This month Bulleit Frontier works has featured a limited collection of tattooed Bulleit Burbon Bottles created by leading tattoo artists in New York, LA, Portland and Austin.
The limited release tattoo collection marks the first time that the iconic Bulleit Bourbon bottle has been altered with each bottle including a hangtag featuring a scannable QR code to access an interactive Augmented Reality experience, bringing each artist’s design to life digitally. Recently Bulleit linked us up with East Side Ink artist Jessica Mascetti to talk tattoos, Bulleit bottles, video games and more.
Hey Jess thanks for taking time out of your schedule to talk with DeFY. New York
DeFY: Tell us a little bit about your background in art (self taught, schooling)?
Jess: I was always an artist. My favorite thing to do is draw. I was lucky to be born in New York, to study art in high school and then spent some time at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT). I was studying film and the moving image at the School of Visual Arts. Nothing represents the moving image more than the human body. That’s how I made the jump to tattooing – that art captivated me.
I was looking for a tattoo artist for a large back piece and I came across the work of Josh Lord, it took about two years for the whole process including the completion of the tattoo and I fell in love with tattooing. By the end of the tattoo I had convinced Josh to take me on as an apprentice.
DeFY: What inspires you to create?
Jess: There is nothing more inspiring than people and people’s stories. I’m lucky the art I get to do is based on people’s stories and their lives, it’s living and breathing art.
DeFY: Your work is amazing, that Jessica Rabbit piece was how do they say? HOT FIRE. what has been the most challenging piece you’ve ever done?
Jess: Thank you. I won’t take on a piece that I find challenging. I don’t want to be challenged on someone’s skin.
I only take on work I’m confident in. I practice outside of people. The challenges I accept are outside of skin and on paper.
DeFY: Do you have a favorite artist or a mentor that you have been able to turn to throughout your career?
Jess: Josh Lord gave me my start and his mentorship. He and his best friend Patrick Conlon took me on as an apprentice at East Side Ink and are both my greatest inspiration.
DeFY: What’s it like working out of Eastside Ink?
Jess: I’m so lucky to be able to work with people that have become my family. Eight years ago they took a gamble on me and gave me everything that I have today. Very few people get to work with people that are their family and I feel like I won the lottery.
DeFY: I saw you worked on the cover for the original Metroid Trilogy Soundtrack and noticed some Link – from Zelda- references throughout your IG. You -like myself- grew up in the “Nintendo/Sega/Atari/Turbo Grafx 16 console war era” are you into video games/ retro gaming? If so does that inspire your art? What games are you playing these days?
Jess: Yes, I’m heavily influenced by my love of video games from that era. That’s one of my favorite art aesthetics. I have a video game problem – I have no willpower against them.
DeFY: Haha, me too…………
Jess: I only allow myself two titles that come out every five to seven years: The Legend of Zelda and Final Fantasy. I get too deep in to play anything else. When those come out it’s a very exciting time and I get little else done.
DeFY: Going back to that Metroid cover I noticed a nod to Smashing Pumpkins. What type of music is in your rotation?
Jess: I never really left the 1980’s and 1990’s when it comes to music. I love dark wave, industrial, goth, metal, punk – but nothing past 1999.
DeFY: Do you have any Hobbies outside of art?
Jess: My greatest hobby outside of art is theatre. I do theatre when I can. I even went back to school to hone in on my classic theatre training- I’m a closet thespian.
DeFY: When you reach a creative block how do you get back on track?
Jess: There are two versions of me as an artist – I don’t get blocks when I collaborate on a tattoo. I’m inspired by people. When I do art that’s not tattooing, I can get into blocks for up to a year. I still battle creative blocks.
DeFY: How/why did you wind up linking with Bulleit? Can you tell me a little about the project?
Jess: Bulleit is collaborating with four trailblazing tattoo artists across the country for Bulleit Bourbon Tattoo Edition. When I heard about the opportunity I was so honored to represent my hometown of New York on a limited release tattooed Bulleit Bourbon bottle.
I wanted to represent New York the way New York represents itself to me. There is a lot of nature in this city that people overlook. When you grow up you are close to the ground, so you see all the life and flowers forcing themselves through the cracks in the concrete. It’s such a wonderful representation of nature, how we try to tame it and we can’t. I wanted to represent that in my design for the Bulleit bottle. New York is where nature meets art, innovation and human evolution. It’s all here in this city.
DeFY: Working on a bottle is a tad different than working on a person with the end visuals a bit different. Did you approach the tattooing of a bottle the same way you would approach a client, or did you have to adjust a bit? Were you given complete creative freedom
Jess: Working on a bottle was a lot easier. It’s stationary and doesn’t move. I wanted my work to flow and add movement to the piece. My goal was to add life to the design as much as possible.
DeFY: Are you currently working on any other projects?
Jess: Not anything I can talk about yet, but more to come soon.
DeFY: Where can everyone go to follow you and your work?
Jess: Best place to follow my work is on Instagram: @JessMachete