If you happen to visit the United States this year, maybe you should try and find a place where you get the chance to meet Brandon Bond. The recent winner of the ‘Tattoo Artist of the Year’ Award and owner of the ‘All or Nothing’ Tattoo Studio in Atlanta will be appearing at certain shows and teaching a new seminar for professional tattooists that covers all of the questions he gets asked a bazillion times a day and more.

He will speak about different aspects of successful tattooing, covering a variety of topics, including image selection and creation, placement, execution, and a lot more technical and artistical aspects. But beside these very interesting and undoubtedly insightful topics, he wants to lecture about the business itself too, especially on the matter of promotion. How to present yourself and let people know about you and your abilities is as important as the given talent and the development of good techniques. "If no one knows you´re good, then it´s really worthless", he says.

Listening to him, you notice immediately why Brandon has been awarded with more prizes than he can probably exhibit in his studio. Of course, he is one of the most gifted talents around the block - a look at the pictures accompanying this editorial will prove that to you - but instead of loosing himself in the art, focussing on that point of view only as so many young and inexperienced artists do, it is his impressive grip on the bigger picture which proves that talent and professionalism can come a long way together. Especially when you take into account how much fun he has with his lifestyle, life being an endless party, enjoying himself together with his studio team at each and every opportunity, ever willing to take himself not seriously, it is his work itself and the responsibility for this crew, ‘his’ crew, that he takes very seriously. One might find Brandon´s omnipresent sense of business a bit strange. But the truth is that Brandon knows really well how much it is worth to be able to fend for oneself and for the people depending on you, especially if you´re an artist who wants nothing more then to concentrate on your art. Being able to sell yourself as well as your art is fundamental if you not only want to survive in the hard contested business, but to have success as a reknowned artist as well.

Brandon is tattooing for twelve years now, originally starting because of his strong affection for it: "I loved tattoos, I wanted more tattoos, and I was fascinated by the whole process, the lifestyle, the artwork, the application, and it looked like a fun way to make a living, it turned out to be a lot more than I had hoped for, it´s fucking amazing."

By looking at the many different examples of his work, it´s obvious that Brandon is experienced in a lot of different styles, which is what he believes to be required from tattoo artists: versatility in every way. "Since we are all required to perform a variety of styles every day, we have to stay on our toes and produce amazing art every time no matter what the request."

When asked about his influences, Brandon says that his work is, in some ways, reflective of his own bodysuit, which was tattooed by Joe Capobianco and Eric Merrill mostly, although his own style is very different. "I wanted to combine realism with illustrative execution techniques. In other words, I wanted it to look like a painting based in realism. To do a piece 100 percent realistic is extremely boring visually, but to give it life, color, vibrance, and intensity, to make it jump off the skin and bitch slap you, now that is the goal. So that´s what I wanted to do before I retired, and I am knee deep in it now."

His philosophy, his way of tattooing shines through regardless of the style or motive that is required of him. What fascinates most is the fact that he very rarely uses negative space (using the skin´s own color to highlight something). To him, skin seems to be like a canvas that must be painted all over to get a complete picture. "Negative space on a color image is a lazy tattooer. If you´re going to color something then why half ass it? I color from line to opposing line; if there is a highlight, I put white, or yellow, or green, or blue, or SOMETHING! We are not in the 1950´s, and I don´t want my art to look like it came from them either. We are trying to produce the 2025 type shit at my studio, my favorite question from people is 'is that a real tattoo?'"

This kind of devotion, combined with his versatility in styles and the capability to combine them into something new and interesting, resulted in the kind of success ‘All or Nothing’ is experiencing right now. The studio is nearly bursting from trophies and awards. "We had to make our bathroom at the shop the trophy case, because I´m not the only one winning them; we have an army of artists who all seem to win something at every show somehow."

It´s obvious that this massive ‘army’ has made a worldwide impression. About 75 percent of Brandon´s clients come from outside the States. Tattoo magazines and the internet bring them in "like pitbulls to a steak", he says.

Always thinking big, the studio even offers shuttle service to and from the airport and pays for travel expenses (like flights and hotel) if the client is getting large scale work. "We seem to shuttle someone around almost every day of the week."

But even with so much work to do, Brandon and his crew use every opportunity to have fun and relax, to make jokes and celebrate. On Halloween Night, they arranged a hell of a party, one example for the formation of a unique family that shares talent and experiences freely around, furthering each other´s abilities and getting the best possible results. Funny stories happen every day as well as weird and strange things. You come around and see a lot when you´re Brandon Bond. Asked about the highlight of his career so far, he hesitates before answering: "The first time I ever fired a client."

He says, he spent so many years eating shit and working harder than anyone he worked with, always being the first one to arrive and the last to leave, a workaholic in every sense, and the time came that his appointment book was so overflowed that he no longer had to be the guy that would tattoo anything on anyone at anytime. "Now I only tattoo what I want, and I am really not even taking on that many new projects, I still work constantly, but I do what I´m into now, and that is a glaring example of hard work paying off." And we could nothing more than agree.

Taking the chance to promote himself one more time when asked about a message to the world, he says: "Buy my book! It will be released this spring available through www.allornothingtattoo.com and www.brandonbond.com. It will be very weird and exciting, and full of art, short stories, photos, and chaos."

Saying goodbye, he continues to give a lot of good and helpful (and some more unorthodox) hints. "Come, get tattooed, don´t do drugs, carry a loaded gun and don´t pull it out unless you plan to kill someone, strippers are people too, give `em some money, get a dog and take care of it, make as much money as possible everyday, have a lot of sex, always know that…" As we said before: You might miss something out if you haven´t met Brandon Bond.