Interview with Artur Szolc: Tattoo Artist, Painter and Drummer

Transmission 110: Interview with Artur Szolc

Artur Szolc is a talented Polish artist who has pursued multiple career paths. His artworks integrate his three loves: tattoos, music, and painting. He is a drummer, and his great love and passion for music, drawing, and painting have accompanied him since early childhood. Tattoo art has become his way of life and source of happiness. As a musician, he has collaborated with popular and underground Polish bands on more than 30 albums featuring drums and percussion. As an accomplished tattoo artist, he collaborates with some of Poland’s most well-known musicians, models, football players, and artists. Together with Soulburners, he was part of a major metal show in Poland, sharing the stage with Judas Priest, Morbid Angel, Exodus, Vader, and many more. Along with his friends, Szolc co-founded the music project “Music Inspired by,” which includes the albums “Tarot,” “Zodiac,” “Alchemy,” and “Slavs.” The new solo album, “Are You There” by Michał Łapaj of Riverside, featuring all drum and percussion tracks recorded by Artur, was released in June 2021.

Featured image: photos by Kasia Paskuda
Artur Szolc’s official site, Instagram and Facebook

Starting from your childhood memories and experiences, which one comes first, art or music? How did your interest develop during your formative years?

From an early age I liked painting and listening to music. When I became a teenager, I started taking my first steps as a musician in a band. At the same time I was painting. Heavy metal music and its covers were extremely inspiring to me. I was very impressed by the strong, uncompromising message, it suited me perfectly as a teenage rebel. Both in music and painting, I began to realize myself as a person and, in fact, it was music that gave me everything I have and have achieved so far. Thanks to it, I also met my wife and we have three wonderful children.

What were the creative figures or pieces in both fields or in others that most influenced you as an artist and a person? What did and still teach you about life?

When it comes to painting, I always have three favorite artists: Salvador Dali, Hans Ruedi Giger and Zdzisław Beksiński. When it comes to music, Type o Negative, Slayer, Iron Maiden, Voi Vod, Coroner, Metallica and, apart from metal, Dead Can Dance, Peter Gabriel, Riverside.

Who has always believed in you from the beginning? Who helped you choose your own skills?

First of all, my mother always believed in me. She always supported me very much in my passions. We were not a wealthy family and my mother was able to take a loan from the bank to buy me instruments. Drums are, as we know, one of the more expensive instruments, so especially in those times in Poland they were very expensive. When it comes to painting, she always gave me challenges, ordered paintings from me, flowers or landscapes, which hang in my home to this day.

How old were you when you started playing the drums? What are the best emotions that pushed you to continue? What the biggest challenges?

I started playing relatively late, at the age of 16. But I was very determined and reached a high level quite quickly. Additionally, I am left-handed, but I play on a right-handed set, which allows me to take an unconventional approach to composing interesting and original rhythms on drums, which can be heard in my band of friends MUSIC INSPIRED BY. This is a studio project where I fulfill myself best as a drummer. I have over 30 albums recorded in Poland, where I played on many of them as a session drummer.

You pursue multiple paths: drummer, tattoo artist, and painter. From the cultural background aspect, it is easy to connect them. But thinking about the way an individual approaches each one of these art is clear that a drummer thinks about time in a very dynamic way; a tattoo artist has the patience and precision of a surgeon; and a painter has own creative time. What about your relation with time and how do you perceive it? Do multiple artistic paths help you concentrate in different ways and have a better approach to time and life? Is your artistic path connected and related or collateral? How do you balance them?

I try to make all these passions complement each other and make me a better person for people, for the world and for my family. I try to use something from one passion and transfer it to the next one and vice versa. When I play and compose drums, I try to do it very visually and musically. However, in my paintings there are rhythmically repeated elements, the same in tattoos. I like to build something based on rhythm and repetition in the composition. However, I want each piece of music to be different, just like a painting or a tattoo. It is known to me that this is a way of searching and creating my own style, expressing myself in art and music. I spend most of my time in the tattoo studio, when it comes to recording I sometimes take a few days off to work in the recording studio with Robert and Kris on MUSIC INSPIRED BY. This is the team I’m most proud of. Most of it is instrumental music, which makes it music for the whole world. When it comes to painting pictures, I create them in the evenings when my family goes to bed. Then I only have time for the painting. For me, the paintings are like chronicles of events from my life.

What about space? When playing the drums or painting you have a creative space more on your own, but when tattooing a living canvas this puts you in connection with someone else’s space. What mastering these different arts strengthened you? What about the importance of connections with others and own privacy when necessary?

Each of these art directions has its own life, but as I mentioned earlier, I try to intertwine them and use each other for inspiration. We compose music together with friends, I create paintings myself and they are very personal, while a tattoo is working with a living person, which is extremely important to me. I meet a lot of interesting people and they often have ideas that I wouldn’t have thought of on my own, which is a huge source of inspiration for me. I love talking to people, I love listening to them and meeting their expectations more than they expect. This is a satisfaction incomparable to anything else. When composing a tattoo with my baggage of experience, I can afford to do a lot, after all, that’s what people expect from me when they come to the studio. I want it to be a tattoo in my style.

