Herman IX's tattoo practice is strongly rooted in his Russian heritage; he often takes influences from symbols from his childhood and continues to work in Russia, at Planimetry in Moscow. After a youth spent between studying design and graffitiing, Herman developed a self-taught style based on geometric designs and inspired by photo collages, often featuring animals in unexpected positions and playful dialogues with everyday objects. His works are usually finished with a shading style that resonates with traditional etchings.

What is your name, birthplace, and year of birth?
My name is Herman Deviashin and my handle is Herman IX. I was born in the small city of Tyumen in the middle of Russia, beyond the Urals.

Where did you grow up? Please describe your upbringing and sociocultural background. 
I come from a rather conventional family. My father was in real estate and my mother used to work as an accountant. However, like many other families, after the collapse of the Soviet Union they had to take up all kinds of jobs to keep the food on the table. For some time, my father worked as a cash-in-transit courier, which was rather dangerous at that time. My mother also had to look for side jobs and she worked as a janitor. Our parents did their best to ensure a comfortable environment for my brother and I. My brother is six years older than me and he is my role model. As a matter of fact, it is thanks to him and my parents that I started studying design. Before tattooing I had been doing graffiti for more than ten years, but I was not an unruly teenager. I knew that I had to study well for my parents, but at the same time I used to spend a lot of time in the neighborhood, painting at night and running away from police. Several times I was on the verge of being expelled from school but everything worked out. The bottom line is that I don't have a criminal record and I graduated!

Where do you currently work? Prior to that, where have you worked? 
At present I live in Moscow and work in Ivan Hack's tattoo shop, Planimetry, together with Ervand Akopov and Andrei Flikker. Most of the time I used to work on my own – I’d start private shops or work at home.

How long have you been tattooing? 
I started tattooing in 2012, so it has been seven years already.

What inspired you to learn tattooing, and how did you initially learn how to tattoo? 
I wanted to find a new material, a new tool for expression, as graffiti ceased to attract me. Although that culture will stay with me forever; I still find inspiration in the streets. When I was 17, I had my first tattoo on my chest – it was dedicated to my first love. It seemed to me that tattooing was an incredibly hard activity, where you face electricity and safety issues, and were responsible for a person’s health. I could not find a person who would give me an insight into this culture as most artists at the time were hostile towards one another – nobody wanted to share their experience. But I was lucky to have a friend in the graffiti world – Anatoliy Akue – who helped me contact a tattoo artist from the city of Omsk, situated approximately 700 km east of Tyumen. His name was Valera Sheremetev and he told me many of the important things in tattooing, helped me choose equipment, and answered all my questions. I had to start on my own without an experienced master by my side, but I could always call Valera.

The first year to year and a half I used to do a couple of tattoos per month for my friends, initially at home while my parents were asleep in another room. Later, I arranged a small place in the office of my brother’s design studio where I worked as a graphic designer. In the evenings there, during the weekend, I would tattoo.

Most of the equipment I used was from China and often failed – I was not happy with the looks of the tattoos I was doing. I kept thinking, why I am doing this crap, hurting people without any success? But, I dropped these thoughts and tried to do better. My sessions used to last for 14 hours for small tattoos; the transfer would get erased or some other shit would happen. However, I was absolutely sure about one thing – I wanted to do black work only with sharp lines, in a graphic or conventional style. At that time I was inspired by a tattoo I found on Tumblr with a swan covering the whole torso, I think it was featured in the first issues of Sang Bleu magazine. On Tumblr I also used to follow the work of Maxime Buchi. As far as I remember they were awesome calligraphic fonts. Thus, I was finding something new and realized that the tattoo world was very diverse. The things I saw in Russia before were complete bullshit – a mockery of quality conventional or oriental tattoos. I ordered Forever Tattoo and Sang Bleu V. I started communicating with Brody Polinski and Philippe Fernandez from AKA Berlin. They answered my questions openly, inspired me, and were willing to exchange prints with me, although at the time I was nobody – just a random guy from Russia who has just started tattooing.

