The tattoos? All copies of copies of copies. To listen Gabriel Pellerone, 30 years old, Milanese tattoo artist of international renown, former exhibitor of the original paintings tattooed on synthetic leather at the Biennale Arte, originality in his work is now a very rare commodity. Not so much because he and his colleagues are unable to conceive something never seen before, but because spit customers, as he says, “choose from special catalogs of classic motifs or want to copy figures already seen in books, on the web or other tattoos worn by celebrities”.
To remedy this situation, which makes one “tribal” look like another or infinitely multiplies the tattoos of Neymar or Angelina Jolie on the bodies of illustrious strangers, Pellerone relied on AI, or artificial intelligence, using the Midjourney software. With this innovative program, you only need to describe something in words for the computer to generate a unique image. «The use of AI makes it possible to generate an innovative form of narration», explains Pellerone. «The client can explain to the tattoo artist the themes, the memories, the events that he would like to condense and the artist can entrust to the algorithms, with the use of keywords, this intimate storytelling to obtain an image that never existed before. Then, given that the algorithms have no soul, it is up to the human being to make the necessary modifications, guided by artistic sensibility and experience».
In this way PosAIdon was created, the first tattoo born from the interaction between Pellerone, the algorithms and his client: «A boy asked me to represent the strength and power of Poseidon as he comes out of the water. He imagined him with long hair, a thick beard and physically imposing, holding a harpoon.’ The experiment was so successful that Pellerone now plans to make it common practice. «I’m already working on a tattoo of a boy who told me about the emotions he experienced when he found out he was adopted. AI is perfect for challenges like this. I believe that its use will serve to overcome one of the greatest limitations of tattooing, that of a symbolism that always refers to the same myths and cultures. It’s time for AI to invent new symbols that represent the era we live in.”