After two and a half decades of hard work and dedication, my friend and tattoo master Néco Dias is closing his studio in Porto. Let me catch your attention for a few minutes to take you on a short trip of what signifies for me the whole experience I lived at Fun Tattoo, and how it relates to the actual state in western professional and artistic tattooing. Let’s begin.
As many of you already know, I started my career as a professional tattooer back in 2005 at Nahkoé Tattoos and Piercing, a small and proud tattoo shop in Hospitalet, Barcelona. Neco made his appearance there as he was connected with my mentor Sergi Besa due to their shared years in the portuguese tattoo scene. As a result of that, I was able to stablish a nice friendship with him and not too long after that, I found myself participating in my first international tattoo trip by his hand. Fun Tattoo and the Oeiras Tattoo Convention (I swear to you I saw Bara there starting and finishing a full japanese sleeve in just one day…) were my first experiences as a young tattooer working far from home. And, please remind young readers, there was no instagram or facebook yet and myspace was a little baby. Travelling frequently in our tattoo community was already a reality (as it’s a nature foundation basis of the job itself) but nothing compared to what became later on. We depended on personal connections, conventions, tattoo magazines and a sense of adventure combined with a strong ethical code shared and promoted by gentlemans. Néco was one of those gentlemans in our craft.
After this first experience came some more. Many visits to the studio, the big and always crazy Lisbon Tattoo Convention, the Porto one too. Always felt more than welcomed, I was there learning and sharing my views with Neco in endless chats about tattooing. If you know him, you know he loves to talk for fuck’s sake! Somehow, and I wish the same to any of my friends in the trade, I got there a challenging spot where I was requested to engage in bigger and more interesting tattoos that the ones I was doing at home. Mostly all the influence of japanese tattooing that can be filtered in my work comes from this place. How many interesting books put Neco in my hands? How many billions of coffee cups did we take while it was raining outside in Maia? Why was that little studio filled up with friends every day? I can assure you, the old location was a tattoo house with a thousand stories.
Maybe it’s impossible to resume the long hours of tattooing, drawing, repairing machines, trying an endless army of steel grips, cleaning the fucking tubes with Neco’s thermonuclear pink soap, eating like beasts before and after work, having fun…! Maybe it’s impossible to understand as a tattooer if you have not lived a similar experience in your life. And for these reasons and many more, I love that place.
But…! Years passed and, pay attention you fucking Ipad nerds, Nahkoé closed its doors and I was right with una mano en cada huevo. 2011 was ending and the old but gold economic crisis was hitting hard. So guess who offered his hand first to go and work for some days at his place? You are right, Néco did. After that short trip to Fun Tattoo, being reassured and a little bit more confident in my future, I got invited by Monga to start working at the best studio in town : Aloha Tattoos.
But pay attention one more time you dancy tik tok retards, my Aloha days also came to an end four years later and…fuck, back I was at Fun Tattoo! What to learn from this? The old ethical code of help among equals in this craft always paid off. You behave, you work hard and treat customers right then you always have a place to tattoo and a couch to sleep.
This has been my inside view of Fun Tattoo and what it means to me, but I know for sure that Néco and the studio have been an influential force in the development of professional tattooing in Porto too. Many international guests, portuguese tattooers and crazy Chio have been working there in these 23 years, and that means something. A culture of love and respect for the art itself, the willing to improve on a daily basis, that’s legacy. All the new era studios in Porto are in debt with Neco and other pioneers in town, no doubt.
I’m gonna add my name to a list of very respectful weirdos who are going to miss Fun Tattoo very much. Times are changing and the sole mix of good work and willpower seems to matter less and less in the survival of our old beloved model of street tattoo studios. Social media promotion and business management are more and more important by the day. Sometimes it feels like it’s the only thing that matters, as you can judge by the uprising of poor quality shops opening everywhere and careless kitchen wizards. Perhaps, the underground is, again, the natural destination for those willing to keep the original scent of this amazing craft alive.
And after this XL Oreo cheesecake of nostalgia, let’s rise a cup to the future! Néco and Mariana, his best and ultimate apprentice, will keep on working at the studio until the end of October. Afterwards, I’m sure you’ll be able to find them tattooing in the Porto area and maybe travelling around Europe. My advice: go and visit this true piece of portuguese tattoo history while it’s still open. Get tattooed.
Néco, you have my respect and admiration. My tattoo experience would have not been the same without Fun Tattoo. My best wishes for your future, Raquel, Rita and Mariana.
FOREVER FUN!
David Tejero Tattoos & Artwork 