The tipping point was when Jon John emailed me in the beginning of 2014, inviting me to come and work in AKA Berlin. I was over the moon! It was something extraordinary – I realized I was getting somewhere and must not stop. That trip was very significant for me. I received many insights and understood that people were open and willing to share their experience. This immensely inspired me and motivated me to implement my project, The Russian Tattoo Tour, the following year. For this project I traveled through 15 major cities, working for two days in each, moving through Russia from West to East on the Trans-Siberian Railway. I hoped to see the differences in tattooing in various parts of the country, to meet people who would share their life stories with me and tell me about their tattoos (which they often had from prison or the army). I wanted to inspire other artists to move forward and follow their path regardless of where they come from. The project resulted in a 20-minute documentary portraying the atmosphere of the trip, and a book of the tattoos I made during those two months – a total of 98 tattoos.

Were you trained through a formal apprenticeship? Describe the circumstances of learning. 
No, I did not have such an opportunity; I studied on my own. I bought pieces of pigskin in the market to practice on, but it proved to be disgusting bullshit, so I decided to try on a person at once. I found a brave acquaintance of mine who agreed that I do my first tattoo for him. I was doing it late in the evening in my room while my parents were asleep. The tattoo was going down the whole side of the body; it said ‘Forever in my heart’ and was dedicated to his deceased brother. I was extremely nervous. I was seated in a very uncomfortable position, so after some time I had terrible stomach ache. After the word ‘Forever’ I suggested that we leave it like that, but the client insisted on completing the idea. I think I had been doing it for four or five hours. During my second tattoo, my contact wire broke, which was absolutely unexpected because it was a quality American machine by Soba (Workhorse Irons).

Were you trained through a formal apprenticeship? Describe the circumstances of learning. 
No, I did not have such an opportunity; I studied on my own. I bought pieces of pigskin in the market to practice on, but it proved to be disgusting bullshit, so I decided to try on a person at once. I found a brave acquaintance of mine who agreed that I do my first tattoo for him. I was doing it late in the evening in my room while my parents were asleep. The tattoo was going down the whole side of the body; it said ‘Forever in my heart’ and was dedicated to his deceased brother. I was extremely nervous. I was seated in a very uncomfortable position, so after some time I had terrible stomach ache. After the word ‘Forever’ I suggested that we leave it like that, but the client insisted on completing the idea. I think I had been doing it for four or five hours. During my second tattoo, my contact wire broke, which was absolutely unexpected because it was a quality American machine by Soba (Workhorse Irons).

Have you previously studied art in an institutional setting? If so, what level of training did you reach and in what disciplines? 
After my brother started studying design, my mother offered me an opportunity to become a designer as well. I had no objections, although I had never drawn. My brother managed to get properly prepared and take a state-funded place, while I was sent to study in an art school. I graduated from the art school and entered the Tyumen Arts College in the department of Design, although my education was more fitting for a layout artist. They did not teach us a lot of software, but focused more on painting, drawing, and composition. At the same time, I was doing graffiti, which was a bit of a problem. There were times when police officers would take me from the lessons to interrogate me. I started skipping a lot of classes, and during most of my studies I was on the verge of being expelled. But, I am thankful to my teachers for their encouragement and letting me recover. I started working on orders for interior designs, then I started making stickers and posters for myself to put up in the streets.

Did that training help as you learned the mechanics of tattooing? 
As I mentioned before, I did not study well. I don't know how much my studies helped me; they rather helped me not to give up and continue doing what I was sure of. I learnt to argue with teachers about art aesthetics. I think my graffiti experience helped me more. I understood that tattooing was just another tool, like a spray can, and if I mastered the cans, I could master tattooing - provided I dedicated sufficient time to it. I knew that in time I would be freely expressing myself in tattooing as well.

