Surrealistic tattoos represent her expressive style while the many collaborations with Stefano Galati are a way of daring and enriching an artistic present that, for Carolina, must never be stopped.
Hi Carolina, I’ve been following you on social media (IG: @carolinacaosavalle), and am I right in noticing that you’ve been more focused on the United States than Italy lately, professionally speaking?
Yeah, in this period, I feel that my work has evolved significantly. I’ve projected myself towards a different tattoo style, which I consider more mature, reflecting my growth both personally and artistically.
One of the most important news was the decision to expand our business in the United States, without neglecting our work here in Italy. We are trying to balance our time between our tattoo studio ‘Royale Ink Collective’ (led by Caroline herself and her partner Stefano Galati. Ed) and our European and Italian clients, and our American clientele. This overseas adventure was born from a strong interest and many requests from clients, but also from our desire to explore new horizons. We are fascinated by the idea of mixing work with travel, an experience that we feel enriches us deeply and opens our minds to new perspectives.
Will you leave your country one day?
I love working in the United States, but my connection with Italy remains very strong. I don’t feel the need to move away from here permanently yet; I consider both places an integral part of my current path. It’s a stimulating balance that allows me to grow and offer my art to an ever-wider audience.
Your Italian tattoo studio, ‘Royale Ink Collective’ in Voghera, was inaugurated a few years ago. How has your art evolved in the meantime? Can you describe this personal path of growth?
I have certainly changed in many ways, both personally and artistically. We opened our first studio in 2014 and then in 2019 we moved and we opened another studio slightly bigger than the previous one (IG: @royaleink). These logistical changes have also accompanied and in a sense stimulated my artistic evolution. My style and method have changed a lot over the years and, as always, are constantly evolving.
I believe it is imperative to do so in this fast-moving world, especially in the field of tattooing. If you stand still, if you do not evolve, you are left behind and lost!
For me, this evolution is not only a necessity dictated by the market, but also an intrinsic need. Perhaps because I am never completely satisfied with what I create and I am always looking for improvement, to refine the technique, to explore new ideas and visual languages.
This path of personal and artistic growth has been punctuated by experiences, exchanges with other artists, study and, above all, constant practice. Every tattoo I have done has taught me something, each client has brought me a different story and perspective that has enriched my baggage. Describing this path is like drawing a line in continuous movement, made of learning, experimentation and a constant push towards innovation, while keeping true to my artistic vision. So this evolution comes both from the need to stay “on track” and from my deep personal need for constant improvement, a path made of study, practice and incessant artistic research.
Do your feminine subjects, always colorful and bright, owe something to surrealism in your opinion? I speak of course about the atmosphere in which they are immersed…
I can definitely answer in an affirmative way, certainly influenced, even unconsciously, my sensitivity and my method. Surrealism, with its intent to explore the subconscious mind, dreams and irrational thinking as primary sources of creativity, finds a powerful echo in my work. I don’t just draw an image; I try to reinterpret in a completely personal way the thoughts, emotions, feelings and deep experiences of my clients. It is a process that goes beyond the surface, an attempt to know the individual in front of me to create something that truly represents him. This representation is not confined to a single style.
How would you describe your art?
My art is a fusion of realism, illustration, sometimes animation, abstraction and graphics. This mixture of techniques and visual languages allows me to vary and adapt my approach to the ideas and experiences of the client. In some cases, I adopt a more dreamlike, natural style that evokes an almost unsettling beauty, interwoven with elements of nature and humanity.
These suspended and suggestive atmospheres directly recall the typical settings of Surrealism, where the logic of the dream prevails over reality. In other cases, instead, the stylistic choice turns towards a more pop, vibrant and immediate language, which reflects a different type of experience or expressive desire of the client. It all depends on the person in front of me, his experience and ideas. The tattoo becomes not only a work on the skin, but a real bridge between the inner world of the client and his visual representation, a continuous dialogue between conscious and subconscious, between reality and dream.
Do you have a method at the basis of your art or is everything born irremediably from fantasy and the unconscious?
My approach is distinguished by a well-defined method and deeply rooted in empathy and connection with the person in front of you. My “method” is not a rigid default formula, but rather a path of listening and understanding. I actively try to understand who is the person who will wear that tattoo, going beyond simple aesthetic demands. I am interested in its history, its passions, its values, what makes it unique.
It is an almost introspective process, in which I try to grasp the essence of his personality. Once this information is absorbed, the artistic challenge becomes to represent this uniqueness in the tattoo itself. The drawing is no longer just a beautiful or trendy image, but becomes a mirror of the soul of the person. Every line, every nuance, every graphic element is chosen and positioned with the intention of reflecting who the customer really is.
What does an approach like yours entail?
This approach transforms the tattoo from simple decoration to a personalized and significant work, a symbol that the person will take with him or her and that will talk about her. It is a continuous dialogue between you as an artist and the person, in which fantasy and the unconscious merge with the deep understanding of the other to create something truly unique and unrepeatable. The tattoo in this way is a story told on the skin.
Do you still work with Stefano Galati or does a tattoo created by you have to move now in a completely independent way?
Of course, it is important and motivating for us to continue cultivating this part of our work. I firmly believe that by combining our two styles, our visions and our techniques, something fascinating and unexpected is always born. The collaborative process is certainly challenging. Putting two different heads together in a single project can lead to discussions, heated comparisons and the need to find common ground.
However, it is precisely this creative “struggle”, this constructive clash of ideas, which leads to new and innovative solutions.
Often, through collaboration, we arrive at results that we might not have reached individually, exploring artistic paths that we would not have considered on our own.
This synergy not only enriches the final result of the tattoo, but also contributes to our mutual growth as artists. We learn from each other, challenge ourselves to go beyond our limits and broaden our creative horizons. The collaborations with Stefano (IG: @stefanogalati_) are not only a way to create unique tattoos, but also represent a path of learning and continuous evolution.
In summary…
Well, I can say that the collaborations with Stefano Galati (IG: @stefanogalati_) are a fundamental and valuable part of my work. Despite the inherent challenges in mixing two styles and two artistic personalities, I believe that confrontation and creative “struggle” lead to exceptional and unexpected results, enriching both the final tattoo and our path of individual growth.
And your last famous words are… ?
If by “last famous words” you mean what I say to myself most often, then my sentence is no doubt: “Don’t sit back and wait”. This is a sentence that was told to me long ago, I was about twenty years old, and it marked a turning point in my life. I have always been a very enterprising person, with a great desire to do; as a good Aries, I can not stand still. However, at that time, I was going through a dark moment, as if I had no more strength, as if I saw nothing anymore, as if the goals were blurred or I was no longer able to reach them…
So then what happened?
Well, that day I was literally sitting, waiting for the train. It seems almost a perfect metaphor: I knew that he would pass, but I did not know whether to get on, what the destination would be, or if there was a destination. Staying there was simple, it was comfortable, it was easy… to wait. And it was at this very moment that an important person said to me: “You are now sitting down, and you are waiting”. For what I am made of, that sentence was a bolt from the blue. It made me realize that I was no longer myself, I was no longer the enterprising Carolina of always. It took a few more months to get that sentence right, to metabolize it and make it truly mine. But when it happened, when I made it mine, I didn’t stop anymore! From that moment I understood that every experience, every challenge we live, makes us the people we are today, and it is up to us to decide not to wait, but to act and build our path continuously.
