Life Under My Skin
Olli Bery for the tattoo factory.
Photojournalist and independent filmmaker, Olli Bery wanted his skin to directly reflect his personality and deepest beliefs. He reveals the radical themes running through his collection of tattoos.
1. My first tattoo
The Ouroboros, that I had tattooed onto my right calf symbolises infinity. I wanted something timeless in both meaning and motif. This is the symbol featured on Neurosis’ album cover for ‘Souls At Zero,’ and it really stood out to me. I had this tattoo done in 93 at Nancy by a guy who worked in my apartment and whose name I can’t remember!
2. Vegans and Animal Rights
A good part of my tattoos are to do with my way of life and my beliefs, including being a vegan and an animal rights activist. It’s a cause that I am very familiar with and which has also been part of my work as a photojournalist for the past five years.
I am a vegan first and foremost out of principle – but by adhering to this way of life I hope to defend animal and their rights.
My War
Looking back to Black Flag’s album of the same name, this tattoo is here to remind me that nothing is ever certain and that every second we’re battling for the second after. It’s also a direct reference to my commitment as an activist.
Tattoo artist: Aimé (Tanker Tattoo Dale). Between 2004 and 2005.
3. Scripts and poetry
I really love words and therefore have a passion for poetry. There are some sentences that never leave me, that speak to me, so much so that I capture them in ink too.
Clearly, my most visible tattoo, but bizarrely also the most intimate. Everything that I’ve ever done, I have always done with love. To have a tattoo on such a prominent part of the body could be very constricting for someone with an ordinary job, but in my case, it doesn’t cause any problems. I would even go so far as to say it has become a distinctive sign.
Tattoo artist: Laura Satana (Exxxotic Tattoo, Paris), 2009. www.laurasatana.com
Truman Capote
“More tears are shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones”
These words form the epigraph of Truman’s Capote’s last (and unfinished) book, and it sums up who I am. For me, goals, ends, achievements are merely accessories: what really counts, it’s the path we take to get there.
Tattoo artist: Clasico Tattoo (Los Angeles) www.elclasicotattoo.com
W.B. Yeats
“My King a lost king”
“I walk in a battle fought over again”
My last two tattoos: quotes taken from W.B. Yeats’ poem, What was lost. Simply beautiful verse; there’s nothing left to say after that.
Made by Léa Nahon (Boucherie Moderne, Bruxelles) in 2010. www.myspace.com/leanahon.
3. What’s next?
Always words. Eventually I would like to be completely covered by words, by poetry. Without doubt the next will be ‘Life?’ above an eyebrow. A real question!
Awesome!