Aarom Hemmersbach

Location:

• Iron Lotus Body Art
• Winnipeg, Canada

Building tree forts, slaying my younger brothers with wooden swords, and practicing shooting root beer cans with home made bow and arrows has led me to believe that I should have been born in a much earlier era. Perhaps a time when craftsmen and masters of the arts and of architecture had the time free of distractions to create masterpieces of great splendor. After attending University of Winnipeg studying Religions and History as well as obtaining a Multimedia Graphic Design Degree to get in line to try and find a "real job", I decided to follow my true passion into tattooing. I found the art and human to human interaction on a very physical level to be very intriguing and powerfully primitive. With the potential to create a brilliant piece of art that will adorn someone, I knew there had to be a great deal of responsibility in this craft. Because the body tissues eventually die and turn back into the earth, I feel every tattoo is temporary, but while it lives and breathes on it's owner, it should be something that both the creator and the canvas can be proud of sharing. With this responsibility in mind, I was fortunate enough to go through a proper apprenticeship and was able to work with and meet some of the great artists in Canada. After working for a few shops, and finding myself part of a group of custom artists looking to try a new type of work space dynamic, I bought Iron Lotus Body Art in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and set into motion an environment where artists are the master and commander of their own time. There is no boss-man mentality, there are no power struggles. The artists come and go as they please, work on what they want to, charge what they want to and live how they want to...and even without a punch clock and a screaming macho CEO, business continues to grow quickly. Go figure! As for my inspiration, I look to a somewhat chaotic catalog in my memory banks, a fascination with medieval Europe, my ever growing 16th century book collection, my weird friends, and the right piece of music at the right time of the day. I may have been born in the wrong era, but I'm trying to make the best of it.