Stripped wooden floor, psychedelic fish circling the walls and an occasional Ganesh, staring. Is it a home or a waiting room? There was a fridge, I remember that, with beer. There were magazines with scantily clad ladies covered in tattoos.
In the next room, an old barber’s chair, red leather and chrome, gleams in the swirling fog. A man sits on a stool surrounded by images of Yoda, rolling something between his fingers, a knuckle-duster with LOVE written on it lies nearby. ‘Sweeney Todd’ I say and point to the chair. He grins and shows me a cut-throat razor blade.
My friend sits in the chair as the man begins to draw on her arm. There is a picture on the wall of him playing the harmonica. Above the door is a longboard with a silvery-blue helmet shaped like a tear. I learn the man is capable of speeds up to 80 km per hour.
The smoke thickens. Pizza arrives and Vinnie Jones is murdering someone on TV. I set about photographing a collection of knives. A strangely intimate thing. A man called Spike materialises sporting a toothy skull and a collapsed lung as a golden cat waves its paw and ticks quietly. My friend sighs and I photograph my shoes in blurry purple intensity against a profusion of wall and religion.
This was the home and studio of Walter Gandini, Buenos Aries, Argentina. Apart from being an excellent tattoo artist, he is a long boarder, Hare Krishna, knife collector, harmonica player and Star Wars fan. It’s a privilege when travelling to be invited into other people lives. I won’t forget Walter in a hurry, a lovely and talented guy who has a surprising amount of weaponry for a pacifist. If you find yourself in Buenos Aires and in the mood for a tattoo, you can contact him through Facebook.