BERN, Switzerland (MindaNews / 14 March) – It’s always a pleasant surprise to learn about the Filipino artist making good in Switzerland. But I never expected Pinoy artists in an unlikely niche here—in the tattoo business.
My team from the Tambayan Pinoy Swiss, a videomaking volunteers group, met Cebu tattoo artist Benson Gascon in his studio in Mattenhofstrasse here. Less than a year after he opened, Benson has to hire other tattoo artists from Europe and even from the Philippines to keep up with steady demand.
Benson got his first tattoo when he was 14. A friend who was getting a tattoo invited him to tag along and offered to pay for him if he also wanted one.
The experience fascinated Benson and when he got home, he broke open his cassette recorder to get a machine part he used to make a homemade tattoo kit. “The requirements then were not as strict now. And I told my friends that if I messed up, it would be fair enough because I would do it for free”. But his first tattoos were not good enough, leaving just faint scars instead of clear designs on his clients’ skins.
So Benson spent the next years learning how to tattoo professionally, moving to Boracay where he worked for a British national, and also entering tattoo competitions for the experience. In 2011 however, he decided that the tattoo industry in the Philippines was not for him. He sold his two studios in Cebu and moved to Australia to enrol in a fine arts course there, where he met a Swiss girl, Sina Lea Reinhard.
Some years later, the pair moved to Europe, where they got married in the UK. Benson meanwhile enrolled in fine arts design at the University for the Creative Arts. In search of a scholarship for Sina, the pair again moved in 2016 to Switzerland, where Benson tried out his tattoo skills.
His first Swiss clients were Sina’s friends. Benson had brought along only three needles, good only for 3 clients. But apparently the Swiss liked Benson’s style and workmanship and something else.
Entering Benson’s studio is like entering a dental clinic. Explained Benson: “Whenever you go to a dentist, they give you amazing comfort so you won’t be nervous and scared. It’s very comfy, very clean, white and very comfortable. So I always like that ambience.
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He also talks with his clients, trying to interact with the typically private Swiss. “I don’t just work on them and afterwards they pay and go out and it’s finished. I want a relationship with my clients,” says Benson.
He also makes sure the studio is a zone of happy positive vibes. “The Filipino, we are like the Latino in the Asian culture. We are loud, we talk, we laugh, we like good vibes.