The First Marks

Every Origin Piece begins long before it receives a title.

Before leather jackets, sneakers and Timberlands became finished works, there were experiments. Questions without answers. Techniques without guarantees.

These worn Timberland boots became my first laboratory.

Not to create a collectible artwork, but to understand whether leather could become a new surface for tattooing.

Using a professional tattoo machine instead of paint, I explored how ink behaves on leather. How deep it should be applied. How different textures respond. How lines hold their shape. How colours settle into the material.

The imagery itself was secondary.

What mattered was learning the process.

These first experiments laid the technical foundation for what would later become the Origin Pieces.

Looking back, the imperfections are exactly what make them valuable. They remind me that craftsmanship is built through repetition, curiosity and countless hours of practice.

Every finished work begins with a first mark.

These boots are part of the Baldr Studio Archive and will remain outside the Origin Piece collection. They document the beginning of tattooing on leather as an artistic practice.