Creating Isn't Copying. It's Interpreting Life.

I can’t remember a time in my life when I wasn’t drawing. My father was already an artist, so pencils, paper, paint, and creativity were always part of my childhood. Drawing was never something I chose to do. It was simply the way I learned to see and understand the world.

In the late 1990s, I discovered graffiti, and it completely changed the way I saw art. Until then, my world existed on paper. Graffiti showed me that art could occupy spaces, speak to people, and transform cities. More than learning a technique, I learned a philosophy. In graffiti, no one wants to be mistaken for another artist. Every line, every letter, every character has to carry a unique identity. It’s not enough for people to admire the quality of your work. They should immediately recognize who created it.

Like almost every artist, I started by studying the work of others. Copying teaches observation, discipline, anatomy, composition, and technique. But sooner or later, every artist faces an important decision: continue copying… or begin creating. That’s when I realized one of the greatest truths about art:

I’ve always been an incredibly curious person. I find inspiration almost everywhere: in conversations, movies, architecture, nature, music, cartoons, people’s expressions, and even in life’s challenges. I believe an artist must learn to observe before learning to draw, because drawing has never been about reproducing the world. For me, it has always been about interpreting it.

Maybe that’s why I’ve always felt such a strong connection to cartoons. Cartoons don’t try to replicate reality. They interpret it. They exaggerate it. They stylize it. They distort it. And strangely enough, it’s often through exaggeration that we discover a deeper truth. A great caricature makes people laugh because it reveals something genuine about them. Art creates empathy. I’m not simply drawing characters. I’m interpreting life.

That’s exactly the mindset I brought into tattooing. My goal has never been just to create a beautiful tattoo. I’ve always wanted every character to have its own personality, every expression to communicate emotion, and every color choice to help tell a story. Because technique can impress, but emotion lasts.

Over the years, I’ve dedicated myself to studying color theory in depth. Once you truly understand contrast, temperature, saturation, and harmony, you stop choosing colors simply because they look beautiful. Instead, you choose them because they serve a purpose within the composition.

That same philosophy guided me when Xtreme Tattoo Ink invited me to create the Planeta Bíu: The New School Set. I wasn’t interested in simply picking twelve colors I liked. I wanted to create a palette that encourages creativity, freedom, and endless possibilities.

The Set He Designed

Planeta Bíu Color Set

Twelve new school colors from Xtreme Inks, built for mixing and layering. Each shade is named after someone or something from the artist’s own life.

Shop the Set

If I could leave one piece of advice for artists beginning their journey, it would be this:

Study relentlessly. Observe even more. Find inspiration everywhere. Learn from the masters. Copy to understand, but don’t stay there. Transform your references. Blend your experiences. Interpret the world through your own visual language.

Trends come and go. Tools evolve. Techniques change. But a genuine artistic identity will always remain.

In the end, creating isn’t about copying. It’s about interpreting life.

Bíu (Planeta Bíu)