Álvaro Flores is a creator. With his hands he makes wonderful tattoos for which there is a waiting list of up to one year. He has lived in Melbourne for more than a decade, where he came from the Jerez neighborhood of Juan XXIII. He arrived wanting to firmly learn English, following the recommendation of the city by some friends.
“My initial plan was to arrive, learn English, stay for a couple of years and continue traveling. That’s what I told my mother, and in the end things got a bit longer (laughs). I met a girl and here I am. She is Australian”.
Álvaro has been tattooing for more than 20 years. He already did it in Jerez, where he had a studio in the Plaza San Andrés, which he closed to travel the world. “I made some contacts and as I saw that I could work and stay in Melbourne, I studied English for four years. Now I have dual nationality, Australian and Spanish, and almost five years ago I opened my studio ‘La flor sagrada’, like this, in Spanish, so that my mother would understand. I’m Spanish and that’s how I put it ”, he says.
He got his first tattoo when he was 15 years old. He has always drawn and at that time he was studying at the Jerez School of Arts. He decided then that he wanted to tattoo and he went to Barcelona in 1998, bought the tattoo machine, returned to Jerez and opened his own studio in 2000. In 2002 he closed and began to travel in Spain. He was working in Malaga, Tenerife, Madrid and Barcelona, where he lived for about four years. Then, on horseback between Jerez and Cádiz while traveling to London, USA, Thailand …, until he made the great leap to Australia.
“I never thought I would stay that long. I do a lot of patterns, geometry, pointillism … that’s my style. When I arrived, that style was not very well known, so I took a lot of clients. And also, I’m from Jerez, I don’t shut up and I know how to sell myself (laughs). Not speaking much English, it went well for me. In addition to making a good tattoo, I think that you also have to offer good customer service. The essential thing is to have a good experience and since I chat a lot, I have never had any problems ”.
He considers that part of his success is the result of “working a lot, until late, drawing daily, which has allowed me to have a level that is what I was looking for. I don’t consider myself one of the best in the world, but I am known for my work and my experience with clients, coming from London. Every year, except this 2020 due to circumstances, I go to Spain to see my family and I stop in London to tattoo at one of the best conventions in the world (The London Tattoo Convention), which has opened many doors for me. My waiting list is up to one year”.
Álvaro’s future plans include staying, for now, in Australia and touring it, as well as keeping his study private and traveling to Spain. “Here I am very well, I adapted and it is a city with people from all over the world. Melbourne is incredible and I recommend it to everyone, especially in the field of image, art in general ”.
He confesses that he had everything planned “to go to Spain in July and celebrate my 40s with my family, but the pandemic paralyzed everything. Here we have been without cases of coronavirus for more than 40 days, although we have been totally confined twice. Not now, but it is not known when it may change ”.
With an accent between Jerez and English, acknowledges that “thank goodness I speak with my family, because I already dream in English (laughs). When I arrived here I spoke little of the language, I did not speak Spanish at all in order to learn faster. Now, from time to time, I sing the numbers in Spanish to speak it a little more, besides with my family (laughs). But I’m sure that when I go to Jerez, the accent comes off my feet, that doesn’t go away “.
Álvaro has a new goal, training in cabinetmaking, he is also passionate about wood. “I am learning with a traditional Japanese carpenter and we only work with tools, without machines. It is a way of learning another art, another way of creating, making carvings of my own designs. Let’s see if in about ten years I can have a level. I like to create and make life more interesting”.
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