When it comes to range of tattoo experience, Kian (pronounced like “Ian” with a K) has soaked up an entire planet’s worth. Tattooing professionally since 1993, Forreal was first exposed to the tattoo artist lifestyle in Toronto, Canada, back in 1986.
Since that time he’s tattooed everywhere from his native Canada, to Spain, to the USA, to Denmark, to Holland, to…man oh man, let’s just say he’s tattooed at a lot of different places in a lot of different countries over the course of his 16-year career, okay? As of 2008, he tattoos at Sydney, Australia’s Inner Vision Tattoo.
Style-wise, Forreal creates complete universes of Japanese style tattoo in the form of, but not limited to, sleeves and back pieces. He’s also created an extensive portfolio of various script tattoos. Forreal’s Japanese work in particular and his attitude toward it, carries with it a certain level of respect and understanding of the style – a quality that is extremely important for tattoos and tattoo artists of this stripe. Says Forreal:
“Like a fine wine or single malt scotch that only gets better with age and never goes out of style, modern Japanese tattooing is the culmination of hundreds of years of tradition, art, mythology, mystery, and technique. It is the very pinnacle of what great tattooing should be and it is! It is by far the most complicated and involved of all the tattooing styles and even after decades of practice in this style one is still learning something new everyday.”
Amen to that, Kian.
Forreal has also recently announced that he will be doing a guest spot at Royal Tattoo in Helsingor, Denmark, from September 1st-5th, 2009. According to Forreal’s website, those spots are quickly filling up and are very limited. Unfortunately, that news comes from June 25th, so most likely Kian’s time is totally booked up by now.