Gettin Inked with Yo Kjaergaard

Discussion with local tattoo artist from Aarhus, Denmark.

My name is Yo, Im a 20 year old girl from Aarhus.  I’m a strange kid and a punk ass grown up.  I really love drawing, tattooing, and making sculptures.  I was born in this city but grew up traveling all over the world. While traveling I found my godfather in China, some of my best friends in Italy, and my first boyfriends in Japan and Scotland.  When I first came to South America I started in Argentina and ended up in Bogota, Colombia.  This is where I started studying the art of tattooing.  I was taken under the wing of master Omar Garcia, taught technical skills and art philosophy in his shop called Engima Studio.  At this time I also got involved with a bicycle/roller derby gang called “Socios of Satan” and rode around Colombia.
I practiced tattooing oranges and pigskins with Omar’s sister Paola who is a fantastic kickboxer.  I also met a young apprentice named Natalya who was really technical and into goth and the dark side.  I mingled around the tattoo community in Bogota and went on trips with a bunch of guys into the jungle where we lived in hammocks eating fresh fish and banana cake.  I met some interesting individuals during this time from Serbian gangsters to suicidal roommates who overdosed on drugs.    

I enjoyed hanging around the best indie rock bar in Colombia, which was secretly located in a parking lot.  I even started to play in a band with some really cool people.   I lived with hookers and drug dealers in a colonial style house that was falling apart.  I never touched coke but drank a lot of rum and learned how to make banana cake in a pot since we didn’t have an oven.  I learned how to speak Spanish but I never learned how to dance salsa, the language of love as they call it. But I guess its okay to know the limit to your love.

Before I started traveling I started the artist group BLANK with 14 friends of mine.  We created 2 exhibitions: BLANK and HAPPY HOUR.  These exhibits focused on our lost generation, children of the materialistic 90’s economical boom whom were told that you could be whatever you wanted to be when you grew up.  We also explored the balloon popping crises of the past few years where we are being told that China is our new economical master and that we are all doomed.  Our third and last exhibition tilted “Modern Jesus” was in Berlin. It was a great success and a nice reunion with my friends when I came back from South America.

I currently work at a sushi restaurant and am practicing my Japanese preparing myself for a trip to Japan.  When I was in South America I became inspired by the jungle and soon found myself fascinated with indigenous cultures and they way they approach the art of tattooing.  I have started to study native cultures from South America, Kilimanjaro, Hokkaido, China, and even Hawaii.  I find that tattooing and its cultural significance to these tribes is also very essential to my work as an artist as well.

Through this process I try to create original pieces that come from my own style that I am developing.  Although I charge people for tattooing them I have a hard time setting an appropriate price as I see my works an original piece of art and not just something you can buy. I feel that sometimes art is not compatible with money and therefore should be treated as unique experiences that makes people happy and makes them remember the good things in life.