Can you please share with us a meaningful story from backstage as a musician?

There were many interesting stories that I experienced as a musician on stage, it is difficult for me to mention any specific situation. I shared the stage with bands in which I played with bands known all over the world such as Marillion, Judas Priest, Tangerine Dream and many many others. I could learn a lot and experience wonderful moments playing at the same festivals on one stage. These are beautiful, unforgettable experiences.

His debut painting show took place on December 21, 2019, at Nowy Swiat 62 Street, right in the center of Warsaw. His paintings are influenced by dark, gritty, grim, horror, death, and metal and rock music

How long have you been in the tattoo industry? Do you remember the first person you tattooed? What did you tattoo? Can you tell us about your beginning in tattooing?

This year marks the 25th anniversary of my work as a tattoo artist and painter. For this occasion, the English publishing house HEAVY MUSIC ARTWORK released my album with paintings and tattoos – “ABYSSUS” -The Left Hand Art of Artur Szolc”.Album is very beautiful and is worth ordering from the publisher’s website. Of course, I remember the first person I tattooed, it was my friend, whom I still tattooying him to this day. We have a great relationship. The beginnings of my work were quite difficult, because I started at home with friends from the estate. We bought a case of beer and the fun began. At the beginning, I didn’t even consider that this would become my profession, but when more and more people came and started paying me money, I had to put down the beer and approach this job very professionally, because there would be another opportunity like this she might not come.

As a multidisciplinary artist: what is your relationship with touch, and materials and what is your relationship with colours?

Very intuitive. In my work, intuition and emotions are the most important for me.

Given the wide range of significance tattoos have carried across cultures and history—from signs of group identity to displays of individual liberty, some of which are completely opposed—how have you seen the change of people’s tattoo inclinations during your career?

My tattoo studio is a bit different than most. It’s more of an art studio. There is no sign here, no random people from the street come in. My clients are people who are aware of what they want from me, so it’s hard for me to talk about any trends or fashion in tattooing. I think commercial studios in the center of big cities may know more about this. People come to me for tattoos that have been built over many sessions, sometimes over several years. They know what to expect from me and they get it. It is known that tattooing has now gained popularity, people are choosing large tattoos, the entire back, sleeves, legs and torsos. They are much braver and open than 25 years ago.

Tattoos help history and science analyse stories lost over time. What is your relationship with nature and the cycle of life?

As I mentioned, everything I do is to make me a BETTER PERSON. Being an artist gives me a lot of happiness, I feel needed, and I know that I am here to bring color to other people’s lives. Good energy is supposed to circulate in the world. I try to give it back and then people give it back to me. Everyone is happy. In my opinion, this is what the world is all about. I want to leave as much behind as possible. My paintings may seem dark at first glance, but I assure you that each of them has a hidden positive message and I leave it to the viewer to discover it.

Has it ever happened to you that someone who asked you for a tattoo had a very emotional or passionate story that stuck with you? If so, can you share it with us?

This has happened many times. I will tell you one of them. When my dear friend, the guitarist from the band Riverside (Piotr Grudziński), died, a few days after his death, his wife Monika came to tattoo his portrait (his face hidden in his hands). We both cried during the session. It was hard for me to work then because tears fell while I was working. He was a wonderful man, we planned to record his solo album but unfortunately we didn’t have time…

Music and musical tastes penetrate and get tattooed in the brain like ink when we find correspondences with our emotional waves. Music only fades when we begin to decay. As a musician and tattoo artist, in your experience is it easier for someone to become disaffected from music or a tattoo?

I’m not here to talk about discouraging anyone from music or tattooing. On the contrary, my role is to encourage people to experience tattoo art, music and painting. This is my role and mission as an artist…

Your surrealist artworks focus on human life and the current condition of the planet. Can you share the philosophy that guides your paintings?

As I mentioned, my paintings are records of experiences, events, situations that made an impression on me and which I “describe” in the paintings. I try to draw people’s attention to things that are very important to me, things that have had or still have an impact on my life and its quality. For example, during the pandemic, I painted three paintings on this topic. I am also very concerned about the condition of our planet, human greed, greed and pursuit of material goods as if man were immortal. And yet, after our last breath on this earth, we all look the same when we are dead, pale, blue, and with our feet spread outwards.

Photos courtesy of Artur Szolc

Dominique Musorrafiti

Ciao! My name is Dominique. I’m Italian and I’m proud to be a mix. My father was an Italian chemical engineer and high school teacher, with Greek and Polish heritage. My mother is Haitian, she was high school language teacher, with Dominican, Spanish, French, Portuguese, African and Native American heritage. Being a mix makes me appreciate to want to understand different cultures and lifestyles. I grew up in Italy, lived few years in Haiti, travel around main European capitals, lived many years in China, in Spain and UK. Traveling makes me feel that we can learn something from every situation in every part of the world.