FIVE-MINUTE MASTERPIECES

By mashing up works of fine art with photos from tattoo collectors, Patteef forces us to reconsider everything we know about the meaning of art.

- JONNY WATSON

Despite being one of humanity’s oldest artforms, you don’t see a ton of tattooed portraits hanging in the Louvre. Call it a sign of the times as the Old Masters weren’t commissioned to paint portraits of many folks sporting tribal armbands. But—hear me out here— what if they were? That’s what Patteef has imagined throughout his five-minute collages. What started out as a little fun on his personal Instagram snowballed into a full-blown art project. In the conversation below you’ll learn how the project came about, why he can’t quite consider it art, and much more.

Do you remember the first time you fell in love with art?

It’s not like I grew up in a household with a high focus on art, but somehow the arts were always there. There were some paintings on the walls in our house and my father could draw beautifully as a student, so I remember going through his sketches in the attic. Foremost, we had some books about Rubens and other Flemish masters lying around, and maybe that’s where the love grew. As a child I loved browsing through all those drawings, admiring the skillful way painters would portrait the human body in all of its forms and in different settings.

When did you know you wanted to become an artist?

To be honest, never. Even now, I don’t consider myself an artist like a painter or sculptor would be. I create these collages and upload them on a big tech platform for others to enjoy. And in my opinion, it’s really not much more than that. The collages refer to the work of the real artists—the painters and tattooists.

Do you remember the first collage you made?