DOWN THE WHITE RABBIT HOLE

Over the years, the life of Alexandra Georgieva, better known as sa6ettu on social media, has always involved painting – her grandmother would sketch vases and she would then color them in "extremely incompetently" with her tiny child hands, she copied cartoon characters, and with time found her own creatures and plots. She graduated from the National High School of Applied Arts St. Luka with a senior project in graphic design, after which she delved into illustration at the National Academy of Arts. She ended up finding a bunch of artistic directions for herself that she never knew existed. She does not like people who are bad or poorly behaved, she hates insincerity and rudeness, but she loves to sing and dance, to play the piano badly and to pretend to be an actress. The mantra she is trying to follow is "Be humble, understanding, and courageous." On April 6, her second solo exhibition, The happy world of Sa6ettu , opened at the INTRO Gallery. And last but not least, she has been working as a tattoo artist at White Rabbit Tattos for two years now.

SELF-PORTRAIT OF SA6ETTU

I recently joked about how I've amassed so many collaborations in my portfolio that I should describe myself as a collaborating artist. Other than that, I would describe myself as a constant experimenter, discoverer, enthusiast, dreamer, extremely distracted and emotional, always very eager to work and share my experience with other artists. The direction of my movement is always here and now, because this moment is all we have and there might not be another one. The past does not exist, everything that happened had a reason, and we have to accept it. I would very much like to act not just at the local level, but to gradually start working abroad. To understand more about myself and how I could contribute more to my surroundings and my community of people. And most of all, to get to the point where I can fully dedicate myself to what I love most – painting.

TATTOOING

I started doing this two years ago, which in general is very little time for this field. I have always been a fan of this culture, and from an early age I imagined how I would have many tattoos, but it never occurred to me that I would do them myself. As I mentioned, I am quite a scatterbrained person, and this work requires you to be responsible. You work with people, with their skin, the process is as creative as it is methodical. You follow rules ... But I was doing something that didn't give me much satisfaction and I desperately needed a change. My boyfriend at the time as well as other people kept telling me that my drawings would make great tattoos and that I should try doing this. I mustered up the courage to say "Why not?"

SKIN AS MEDIA

You grab the needle and you learn as you go – it takes a lot of practice and watching others work. You find "victims" who don't mind getting an amateurish trashy tattoo and you work until you get it right. This style of tattoo – the trashy/ignorant style, which looks badly done to put it mildly, with crooked lines or even missing contours, is super popular in the West, but not here, unfortunately. If you learn from a tattoo artist in a studio, it makes a huge difference, because you see everything first hand and you can learn a lot more. Not only the technical part, but also how to communicate with the clients. Human skin is nothing like any other medium, at the very least you're dealing with a living being ... When you draw on paper, if something goes wrong or you don't like what you did, you can crumple up the sheet and start over. The most important thing when working with skin is hygiene – you need to prepare a sterile environment for the process. There are different types of skin and areas of the body that react in completely different ways to the ink and the needle. You can only learn this when working. In general, there are no perfect tattoos (nothing is perfect in this world), so the sooner you understand it, the easier your life will be going forward. What's most important is diligence, a clean environment and a good attitude towards people.

PERSONAL STYLE

I would probably describe mine as ignorant, but with a lot of bold, neat lines. My annoying perfectionism won't allow anything else. Unlike with illustration, I'm still looking for my own style when it comes to tattoos. I'm not sure what exactly I want to do, and I haven't experimented enough to know yet. I am still learning to use the machine. So far the technique I use most often is "hand poke" – the tattoo is done by hand using the same needle as the machine. The line is drawn point by point, with a specific pressure and movement of the needle, which causes a slight popping sound. Hence the name "stick and poke." The advantages of this technique are that it creates a smaller wound on the skin, it heals faster, and it's suitable for more delicate areas – fingers, ribs, ears... The disadvantages are that it is slower than using a machine and not suitable for large designs with more detail and shading. There is not a large clientele for this type of tattoo because it isn't popular enough in Bulgaria yet. Most of the people who come to me are foreigners or know my work as an illustrator.

THE SCHEDULE

So far, I have been managing to balance my hundred different jobs and personal life. Sometimes a crisis comes along, but doesn't that happen to everyone? In general, I'm a workaholic and I still haven't figure out if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I try to tell myself that I do what I can every day, and that's enough.

PEOPLE

The intimacy of working on a tattoo is very special to me. It's very interesting for me to listen to the person or to just keep quiet, each of us focused on our own thing. To be honest, I prefer the silence. You can hear and feel more words in it. I am grateful for their trust and I try to be as understanding as possible. Each story and each acquaintance is valuable to me. That's the best thing about this profession.

THE HAPPY WORLD

April is when my second solo exhibition will take place. The happy world of Sa6ettu at the INTRO gallery was inspired by the popular image of gummy candies – the yellow Haribo bear ("The happy world of Haribo"). I'd had this idea in the back of my mind for two years, and I waited for it to mature enough for me to depict it – it had to be very yellow and absurd. The exhibition brings together a series of my serigraphs in extremely limited editions, which resemble retro posters advertising products, sculptures, and original drawings. They show the image of the Haribo bear and the brand itself, combined with popular and authentically Bulgarian alcohol brands. It is the result of my immense love of animated images and characters in mass culture and industry, which constantly surround us in the urban environment. My attraction to pop culture, alcohol, and last but not least - gummi bears.

I grew up in a remote neighborhood of Sofia and as a child I helped my parents in the family grocery store. I was surrounded by mass consumerism and traditional Bulgarian drunken clichés. At lunchtime I would sell gummi candies to the children and tiny bottles of Savoy or Flirt vodka to their parents. Over time, in my teenage mind, my love of gummi candies was joined by a love of Savoy, which at the time was considered the natural course of things. After some more time had passed, Savoy departed, but my love of candy remained along with the bear, which we all love regardless of age – it's a symbol of our inner child. This analogy happened naturally along with development of the brand's own slogan. It used to be "Kids love it so – the happy world of Haribo," and nowadays it is "Kids and adults love it so– the happy world of Haribo," because gummi candies are loved by people of all ages. This inspired me to express the paradox of two realities, different generations, and to experiment with intertwining popular brands, presenting it all in the form of bittersweet sarcastic illustrations.

More about Alexandra Georgieva's projects at instagram.com/sa6ettu and instagram.com/sa6etattoo, 
White Rabbit Tattoos: instagram.com/whiterabbitsofia.