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This series of interviews are with people who are doing things that are interesting and creative, but not really big business. They make the world more beautiful and varied and they are our heroes.
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I never thought I’d think tattoos were sexy and stylish, they always struck me as sleazy or at least terribly unstylish. Maybe I was forever tainted by tribal tattoos going mass market in the early nineties and early noughties, maybe I was just plain wrong. Or maybe I simply just hadn’t met Maxime Büchi. We worked in the same office in London for a short period, and soon thereafter I learned of his personal project, the tattoo bible Sang Bleu, (which, for those of you who don’t know any French, means ”blue blood”). I was intrigued.
Sang Bleu is to tattoos what Vogue is to clothes. The photos are gorgeous, the art direction exquisite, the men and women smoking. What can I say? It changed my world.
The next issue is due out in February 2010. Be sure to pick it up. And follow Maxime and co-workers at the Sang Bleu <www.sangbleu.com> website.
Who are you and what do you do?
– I am what I do (and what I've done). Founder, publisher, director of Sang Bleu, founder & director (with Ian Party) of B&P Typefoundry. I teach at the Ecal (Art School of Lausanne, Switzerland), work as a tattoo artist (when I have time). I travel, meet fabulous people.
What does your personal utopia look like?
– Some more years of doing what I do. Then have a house in by a lake in some David Thorpe-like woods. The house would be made of concrete with platforms and trees growing inside. Furniture would be concrete blocks with fur and woollen cushions. They would also be mounted on metal rails so that you could roll them outside on summer nights.
What’s your guilty pleasure?
– Fast food. I can't help it, I love kebabs, fish and chips and hamburgers. I can't help it.
What’s the last thing your mother said to you?
– "Was it you who left the light on last night?" (It was this morning, I kid you not.)
What’s your biggest regret?
– ”Pas de temps pour les regrets.” That's just a quote from a a french rap band I like. But really, I don't have regrets, rather I learn lessons and try to not repeat my mistakes.
If you could only wear one brand for the rest of your life, what would it be?
– Tough one. There are two answers: the one(s) brand(s) I do wear, those I've been pretty faithful for as long as I can remember! And on the other hand, the ones I can relate to and that have everything the grown up man I eventually will be would need to cover his body. Halfway would be someone like Rick Owens I guess. Or in another style, Fred Perry.
