From the early days in Poland and his passion for skateboarding and snowboarding to his arrival in London where all he had in mind was a short break from university doing the odd job and naturally, some tattoos, in order to make ends meet.
But then tattoo became his main job and London his real home where Gorsky still lives and in 2015 opened his own shop Ushuaia Studio. It is here that he creates his vividly coloured Realism/Hperrealism style tattoos which pack such a powerful punch.
Hello Gorsky, nice to meet you here for Tattoo Life! Your style mixes realistic, hyper-realistic and new school. Drawing plays a fundamental role in your works, so I’d like to ask you: has art always been part of your life or was there a click that made you decide to dedicate yourself to it?
Hi guys, first of all I wanna say a huge thanks for the opportunity you gave me to join the interview. I feel so honoured. As far as I can remember, I was always into tattoos. I say as far as I remember but really I mean from preschool. Don’t think I was chasing children with needles though!
My tool of choice was a permanent marker, my body was the canvas.
Now, I’ve been tattooing professionally for 10 years. Why only 10? Because that’s when I got hooked on ink.
Where I come from, there was no one to teach me about tattoos. Had there been someone, I would have had at least 10 years of experience under my belt by now. During this time I have been able to open up Ushuaia Tattoo which is one of my biggest achievements.
What is your background and how did you approach tattooing? I read that you were involved in the skate and snowboard scenes, but you were already tattooing at the age of 16, is that right?
Yes that’s true, partly answered the question above… I was around sixteen when I started my tattoo journey. At that time my biggest passion was skateboarding and snowboarding.
Tattoo scene that day was strongly underground, prohibited in Poland I would say. In the part of Poland where I come from people still think that only prisoners and hooligans can have them. Even now, some of them think like that, which I don’t understand completely.
Then this interest became a job when you moved from Poland to London. What happened and why the choice to move?
I came to London in the middle of my university. Nothing even close to art, “tourism and recreation”, but in my case it was strongly related to recreation 😉 London was supposed to be a short chapter where I came to work, get some money and spend it on holidays. As we see it came up differently.
That time I was a car cleaner and that was enough for average expenses. I could have an iPhone which was a big thing for me those days 🙂 I didn’t forget about my little tattoo kit I used to have. Most of my days off work, I was tattooing friends and people I knew. When I lost my job, I said to myself not going to clean cars anymore, and tattooing will be the only work which will help me survive in London.
What have been the most important steps and encounters that have shaped your style, for example, or your career path in general?
I think that was a time I move to Poland, where I spent two years in one of the best polish tattoo studios those days, having a chance to work around such a great artists like Timur Lysenko, AD Pancho, Tomek Dworniak, Marek Rydzewski and Andrzej Niuniek Misztal. At the time we did many tattoo conventions, making sure that people would remember us.
That was a time where we did our best working hard for our names. It paid off!
And eventually you opened your own studio, rooting yourself permanently in London: the Ushuaia Tattoo Studio. Do you want to tell us something more about it?
That was the end of 2015, beginning 2016. My fiancé and I decided to move to London and open our own tattoo studio. That was something fresh for us but we already had a couple of years experience in the industry and my name was strong enough in Europe which helped a lot. With a little family and friends help, Ushuaia Tattoo London was born. That was a big step for us! A lot of stress and a lot of fun at the same time.
Let’s get to your style, your favourite themes and the key points that really make your style recognisable as yours.
I like high contrast, because in my opinion that’s the key point in tattoos. Love colours because they give me more freedom. And portraits, because I used to think that portrait artists make the most difficult jobs. It all together explains my style. My all custom designs contain a piece of me. They are all the same important.
Colour plays a really important role in what you do. You play with contrast and with light. Do you want to tell us something about your choice of inks and your favourite colour palette?
I have been using World Famous Tattoo Ink since the very beginning. I love the way it flows and how they mix with each other. Don’t have a specific colour palette I use everyday. Most of the time I mix my palette in a day of session making sure it works with my references.
How did you get into the team of World Famous Ink?
I think I asked for samples of basic colours around 8 years ago, because I heard a lot of good opinions about them. They sent them over and this is how it started. During the years I was part of many pro teams but World Famous Tattoo Ink is more than supporters, they are my tattoo family!
Lou, Jackie and the whole team make you feel that you are important for them even after that many years, nothing change with the time. You feel stronger relationship with them.
Female faces are a recurring theme in your work. Are they like little worlds in which the feelings of the people who ask you for them are reflected?
I love portraits, especially female faces! They include emotions, when you add a little story around them you have more than just a picture on skin, you get a little journey deep inside my mind!
Last question: are there any other themes that are more relevant to you at the moment? Maybe some of our readers would be happy to know!
Yess! Important! My tattooing is much better after I started painting 2 years ago.
During the first lockdown, I was unable to tattoo so I resulted in painting and I came to love it too! Another thing that entered my life is music. DJ-ing to be specific. It’s like a drug, an addiction, I get a rush every time I stand by the deck.
