What happens when two of our most popular tattoo flash artists (and respected tattooists), Sergey Bardadim aka "George" of St. Petersburg, Russia and Sergey Furmanov of Almaty, Kazakhstan meet up? It means at least one of them gets inked, of course!

We had a chance to catch up with George and Furmanov at George's tattoo studio in St. Petersburg, Russia. While Furmanov was getting sleeved we were getting the scoop on tattoo culture outside the U.S. and some insight into the personalities of these world renowned tattoo flash artists (not to mention skilled tattooists and really great guys!). We learned how they each got into tattooing, how they met up, and about their future plans. Here's what they had to say . . .

Sergey Furmanov and George aka Sergey Bardadim

TattooFinder: What made the two of you decide to get together for this project? Had you met in person prior to now? Corresponded by e-mail? Phone?

George: I didn’t know Furmanov personally before, but year ago he emailed me about his idea, saying that he wanted to get shoulder piece or full sleeve in oriental style. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to tattoo him back then since I'd already had my conventions timetable. So we decided to change our meeting time to now. It was all coordinated over email and the phone.

TattooFinder: George, you are in St. Petersburg Russia . . . Furmanov, you are in Almaty Kazakhstan. How long did it take to plan/organize this? Did you run into any problems?

Furmanov: We did not have to plan it for too long. I knew I wanted to arrive in the end of last year (somewhere in Autumn) but George was not there for that time, he was working in another country, or he was at some tattoo convention. So I had to arrive in St-Pit to get tattooed when we manage to find acceptable time for both of us. It worked out well.

George: No, we had no problems at all with it. He just called me a month in advance, then I made an appointment for him.

TattooFinder: Furmanov, how did you decide you wanted to get tattooed by George? Did you have ideas about the design/styles you wanted? Did George put some of his own ideas into this work?

Furmanov: In the beginning of my professional carrier, I was Influenced by George's works. Actually that was the basic reason why I have chosen George as my tattoo artist. At the beginning I planned to get a large work,(full sleeve or ribside) in oriental style. Initially my idea was an eagle fighting with the snake but during my conversation with George I started to change my mind on some things and we came up with a better idea. And simply looking through the TattooFinder.com website (for Koi) we came to a joint decision to make something deeply traditional with a little "George twist."

TattooFinder: George, how long will it take to complete this tattoo (hours, sittings)? Is Furmanov sitting well or is he being a big baby (haha)!?

George: Since I’m not too fast at tattooing, in the beginning I planed to finish his colored full sleeve in 2-3 months, making 1-2 sessions per week. But after first few sittings Furmanov changed his mind about coloring his tattoo and we decided to make it in black and grey. I was right in any case, it took 2 months and now, we completely finished the work, though I’m still not sure about time we spent working. Talking about pain while tattooing, I can say that Furmanov was sitting quite well, but if you ask me about his personality, I would say for sure that he IS a big baby! =)

TattooFinder: George, we know you travel a lot with the European convention circuits. Furmanov, do you also do a lot of traveling, conventions or otherwise?

George: Yes, I like traveling and always try to do my best for getting as much conventions as possible but unfortunately sometimes it depends not only on me but also travel restrictions, that's why I still wasn't able to make it to U.S. conventions.

Furmanov: Actually this is my first tattoo-related trip.

TattooFinder: How long have each of you been tattooing? How did you get started

Furmanov: I started to make tattoos in 2002. At First it was my hobby (At that time I was an IT specialist and studied at university). I worked at my home and started with tattooing my friends only. They were happy with my works, and they asked why I was not engaged in it professionally. I decided that maybe it was time for me to try work as a professional tattoo artist in tattoo studio. Now tattoos is my profession, hobby and part of my life.

George: In 1985 I leaved in Soviet Union and absolutely had no information about tattooing. But I had few punk friends who wanted to get tattooed and forced me to try, since I was only a person around, who could draw a little. So I made few experiments using a sewing needle and a thread. Doing few really small pieces using this stuff, I got enough information to start thinking about 'magic of tattoo'.... In 1988 I made my first tattoo machine using Russian spring powered shaver “Sputnik”, guitar string and an empty ball pen cartridge. Since then I started tattooing permanently and with better equipment.

Furmanov Goes Under the Needle

TattooFinder: When did you start drawing flash? What styles do you like to draw?

George: I started drawing tattoo flash in 1998 working at a street tattoo shop here in St. Petersburg. It was time when there were just few registered tattoo shops for a whole 5 million person city, so we had a lot of customers but no catalogs or something to show them, except few old tattoo magazines and my own tattoo work photos. This situation pushed me start to collect my drawings making a kind of flash catalog since I was only artist there. Most of that time's designs were in Celtic knot style and can be found at my flash sets 1, 2 and 3. Nowadays I can't divide my designs for styles clearly though I prefer to draw in black and grey.

Furmanov: I have been drawing flash before I started tattooing, approximately in 1999. It was not professional flash. Back then I liked to draw patterns and "interlacings" which was interesting to me. Under the influence of Flash2xs.com I have got acquainted with various rules, which have helped to make my works more correct (more tattoo-friendly). At this moment, I like to work in 2 absolutely different directions: animalism and some "cartoonish stuff" I came up with myself in my style.

TattooFinder: What tattoo designs/styles are popular in Russia and Kazakhstan right now? What’s popular as you travel around Europe?

George: Russia is really huge country, and probably each of it's area has it's unique tattoo popularity, but in St. Petersburg black 'n' gray is still the most popular style, for sure. As you may know, I prefer to work on custom tattoos and most of my Russian customers want to get tattooed in photo realism. Many European customers want me to make something 'engraved' on their skin with 'super realistic 3D effect', some of them even call it 'bardadim style'. =) In Germany, most of normal street shops clients are crazy about small stars. Different kinds of stars: tribal black stars, outline stars, coloured stars, stars together with different objects etc. Unbelievable, but some German tattooists talk that nowadays they make stars for 3-5 customers per day!

Furmanov: Staying in St-Pit I'm working in tattoo studio as a guest artist, and have noticed that demands are very similar here as at home. People like: animals, Fantasy, tribals & celtic, etc. Very popular are works in Black & Gray. But I notice that in Kazakhstan images of wolves are popular too (must be a nation thing or something).

The Finished Tattoo

TattooFinder: Where do you see your art and creativity going in the future? Will you be tattooing and drawing flash in the next 5 years? 10 years?

George: I would like to make more big tattoos, like whole sleeve or back piece, and hope I will have more customers (like Furmanov!) who want to get it done by me. I'd like to have more trips to different countries, taking part in tattoo conventions and meeting new friends. I would also like to create much more tattoo flash then I do now, and hope that I will be able to make 1-2 sets per year.

Furmanov: Yes I shall continue tattooing and drawing flash in future probably as much as I'm doing it now. To put in the different words, I will be drawing flash whenever I'm not busy with tattooing, and that's it! I would like to continue draw tattoos and flash in the same style that I do now. As for tattooing I would like to develop something more detailed and improve my skills in various styles which are: old school and traditional Japanese style.

TattooFinder: Do you have any plans to come to the United States so your fans here can meet you and get tattooed by you?

Furmanov: I never gave a thought about this, but why not!

George: Yeah, I would really like to visit U.S.! But unfortunately, getting a U.S. visa is nearly impossible for most of Russians. I hope this situation will change in the future.