It was a chilly Sydney winter night a month or so ago, we were at Bishop’s crib. The place was packed like a refugee camp, where the only warmth was either from the alcohol or peoples body heat. We were celebrating Bishop’s birthday and before people started turning into shopping trolleys with busted wheels, all over the shop… I was able to catch up with one of our old time mates, Uncle Lenny. No he’s not really my uncle, but it’s got a nice ring to it. He is however, the most down to earth bloke you’d ever meet. With the most wickedess appetite for creative satisfaction, he’s always got something up his sleeve. The topic of our conversation that night was his sleeve and how he will eventually get it tatted seeing that he is now a full-fledged tattoo artist.

Starting with his graffiadolscent years to airbrushing, sculpturing, building sets for films, painting and now tattooing its not often you meet someone that does what he loves for a living… work does not exist in his vocabulary. Although he’s constantly traveling interstate and overseas, it’s always a surprise catchin up and finding out what he’s up to.

So to kick off our first feature ‘Spotlight’, Lenny Nikijuluw was kind enough to let us do an interview with him while he was tattooing his very co-operative client, Kane.

Have you always been artist as a kid?
Yeah I was always constantly drawing as a kid something somewhere, my mum use to put me in a corner with a pad and pen and that’s all I’d need, sometimes she’d think I had fallen asleep cause I was so quiet.

What has been one of the greatest influences in your life?
My mum and hanging out with my brothers in the 70’s.  Just the aesthetics of that period, the way they dress and hotrods, that whole 70’s feel was my main influence.

Kinda giving away how old you are?
That’s alright I don’t care, everyone knows I’m 23 hahaha

So what were the 80’s like for you?
The 80’s was big, Shell Toes Run DMC etc…That was when I started graffin and breaking, I was basically the only one breaking at the Gold Coast (GC) back in those days. I also had three older brothers and when a bunch of mates came over from New Zealand, we formed a crew called The Smurfs and I joined that and amongst that crew there was a bunch of writers and we started bombing sh*t. Apparently I did the first piece in the GC, it was really bad but haha…. There were other guys doing stuff in Brisbane like Bill and Jamie of HYPE magazine.  The hip hop scene was massive in Brisbane, we really had to push for it at the GC but the Smurfs back in the those days were basically the best crew around they’d battle anyone from all over Australia and everyone would come up and battle us and that was a pretty cool time.

So when and how did you get involved with the film industry?
I was in Sydney for 6 years I moved down from the GC to do Stars War Revenge of the Sith.

Was that the biggest film you’ve done?
Yeah at that stage it had been, I did movies like Scooby Doo.

Was that building sets and props?
Scooby Doo was sculpting, which is what I’m doing now, Star Wars was set painting, I tend to chop and change between sculpting and painting.

Would that be your expertise?
Yeah I guess so; I’ve never been trained in either one. I actually bluffed my way into the whole industry its quite funny… the company that gave me a break ended up sending me to Tokyo Disney to help with the build of the second part of the theme park Tokyo Disney Sea, It was a massive job I was over there for a year since then I’ve pretty much never stopped since. I’m working on the next Narnia right now on the GC, but can’t say much about that… top secret.

The coolest thing that’s happened on set or in the studio?
We had lunch with Samuel L Jackson, he was really really cool, he was like one of the homies, he spoke to us like human beings like we were one of the boys, yeah and just had a really good time with him.

Being a multi-talented artist, with your fair share of painting and sculpture work, what made you want to get into Tattooing?
Well I used to pinstripe and airbrush cars and motorbikes and stuff like that for a living so it just went hand-in-hand with that kind of culture.

Have you ever talked someone out of getting a tattoo?
Yep, actually it was pretty bad I once had this guy come in and wanted to get a fairy so I said to him ah dude there’s a mad fairy artist around he’s one of the best you should go see him, he goes “Oh yeah? where is it?” (laugh) There’s other things like a lot of death stuff and dark sh*t especially when their really young. Its not always about the money. Don’t want the kid walking around with @#$%.

Do any other tattoo styles influence you?
I appreciate the traditional Japanese Tebori technique, but as for anything influencing me No. However there is one Japanese artist I really admire he’s name is Shige from Yellow Blaze, he’s pretty amazing.

What advice would you give aspiring tattooists?
Draw sh*t loads, draw sh*t loads its all about practice practice practice, if you can develop yourself as an artist first everything will flow cause learning how to use the machine is the next step and all your sterilization and all that kinda stuff. It all goes hand in hand but really the basis of tattooing is being a good artist, do some life drawing, learn how to draw. And be confident in what you do.

Would you say you got a particular style of art?
Well a lot of people say I’m a realist, but I don’t see myself as that I like to paint what I see if it turns out looking like a realistic painting that’s kinda cool. But if anyone knows Glenn Barr he’s my favourite artist, if I could paint as good as him I’d be really stoked. He features in Juxtapoz a lot, he’s really good.

