers have called my style of tattooing lazy, and I know that this is by the standard they are holding themselves and tattooing in general. I feel there is room for everyone , and to call each others styles lazy, or not good enough is ultimately a reflection of our own insecurity. We should be making room for everyone to feel empowered, in the same way we should be empowering others in society to express themselves freely without fear of judgement. Those with perfectly executed masterpieces of ideas we’ve all seen before are similar to those in life who conform to societys ideals of what is “good and normal”. Anything deviating from these ideals is up for scrutiny and ridicule. But the fact is diversity is beautiful, and we should be appreciating that.

Cynthia Sobraty guest tattooed StaDemonia Tattoo Stockholm 31/7-2/8 2019 and participate in a conversation about tattooing, art and how to create safe and lustful places at RFSL Stockholm (Alsnögatan 7, floor 3). The conversation was moderated by Rudy Loewe.

For info and bookings with Cynthia write directly to csobraty@gmail.com!