Needles, illustration and tattooing

Enara Bravo aka Ruda Handpoke (Barakaldo 1981), trained in audiovisuals, I left that field some time ago to develop a work and life project in the rural world. For years I have been a handpoke tattoo artist in the Bilbao studio Petra Tatuajes and at the same time I develop textile pieces with a special interest in native
wool. My work explores the intersection between tradition and avant-garde, with a focus on needles, rural memory and sustainability. As a blackwork tattooist, I have always favored tattooing without a machine.

Although I design digitally, I return to tradition now of tattooing by building my pieces stitch by stitch, simply with needle and ink. My flash is composed of pieces of flowers, antique embroidery, broken vases, crying eyes, animals, warriors or elements of old school and ignorant style that are building the imaginary Ruda Handpo.

In textiles, I use natural materials and ancestral techniques, working with wool from my sheep, processed in a domestic way. Through felting, embroidery and the recovery of old fabrics, I explore themes such as feminism, class consciousness or the preservation of rural knowledge. The needle is the common axis that runs through my work, whether on leather or textiles, transforming both digital designs and traditional techniques into narratives that dialogue between the present and the past.

1970. Graduated in Fine Arts. With many hours of pigments, binders, essences and drawing behind him, this correct ballroom dancer is a good  conversationalist, the best workshop owner and also a tattoo artist. More than 20 years dedicated to drawing and teaching endorse him as a drawing professional who has fought a thousand battles. And, even so, always in search of continuing to learn how to draw things on any surface, he ended up drawing ink with needles on the skin. Because drawing, drawing for real, from the guts, is a transforming rite of passage. There is no small tattoo and whoever passes and leaves my booth is no longer the same person who entered. The ink sorcerer, from the cubicle of the small hut-cabin, works rites
of passage and transforms people, I hope, into a better version of themselves.

Maite Rosende creates from play and enjoys taking her images to all kinds of media. She has published several books in the field of children's literature and has won several awards for it. Her work has been recognized by Iberoamérica Ilustra (Mexico, 2021-2023) and has been selected for the exhibition at the Bologna Book Fair (2023).  She currently belongs to the Gilda space in Donostia, where she has begun to experiment with the sewing machine and the tattoo machine.

I start in the world of tattooing in 2011 when I get my first machines. Here begins a path as a totally self-taught tattoo artist. In 2015 I start my own tattoo studio called Petra with a personal and defined tattoo style very influenced by the traditional European tattoo, opting for the blackwork tattoo that goes from engraving to more synthetic designs. Also, from the studio we also produce small capsule collections of clothing based on our designs. At Petra Tatuajes I share the space with two other resident tattoo artists and national and international guest artists. Apart from tattooing in my own studio, I also travel abroad to be able to do my tattoos beyond Bilbao making guest tattoos all over Europe.

The thing that intrigues me the most right now is making my own books (and comics) - that includes writing and illustrating. I used to be also self-publisher, but I am trying to escape that practice in order to have more time for the creative parts. I am working with risography a lot. In between projects I paint big aquarelles or do draw abstract pastels. Also, I explore technique called airbrush. Tattooing came to me on demand of my friends, who wanted to wear some of my drawings on their bodies. Sometime during the pandemic, I just bought a second-hand tattoo machine and the ride has begun.