01 jan Conversation with MARS HOBRECKER

MARS HOBRECKER, he/him, lives and works in Brooklyn New York

How did you come in contact with tattooing? How did you learn?
I’d always been interested in tattoos when I was younger, and when I started getting tattooed (at 18) it was an incredibly powerful experience. I’d mostly grown up without having a whole lot of say over how I presented myself, and getting tattooed was really the first time I felt I was really taking ownership over my body in a way that I couldn’t be forced to reverse. It was deeply personal, and I wanted to be able to offer that experience to other people.

I never anticipated this become my full time job – when I started tattooing it had nothing to do with an interest in the industry, or any sort of respect for tradition. I just wanted my friends (who were mostly queer & not necessarily comfortable in a traditional shop environment) to be able to access that same feeling of having autonomy over their bodies, and started tattooing out of my bedroom.

My learning process has obviously been a much longer and more complicated story than just starting out of my house and evolving to owning a shop, but that’s the very highly condensed version of where my interest started!

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?
My primary art practice & interest has always been performance based, and I think that still really comes through in the types of work I choose to tattoo. I almost exclusively tattoo images of people; I’m extremely interested in figures, and especially in the infinite ways people are able to touch & hold one another. Capturing that sort of interaction & bond between bodies is something that’s always been extremely compelling to me across all mediums.

For info and bookings with Mars write directly to contact@marshobrecker.com!

Mars participated in a public conversation at the Trans Fest Stockholm Culture and Community Festival 2019 at CCAP/C.OFF. Moderator Tom O´ Tottenham.