Today we’d like to introduce you to Chaim Machlev.
Hi Chaim, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I started tattooing ten years ago, in spring of 2012. My first tattoo was on a friend that was kind enough to let me practice on her. It was a little starfish that actually looked pretty good. My second tattoo was horrible actually.
I was Born and raised in Tel Aviv, Israel. I then moved to Berlin 10 years ago to learn how to tattoo. I had a pretty normal childhood, I was not a popular child at all and spent most of my childhood in front of my computer. I never had any artistic background, never created art besides playing a guitar as a hobby and for sure nothing that has anything to do with drawing or tattooing. In fact, I was not attracted to tattoos so much before I started to think about getting one, which I can’t really explain how and why it happened.
I got my first tattoo 12 years ago by Avi Vernunu in Psycho studio in Tel Aviv and it was for me, one of the strongest impacts of my life, as I found the procedure super spiritual and life-changing. I still try to understand it but I guess that was when I lost the negative feelings towards tattooing which I previously had, I also lost a lot of negative prejudices that originally I had inside me towards other aspects of life, The society who choose to see it as something wrong or unacceptable.
This really led me to the point in my life to understand that something has to be changed and I couldn’t stop thinking about tattoos. I started to see designs in my dreams, every person that I saw, I thought about lines that goes through their body and how interesting could it be to actually be a tattoo artist that helps decide which lines flow better for an individual’s body and dedicate my life to live the experience of creating individual art for people as a routine.
At the time in Tel Aviv, I was a project manager in an IT company, in charge of 22 workers and had a pretty comfortable life from the materialistic point of view. The thoughts about tattoos could not leave my mind and I decided to get another tattoo just to understand better the process. After the second tattoo, it was clear that some action need to be taken and I left to the desert for a few days to make a decision on what to do in my life. Those who have been to a desert know that you cannot run away from your own thoughts there. Something very spiritual about the endlessness, the sand and just yourself makes you face the truth and confront your thoughts.
After five days, I decided to dedicate my life to the philosophical-spiritual point of understanding that is so special about tattoos and decided to try everything in my power to become a tattoo artist. Every second that I thought about being a tattoo artist I had a shiver running down my spine, that taught me that this is the right thing to do. I decided to move my life to Berlin, I had never visited before but had a good feeling about the place and to take the chance to learn how to be an artist, there seemed more realistic than in Israel. I knew that the hard part would be to leave the life I had behind and thought that if it didn’t work out in Berlin, I will just continue to the next destination and it wouldn’t be so hard as leaving Tel Aviv would be. I sold everything I ever had and landed in Berlin in the search for the opportunity of the open door. The rest is pretty much history.
Now ten years later, I moved to LA to continue my journey to explore the dedicated connection between art and tattoos.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It hasn’t always been easy and many people didn’t believe in me along the way but I had a lot of motivation. After landing in Berlin with just a rucksack, I couch-surfed for three months as I didn’t know anyone. After finding a suitable place to live, I started my search for a mentor that would open its doors to teach me how to tattoo. I asked so many different places and artists and almost all of the answers were negative until I finally found a shop that would open the door of opportunity to me. I cleaned their shop every day in exchange for watching and learning. I still needed to earn money so I gave blood every week in exchange for 14€. I managed to practice on some local punks until I was able to improve my work and develop a style.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I make Individualised, Minimalist and geometric designs. I don’t like to label my style in a certain category since it can be limiting. I make my designs according to the body structure of my each of my clients, I can’t ever make a sketch before because although it could look pretty nice on the paper, it wouldn’t fit the body. I don’t see most of my clients before the appointment because most are travel to me. The more open-minded the individual I have in front of me is, The more I create something more individual and unique for this person and the creations that I feel the most comfortable with and love the most are actually the ones that I created on people that came without any idea of what they want to get but with a strong will to get tattooed by me.
I actually started to make the designs because it was weird for me that people try to categorize tattoos and other art forms. Sometimes we waste more energy when we stand in front of an art creation by trying to understand to which gender it is connected to or to under which category it should be defined instead of enjoying the endless opportunity of having something undefined. I could say that I have that split into my designs, just like in my personality, I make minimalistic lines – the computer kid inside me, and very detailed mandalas – the spiritual man inside me.
Most of the line art designs and the process of designing is sometimes longer than the tattooing process itself. It can be very hard to find the right lines that float organically through the body, especially when we talk about geometric designs. Since our bodies are not symmetric, to try and add a symmetric design can make the process a challenge. If you choose to deal with geometric designs it has to be the right size, the right placement and the right movement, Otherwise, it simply doesn’t work.
I experiment a lot, almost on a daily basis, which can be risky when it comes to a nonreversible form of art, but I guess that it is the only way to develop your own style as an artist and create something individual daily. I use black as the main colour because I believe that it will look timeless on a design, I also think that it looks good on our bodies more than any other colour, I do sometimes use red but it is very rare. I’m inspired to start creating on more art mediums and exploring with collaborations. I get most of my inspiration from nature, I think that it is the most honest thing for us as artists to get inspired from. I get super excited when I see tattoo designs or art forms which stimulate me but mostly my inspiration is on a more wide aspect of just observing or thinking about nature, as mathematical as it is, as spiritual and abstract as it can be. I try to always balance my designs as nature does with its creations. The goal is to find the right balance. When I take a project, I have the feeling to create something that will look super cool from far away and when you will come closer, it will have a lot of dimensions in it and will stimulate the viewer’s eyes in the strongest way. It doesn’t have to be too complicated, it can simply be made from one line that flows through the entire body, it is all a matter of personality and what the person is like. How they move, how they talk, how they describe themselves. I really take the time to learn those things before making a design and tattoo it, I guess it’s from my past of computer science and psychology that the combination of those two fields are what really makes my designs interesting and stimulating.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
I am a shy person but I am also a very spiritual person, I traveled in India for 1 year and since then I have adopted a lot of Buddhist ways of life, on the other hand I was a computer guy that saw the world in a drastic and definite way. It’s important throughout my career and success that I do not build a strong ego from it since I believe when your ego is fueled and heightened, part of you stops developing and learning. I want to continue to learn and develop always.
I am very blessed to have such amazing customers who visit me from all over the world and of course, it fills me with more and more love for tattooing. These things are only possible (in my eyes) when you don’t have the border between a customer and a tattooer. I understood pretty quickly that there is no other way to learn tattooing other than to really dedicate yourself to it, so I really chose to destroy the border between me and my customers completely and to make it as genuine as possible and as effective as possible. I never tattoo the same design, I don’t tattoo when I don’t feel a positive connection to the customer, I don’t make designs before, I do everything together with my clients and take them as an active part in the tattooing process. I found out that it is the most honest way. I think that this is something that we can lose sight of in the western world as it comes to tattooing. There is nothing wrong with going to a shop and choosing a design from a book or a flash, there is just another spiritual way to do it which is longer, more abstract. It takes more energy and trust, but it rewards you much more with an individual custom design that fits to your own body.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.dotstolines.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dotstolines/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DotsToLines
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQuXwIkHEATXgJQOhNGyhlQ/feed
- Other: https://pin.it/2bTbN2Y
Image Credits
Please Credit the Profile Picture: Ronald Dick for GQ The tattoo Photos are by me.
