Desur
Desur was born in 1988, in a small town in the northern part of Germany called Kiel. He grew up as a creative mind, finding the love for skating when he was a teen. In the same time he got interested in graffiti and ever since he held a can for the first time this became a passion.
I was fascinated by tags and graffiti all over the town when I first noticed them, while driving to places with my family. It must have been around 1997. Two years later when I went to middle school I started tagging myself through new friends who got me into it. We tagged the inside and outside of our school and the bus line 91 who took us to school and back home.
In the year 2000 we moved to a new suburb and through skating I got a new friend which was a few years older and showed me a mixtape of Prinz Porno. His music was totally new to me but I was totally stunned by his style, because I only knew what was on the radio.
One year later when we got an internet connection at home and I was able to get more into Hip Hop as I really fell for it.
Due to several injuries from skateboarding, he had a lot of time focussing on graffiti, lettering and drawing, so eventually he went to an art school after finishing an education as a signs maker.
Style Writing was always the thing that fascinated me the most in the whole graffiti game and after trying a lot of stuff, I think over the last years, especially after I changed my name from AFOS to DESUR I kinda found my style.
Growing up with so many interests in different types of art he got into tattooing. With a lot of passion, hard work and a hint of connection he got an apprenticeship at a Tattoo-Studio in his hometown.
My passion for tattoos was always in me….when I grew up my dad and his friends were already covered in Tattoos and I remember to find it super interesting as a child.
After moving to Hamburg he worked on combining his graffiti style with his tattoos for a few years and made the next step and opened up his own Studio. He gathered a good team and is now flexing his skills between art on skin and walls successfully.
The technique is completely different from wall to skin. What takes a few seconds on a wall, needs hours of work and a lot of patience so it has the same effect.
I started with typical Chicano handwriting styles but it was not well balanced and the flow was strange when I look back now. I practiced days and nights over years and also combined more and more graffiti influences in my letterings. I created my own styles by mixing stuff together to create something I can call mine.
I would define my main style as a semi-wildstyle, but sometimes I also like to keep it simple and easy. The most important thing is to have enough flow and dynamic in each piece.
I started in a crew with mostly illegal activities but a few years later when stopped doing illegal things I joined the Loyals crew (LS crew) which formed in 2008. We all know each other since early childhood days but got back together through graffiti.
In 2017 the Born to Script crew formed and I joined two years later. This is a worldwide crew that focuses mostly on letterings, especially tattoos but almost everyone who joined has a graffiti background.
I had the best time at all events just painting a huge concept wall with my crew or with people I met while traveling, but the Next Level Graffiti party close to Barcelona was one of my highlights so far! The guys from the Petados crew welcomed me like I was family and I felt super honored!
Being self employed allowed him to travel a lot, collaborate with artists from all over the world and make some marks in Thailand, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, UK, Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, Czeck Republic, Netherlands and a bunch of cities in Germany.
Honestly almost everything I do is connected to my art. I love traveling as I am an outgoing person, but being a workaholic I always keep my eyes open for the next chance to connect with people, work together and have fun!
It's so nice to be able to make a living out of what you love, to travel around the world and be able to work everywhere. To meet, collaborate and exchange with other Artists and just to be your own boss with no rules.
