Jón Páll Halldórsson

Jón Páll Halldórsson is an artistic ninja; his skills are varied and deadly. He is also one of the best tattooists in Iceland.





Chief Magazine: You have quite a resume, video game design, graphic design, animation, and fine art, what drew you to tattooing? How does your art training affect you’re tattooing?

Jón Páll Halldórsson: I have been drawing and "arting" all my life, so for me it was a question of how can I make it my livelihood. I started in classical arts training and tried to get into graphic design (back in ´92) but due to my young age I could not get into the only graphic design program in Reykjavik. The tattoo scene was very new and exciting, tattoos were on the verge of becoming the trendy phenomenon they are today, but still they were a bit on the dubious side. Here in Iceland at least 90% of all tattooed people before that time were sailors, getting their tattoos piss drunk in foreign port-towns.  At that time everything was about rock´n roll and I had just got my second tattoo in Athens, Greece. I gave the guy a call who had done my tattoo put some pressure on him and made him an offer he could not refuse, got my father to put his signature on a bank-loan and went to Athens. On my return to Iceland I opened up a shop in Reykjavik.

After some years in the biz I quit tattooing and went back to art school. I studied classical animation, which led to doing character designs, animations and 3D work for video games. Now lately its been graphic design for a children's TV show.

For the last two years I’ve been getting back into the tattooing and I find it a totally different world for me. I find that my art background is really helping in making better tattoos. I draw almost all my tattoos myself, hardly ever work from flash, do a lot more of freehand work and find the ambition in making each new tattoo a challenge in some way.

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How has it been working on the consistently-manic LazyTown (Icelandic children's show bought by the Nickelodeon channel)? What did you do on the show? Were you forced to exercise?

It´s been very interesting and at the same time quite challenging. Eight years ago I drew a LazyTown children book series (8 books in total). Then until the shooting of the TV series I did some concept and character design, including Sportacus´ outfit. Little more than three years ago the shooting of the TV series started, then I started full time. First I was in the creating the virtual 3D sets, I did things like textures, animations, 3d modeling and supervising. The next task was leading a project in creating a style guide for the merchandise, along with doing the design for all the merchandise packagings. Recently I´m there as a lead artist working on concept projects... well until the first of January ´07 then I´ll leave and start tattooing again full time. Put some time into my own stuff.

Every tattooist I ever knew was into music heavily, what are you listening to as you work lately?

Without music I wouldn’t be drawing!  I listen to all genres of music basically. Lately I’ve been listening to mellow dudes like: Damien Rice, José Gonzales, Antony and the Johnsons, Smog.  Other recent stuff is: Arcade fire, Block Party, Hot chip, Coco Rosie, Johnny Cash, Tool and System of a down. In Classical it's: Gorecki´s 3rd symphony, Arvo Pert, Mozart’s Requiem and some Bach. I could go on for a while...

What was the first tattoo that you got?

It was a snake’s head I got on my shoulder on a "manhood pilgrimage" in Amsterdam, at the age of 17. It was done by the artist Molly, at the famous Hanky Panky´s tattoo shop.

You mention you got your first tattoo during a "Manhood Pilgrimage" to Holland, do you have a spiritual view of the act of getting tattooed?

It was more like a figure of speech. I was seventeen, going abroad without any "supervision" for the first time. At that time there were a few things I thought I needed to try/do and getting a tattoo was one of them.
I think for most people getting tattooed is a spiritual act. It´s not a spiritual act in the sense of burning incense, reciting poems, out of body spiritual blah.... I think people don´t realize the spiritualness about it. There is a ritual in the act, tattoos hurt and you have to psyche yourself into getting it. You have to keep calm, go through the tensions before you start, knowing it´s going to hurt. Sit down, submit yourself to the pain and take it until it´s done, cause once you start it you have to finish. Willingly submitting your body to pain is something most people never do in their life. So when the tattoo is done people really feel they've shown their strength, they faced the fear and the pain and won.

What was the first tattoo you put on someone?

Phew, the first real tattoo was on the guy who owned the tattoo shop I studied at, Jimmy. The tattoo was "Tattoo Jimmy’s" on his wrist. He was a Greek tempered man not to be trifled with... and my hands were shaking.

Why did you choose Greece to do your tattooing apprenticeship? Is the tattoo culture different out there from Iceland?

The reason for why I chose Greece is I had been there before and got nicely acquainted with the fellow who  later taught me.  Also I love Greece and I've been there many times since. At the time I was there the culture was very similar to what it was here. They were a bit ahead at the time I started the apprenticeship.

My tattooist back in New Jersey said she'd tattoo anything except Nazi imagery and smiling dolphin-type nonsense, do you have any marks that you simply won't do?

The same goes for me, no racial discriminating crap, no tattoos on faces and also if I think its just totally out there stupid or ugly I won’t do it. Dolphins I’ll do, smiling or not.

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Do you have a favorite style to work in?

No specific style. I really like doing colored and black and gray realistic stuff. Japanese I also like doing allot, I have few big projects going on at the moment that I love doing.

But there is one style I don’t like doing at all and that is basic spiky all-look-the-same tribals. Basically if they are not ethnic (Pacific, Borneo...) I hate doing them so much I would rather spend my time doing something else.

Do you see a typically Icelandic tattoo "style" developing like the Japanese and British have?

The old Viking runes are very popular. I’m also hoping the old Viking (Celtic style) animal weavings will come into style.

Whose work has influenced yours the most, tattooist or otherwise?

The painters I like the most are Odd Nerdrum, Lucian Freud and dear old Rembrandt. Tattoo artists are: Shige has a beautiful style to his Japanese art. Boris from Hungary, crazy realistic stuff. Guy Aitchinson and Nick Baxter for extremely intuitive and magical color art.  I take my inspiration from everywhere, comics, movies, books, and nature.

Websites

www.jon-pall.com
www.icelandtattoo.com

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