Archive Note
Stizzo came to tattooing from a graffiti background, began tattooing in 1999, and in 2009 opened Best of Times Tattoo on Via Anfossi in the Porta Romana area of Milan. His work takes the imagery of classic American tattooing and filters it through a distinctly European and Italian lens, with religious and folk influences and subjects such as sacred hearts, daggers, roses, and skulls, recognizable for solid uniform reds, dense blacks, and clean precise linework. His earlier engagement with Japanese traditional imagery shifted toward the Western traditional style for which he is now known. He compiled the Schiffer flash collections Italian Tattoo Flash: The Best of Times Collection and Neoclassical Tattoo Flash, and he cites historical masters including Bert Grimm, Owen Jensen, and Sutherland Macdonald as artists he has studied.