← Rafael Cassaro The Archive

The Archive · 02

The Blade

A black and grey forearm piece, built around a single image: a skull, and the sword that runs it through. It was photographed from the first sketch on the screen to the moment he looked down and found it finished on his own arm.

Most of it happened in a dark room, over long days, with the coffee going cold. Nothing in these frames was staged for the camera. It is simply what the work looks like while it is being made.

Rafael Cassaro showing the first references on a tablet while the client listens

It begins with a man telling you what he carries.The meeting

The skull and blade being drawn by hand on a tablet screen in the dark

The idea is drawn long before anyone wears it.The drawing

The stencil pressed against the forearm, finding its position on the body

Paper has to find the arm it was made for.The placement

The first pass of the machine over the blue stencil on the forearm

The first pass. From here it only moves forward.The first line

Rafael Cassaro and the client laughing between passes, coffee in hand

Long days are not solemn. We laugh through most of them.The room

The session seen wide, the client resting back while the arm is worked

He sits. I work. Neither of us watches the clock.The hours

The piece taking shape on the forearm, black laid in first

Black goes down first. The light is found later.The build

The finished skull and blade in black and grey, running the length of the forearm

A skull, and the blade that runs it through.The work

The client sitting quietly, looking down at the finished piece on his arm

He looks down and it is his. That was the whole point.What remains

Tattoo: Rafael Cassaro
Photography: Gerusa Younes
Placement: Forearm
Where: Boca Raton, Florida

Every piece in the archive began as a conversation.