How did you develop your style? How would you describe it? What are your influences? 
It is hard to recognize my own style, but I often hear from my clients that they recognize my style from a range of tattoos. I think I chose the right way; I initially made all my designs myself and tried to give people tattoos that I would have had myself. There is no doubt that I was inspired by Scott Campbell, Duncan X, Liam Sparkes, Thomas Hooper, and Maxime Buchi. I was fascinated with prison tattoos and closely examined random people in the streets. I like the way the ink co-exists with a person; the way tattoos change with time. I keep finding new, interesting types of tattoos all the time; this is indeed an exciting world. In my ‘style’ I want to combine quality with some interesting techniques and, most importantly, find themes which could resonate with another person. I want them to feel the same way I do from what they see. Often, I am drawn to something from my Russian childhood or the culture of the time I was growing up in. I try to view as much as possible in various areas of art. I think that taste is very important in tattooing.

Have you had or do you have plans to take on apprentices? 
I am open to sharing my experience with other people, those who come to me for advice, but I do not think I have a talent of a teacher, so I would say no to taking on an apprentice.

Do you have any hobbies outside of tattooing? 
I don't see myself as a tattooer, I am more like an artist who works in this field. Tattooing is very interesting for me in a cultural way. However, I don't take part in conventions and I have very few friends who are tattoo artists. That's why I try to find new areas to implement my projects in, and I am positive that this is really the most important thing – finding the right approach and believing in what you do. I still take part in art exhibitions and paint on canvases, I am interested in sculpture, and in the past year I started making perfumes!

What inspires you generally? 
In general, I think the desire to live and do something as long as I can do it. Otherwise, just like any other creative person, feelings, love, and inner conflicts. This as well as movies, music, and books.

Are any other forms of media, traditional or digital, important to your work? 
I prefer traditional media in my work; I like it when I have actual paper sketches left for myself. Paper keeps the lines made by the hand. But of course, I use a computer a lot as it is just more convenient. I make photo collages and build up geometry. Recently I have been also doing @scannedtattoos project, where I post tattoos (made by various artists) scanned with a portable. I like the way it shows the skin texture and ink behavior.

Is traveling important to you? If so, where do you usually travel? Do you have any interesting experiences abroad that you can share? 
Travelling is important for any person; it helps you reload, freshen your head, and get back to work with renewed vigor. I have not been travelling a lot in the last months. Recently I have visited a perfumes exhibition in Milan, a very interesting event. In one day I met so many interesting people, leading perfume makers – absolutely friendly and open people.

What is the main challenge of tattooing today?
Ideally, how would you like to see tattooing evolve? How do you think it will evolve realistically? 
It is a hard question. I think everything is changing. It is difficult for me to judge, because I believe I am not sufficiently submerged in the culture. For some reason it seems that conventions have lost their distinctive nature and do not serve any more as a meeting place for tattoo artists to share their experience. It seems more that there is a backbone of those who take part in them and communicate with each other, so it is difficult for young artists to get in, as most conventions have their established crowd. Now they increasingly serve the tattooing industry regarding selling indefinite amounts of equipment, needles, and care products. Nowadays you can email a studio or an artist directly, come to them and hear their insights directly. But conventions are still fun, for now.

At this point it is not important how good you are at making tattoos; the main factor now is your activity on social media and how many followers you have. This is not necessarily bad. What is bad, is the fact that this aspect destroys potentially good artists and tattooers, because as a result they start doing what their followers like and are afraid to make any changes. It seems to me that they see people admire their works, and they start thinking that they are already as good as it gets.

I like it when an artist is constantly changing. That is why my main inspiration in tattooing is Scott Campbell – he is an artist, he is changing, he is using various formats. I like what Maxime is doing also, the same idea but with such an aesthetic European approach – creating the perfect product around oneself (in a positive sense).

I am glad to see that tattooing is getting simpler, and that there appear to be many people who work outside of the generally accepted rules. They use the machine as an artistic tool and not a piece of equipment. I think that within the last five years the industry has moved further away from tattooing conventions than ever before; you don't need tons of wires, power supply units, and heavy and vibrating machines anymore. However, I still love this very traditional aesthetic and remain committed to the cozy vibes of this rituality.

You can find more of Herman IX’s work on Instagram [@gera_ix]or online[ www.hermanix.com]