Balazs Bercsenyi X TWELVE
Community ARTifact Drop — 10·MMXXI with Obtainable
THE RISE OF THE NFT SPACE
Humanity is experiencing a cultural renaissance. Cryptocurrencies are leading this awakening, with NFTs becoming the new art world phenomenon.
NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are one of the latest iterations from the crypto world. They’re a digital asset designed to track ownership of a unique virtual item using blockchain technology. The majority of NFTs are built using one of two Ethereum token standards as they generally reside on the Ethereum blockchain. By March 2021, trading volumes for NFTs on Ethereum totaled more than $400 million.
The types of virtual items vary from a piece of art, vintage real estate, sports cards, and talismans. Their power lies in being able to sell their idea to a global audience. With no auction house or gallery, collectibles have fetched upwards of millions of dollars. Best of all, artists keep a more significant portion of their profits.
But what makes NFTs revolutionary is how it is bridging the gap between the physical and the digital. Anyone can become an owner of in-game items and build digital capital in virtual worlds. For example, Decentraland, the first metaverse built on blockchain, allows for the creation and monetization of structures such as casinos, costumes, avatars, and even in-game currency.
Connection is made through communication. We communicate through social media, phones, and eye contact. NFTs are a tool like all the others — and allow us to form a digitally native connection in a virtual world. NFTs encapsulate us in an immersive experience within augmented reality.
NFTs are also morphing into the experiential realm. Meaning NFTs can be traded for real-world experiences. Balazs Bercsenyi, a tattoo artist from Hungary, is turning his tattooing skills into an experience-based concept NFT. A digital representation of a creative concept redefines what it means to experience life in both a virtual and physical space.
THE ARTIST
Balazs Bercsenyi is one of the world’s most in-demand tattoo artists.
The 32-year old Hungarian artist has a distinct and meticulous style that reflects his unique chosen life path. At the age of 25, Balazs landed at a crossroads. He could either stay in Budapest and open his own studio or continue to push the boundaries of possibility.
He chose the latter and applied it to the world-renowned Bang Bang, one of New York City’s famous tattoo parlors riddled with star-studded visits. Having tattooed A-list celebrities like Lewis Hamilton, Orlando Bloom, and Winni Harlow, Balazs soon became renowned for his artistic work.
His tattooing style is influenced by ritual, spirituality, sacred geometry, the occult, and sculpture. He is an industry leader in single needle and fine line black and grey talisman tattoos, which have become his trademark signature for independent art projects.
Balazs’ life revolves around the fusion of two passions: spirituality and art. As a tattoo artist, he weaves the timeless threads of mythology onto time-bound canvases. He’s recently begun exploring new realms, including jewelry design, painting, and NFT concept creation. Throughout his work, Balazs aims to bridge the gap between ancient traditions and modern art forms to invoke personal transformation towards the immensely tangible — the retreat, tea ceremonies, textiles — towards the slow and expanded experience of ritual and depth at this moment.
Much of Balaz’s art is in juxtapositions — in the edge that is created by opposition.
He puts “permanent” things on an inherently impermanent body.
He spends countless hours on a piece of art, only for it to walk out the door and never see it again. It goes and literally lives a life of its own on another body that is not his own.
He creates fine lines cutting through an abyss or a vastness all in one touch.
Everything in nothing and nothing in everything.
It’s why he feels that his art is now rapidly expanding and contracting at the same time. To new oppositions — a new degree of juxtaposition. Like breaking out of his own box in opposite directions:
Towards the immensely tangible — the retreat, the teas, a charcoal soap — towards the slow and expanded experience of ritual and depth in this moment.
And the extremely intangible and digital — towards the realm of our minds and imaginations, where a new art form and experience can exist.
He is evolving and expanding his artistic horizons and is now set on touching these further extremes and bringing whatever fine lines and feeling of experience he can from it.
THE ART
Nothing is constant, permanent, or stable throughout the universe except change itself.
Art installations are a way for artists to create stories in a physical space. But now, we’re confronted with two changing variables. The first, tattoos, which forgo the traditional, tangible art pieces found hanging on walls, secondly, how this new-age art form can drape a virtual space instead of the physical one.
Obtainable is exhibiting Balazs’s artwork in a new virtual metaverse and connecting it to a unique story written by the NFT owner. Turning tattoo illustrations into 3D artwork and back allows us to amplify a tattoo’s meaning. Each piece is displayed under a digital exhibit and has a universal home that transcends Balazs and his clients. But exchanged for a tattoo in the physical space, these Artifacts give NFT owners a hand in the evolution of each piece. After the pieces are sold, each decision becomes a chapter in a collective journey.
Balazs is dedicating this year to creating immersive experiences through his art. These will be the only tattoos created by him in 2022.
TWELVE is an NFT experience that builds a new layer onto individual tattoo sessions. The NFT can be exchanged for a tattoo, one of only six created by Balazs in 2022. Or it can be kept as a singular piece of art. By holding all six coins, or a 1-of-1, you write the next chapter of the story.
Much of Balaz’s art is in juxtapositions — in the edge that is created by opposition.
He puts “permanent” things on an inherently impermanent body.
He spends countless hours on a piece of art, only for it to walk out the door and never see it again. It goes and literally lives a life of its own on another body that is not his own.
He creates fine lines cutting through an abyss or a vastness all in one touch.
Everything in nothing and nothing in everything.
It’s why he feels that his art is now rapidly expanding and contracting at the same time. To new oppositions — a new degree of juxtaposition. Like breaking out of his own box in opposite directions:
Towards the immensely tangible — the retreat, tea ceremonies, textiles — towards the slow and expanded experience of ritual and depth in this moment.
And the extremely intangible and digital — towards the realm of our minds and imaginations, where a new art form and experience can exist.
He is evolving and expanding his artistic horizons and is now set on touching these further extremes and bringing whatever fine lines and feeling of experience he can from it.
You can obtain here. 💫
Drop Descriptions
PENELOPE:
And at the end of all our journey, we are to come home and find that all that we sought, and all that we fought is within us. Our growth and our potential is here and now.
INNER LIGHT FOUND:
As we set out, we find our own inner light — the spark of creation that illuminates in the darkness. The light that was always there. And this we must hold.
ZETA
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