So what do you do when you’re not doing art?
Um, trying to do art, (laugh) um trying to do up cars and motorbikes, I got a 1981 XS 650 motorbike and trying to do it up, also just bought a 1970 Toyota Crown which has a lot of potential which I’m gonna try and do up like a hot rod. I really like the car culture.

What are you currently listening to?
Everything but I’m listening to NOMAD a lot. He’s a kiwi DJ, its kinda drum n bass kinda trancy its all over the shop, its just really nice.

What was the first thing that came to mind when you heard about the death of Michael Jackson?
Yeah pretty gutted but at the same time it’s prob good for him that he’s gone… that didn’t sound right did it?

I know what you mean, a lot of people were bugging him.
Yeah what’s that song? Leave Me Alone… well he said it a long time ago. Yeah I remember when I used to wake up as a kid and go watch the Jacksons and do the moonwalk. Back in the day he was awesome. I’d still have to say besides Kiss (yes I went and saw ‘Kiss’) It was probably ones of the best concerts I’ve been to.

If you weren’t an artist what would you be doing?
That a really really hard question seriously that’s a hard question, cant believe you asked me that! I wouldn’t have a clue because I love it so much. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else…

Lenny thanks again for taking the time out and chatting with us.

No worries, its been good catching up, till next time.

Yes, yes indeed!  His Sickology 101 Tour will hit Sydney 17th September 2009 @ Sydney Entertainment Quarters (The Forum).

My boys Chapel and Figg got me onto this cat back in 2003 after hooking up with him in LA.  At that time, he had just released his first album, Absolute Power, with current label Strange Music so he was quite hot - I’m talking rolling round with Tech N9ne trucks with his name and face plastered all over them, and when they pulled over, he would jump out together with a street-team to dish out shirts, albums, singles, stickers… The works!  Anyways, I’ve been quite the enthusiast since, thrashing every album front-to-back at home, the iPod, the car, introducing his stuff to as many friends as I can, even blasting tracks at strangers parties.  I even got a tattoo of his face over mine (kidding).  So to learn he was on his way over was music to my ears!  Here’s how it went…

C8: “Did you hear?  Tech N9ne’s comin’ to Sydney”.

9B: “When’s the date?  What day? Where will it be?  How much? (not that it mattered)”.

C8: “September”.

9B: “No it can’t be!!!”

C8: “Oh that’s right, YOU’LL BE IN PHILIPPINES”.

Right, now that I’ve got that off my chest, to you fortunate fanatics of Sydney and Australia, get your 151 and rock-out with Tech for me.  I’ll be there in wishful thinking and spirit.

When I used to work 9-5 behind a desk I sat opposite from a girl called Becca. She was very well-mannered, quiet, shy and a very soft-spoken person who loved to jog everyday on her lunch break. I never would’ve thought Becca would be the outdoors, living-life-large, adventurer and thrill seeker type. Who would’ve thought?… here’s a video BEX sent over of her in New Zealand taking a 134metre plunge off the Nevis River, Queenstown.

Its 8.5 seconds of falling breathtaking ground rush like no other.

Next on her list Heli Bungy in Germany (400m off a helicopter!), Bungy in France and Macau’s world’s tallest bungy (233m). Now this is a to-do-list. BEX to the MAX!

i really should get back to work… but

Not sure if anyone remembers, but nearly two years ago there was a Roc Tha Block concert held at the Sydney Entertainment Centre which featured Sisqo, Naughty By Nature, Akon & The Game.  As much as I appreciated NBN rippin’ it up, The Game was a no show.  I’m still ignorant to the politics behind that but who cares?  He’s on his way back and it looks promising!  Here are the dates for Aus & NZ…

05/08/09 - Metro City - Perth, Australia
06/08/09 - HQ Club - Adelaide, Australia
07/08/09 - Festival Hall - Melbourne, Australia
08/08/09 - Big Top Luna Park - Sydney, Australia
10/08/09 - Convention Centre - Gold Coast, Australia
12/08/09 - Logan Campbell Centre - Auckland, New Zealand
14/08/09 - TSB Arena - Wellington, New Zealand
15/08/09 - Sports Drome - Rotorua, New Zealand

I was completely oblivious as to what to expect from the modern day Compton spokesman, but here’s a clip i found of his recent Madrid show (which is said to be an earlier leg of the same tour he’s bringing to us) that raised my brows and dropped my jaw.

Wow!  I just hope he doesn’t pull a ‘Busta Rhymes’ on us.  Red flags!

Speaking of Jay-Z, his release of ‘D.O.A.’ was a banger.  I’m sure I’d be speaking on behalf of many people out there by angrily saying the auto-tune fad was getting way too out of hand and beyond the joke.  So far beyond the joke, in fact, that there’s been another release of a boycott towards auto-tune.  I found this version favourable, as it truly describes how I feel about the current trends in commercial hip hop. I’ll just leave you in the good hands of KRS-One and Buckshot to explain, here’s ‘Robot’.  Church!