Labigotta

add: Hi Anna, tell us your story, how you get started tattooing?

A: Back in 2012, as I had just closed my tailor’s shop in Rome, I was feeling a little lost and to cheer me up my husband gave me a tattoo kit for my thirtieth birthday. Unlike him, I have nev-er been interested in tattoos and, to be honest, I didn't appreciate the gift right away. After almost a year, to challenge myself and have fun, I watched a couple of videos to under-stand how the machine worked and I decided to try it. I chose one of Samuele’s drawing [ed. her son] and did my first tattoo. As soon as I began I realized that the act of indelibly tracing drawings on someone skin would give me great satisfaction. After spending a couple of months studying the technique, I realized that in order to make a name for myself I needed to find an expression that was mine, a distinctive trait. Hence the decision to temporarily withdraw from tattooing to discover myself as an illustrator. I drew in one go mixing my tastes: vintage style, Victorian art, surreal characters, and thus were created the “cloud woman”, the “rose woman”, the “diver woman”, my sea - which I see as a metaphor of life: sometimes raging, sometimes serene. And then the hearts, which I see as special containers of every kind of stories. After a year I moved to Milan, and “LaBigotta” boomed with fame.

add: So Milan was one of the sparks that allowed your self-realization?

A: Yes exactly, the city inspired me, especially on the creative level. Milan was like the missing piece of a puzzle. It is open to novelty, it’s creative and young. Mi-lan is a city that I immediately felt like "mine", a city that offers the possibility of reinventing yourself, the “Italian American dream".
In a few months my schedule was full: everyone wanted “LaBigotta”’s tattoos.

add: One of the founding value of add is lightness, a characteristic of our down jackets which are very warm and extremely soft - but also an approach to life, which is not superficial, but meant to living life with a conscious positivity. Do you recognize yourself in this value?

A: Yes, it is exactly the mood that I try to recreate in my studio and in my life. I consider myself a positive person, not superficial, and above all grateful. 

add: At the beginning you said you started with a tailor shop: what are your "insider" comments on add garments?

A: I love add down jackets, the fact that they are "embracing", the feeling of being wrapped in an hug that warms you up and pampers you. And I also like their versatility: they lend themselves to personal interpretation. It is a very important feature, especially for outerwear, since it is in-evitably combined with other elements of your wardrobe.

add: Speaking of personal expression: what makes a tattoo your expression?

A: The truth is that a tattoo is a particular entity: it is both the expression of the person who “wears” it (the tattooed one) and of the person making it (the tattoo artist).For me, despite having doing this job for 9 years now, every morning I get up thrilled and ex-cited about the idea of creating a new tattoo, because I am aware that it is a process in which a story, an intimacy is first brought to light and then imprinted, it is a permanent feeling in a person's life.
This makes me extremely honored.
What's more, the extraordinary thing is that my style and my illustrations do not need a signa-ture to be recognized, they are my own particular expression and people recognize them for that.

Each tattoo is then a unique piece. It comes to life on the yellow sofa in my studio, after having chatted and discovered the story of the person in front of me. This is why they are all special pieces: they are not just drawings, they are stories transformed sometimes into memories, other times into goals.