Welcome to our Artist Spotlight series. Today, we're thrilled to feature Matt Potts, a boundary-pushing creative force known for their dark sense of humour and traditional tattoo style illustrations. Join us as we explore the inspirations, techniques, and stories behind his captivating artistry. Let's dive in!
For those uninitiated, introduce us to Matt Potts and tell us how you became Matt Potts, the artist?
I’m a graphic designer and illustrator with a macabre sense of humour. I’ve always had a chronic creative itch I’ve needed to scratch but unfortunately I can't always sneak eyeballs and severed fingers into my day job, so I draw weird stuff for myself in the pursuit of creative fulfilment.
Your style blends elements of graphic design and the iconography of traditional tattoo culture, underpinned by a self confessed dark humour - what and who would you say have been the biggest influences on your work?
When I first fired up Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater on the PS1 and a little eyeball bounced across the screen then got impaled by a spear, I thought it was the coolest thing I’d ever seen. Since then I’ve had had a morbid curiosity and dark sense of humour that I like to inject into my work.
Traditional tattooing is by far my biggest influence. I love its simplicity, the beefy line work, anatomical inaccuracies, lack of a realistic light source and I just don’t think I’ll ever get bored of seeing skulls, snakes and panthers.
Designing icons in my day job has definitely influenced my drawing process, I really enjoy reducing things down to something really simplistic then cranking up the line weight so you’re not going to miss it even at a distance.
How has your work evolved over your career so far?
I’ve definitely focused in on traditional tattoo designs and tried to bring my own twist to that. I’m still evolving and refining my craft, I still create things I’m not happy with and that’s okay, I just learn what I can from my failings and try and do better next time.
Tell us about your creative process & where do you draw inspiration for your work?
I get a lot of inspiration from tattoo artists like Adam Hudson and Dan Allen. Scrolling through Instagram will often spark some creative fire in me.
I’ve been writing a list of design ideas for about 7 years now, a lot of them are pun based and not all of them are good. Whenever an idea comes to me that I find mildly amusing I’ll pop it on the list.
I’ll start out by doing a quick sketch of an idea on paper, then I’ll jump on the laptop and try and create it on Illustrator. I like restricting myself to drawing with mostly just circles and squares, it brings an element of problem solving to the drawing process that I really enjoy.
What creative avenues, processes and styles do you want explore in your work that you have yet to try?
I definitely want to get a bit looser, throw in a few more wonky lines and explore texture like some nice peppery whip shading. I want my designs to get weirder, darker and more surreal.
I’d love to go for a tattoo apprenticeship, I’m just not able to fully commit to it at the minute so until then I’m going to learn to paint flash.
Tell us about the inspiration behind this latest Bonehead collection?
What’s cooler than a skull? That’s right, nothing. I wanted to design something unique to Blind Maggot, so inspired by the awesome brand name I wanted to find a way to combine an eyeball, maggot and a skull. I hope this chap is dark and humorous in equal measure, and people get as much enjoyment from it as I had designing it.
How does it feel seeing people wearing in your work in real world settings?
I love seeing how people react to my work whether its a groan, pained smile or even a laugh. I don’t want to get soppy but it’s awesome when someone likes your work enough to wear it, makes me feel all warm and fuzzy on my vegan sausage roll clogged insides.
Where can people go and find out more about you & your work?
I’m a bit quiet online, mostly my work gathers dust in folders on my laptop but when I do share things with the world I usually do it on Instagram @mattpottstattoo
Grab yourself a Matt Potts, Bonehead t-shirt here : https://www.blindmaggot.co.uk/products/bonehead-by-matt-potts-collab-limited-edition-t-shirt
