By Amanda Krew
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
Tattoo artist Alex Sabur has been practicing his specialized skills of designing body art for 13 years and over time discovered holistic methods of healing.
“What I like to do is black work,” said the 38-year-old Sabur, who does not use antibacterial soaps or petroleum jellies because of their effect on the natural state of the body. “I enjoy doing line hatching wood cut style imagery. I was always drawn to that as a child. I never went to school for drawing. I just started drawing as a kid.”
Sabur tattoos at 1750 Union Ave. in Woodberry, one of the two Baltimore locations of the boutique-style Stay Humble.
“I don’t like to use petroleum,” Sabur said, explaining his attraction to holistic methods. “You put that in a car. Our bodies don’t naturally produce petroleum so there is no reason we should be using it. There is nothing healing about it.”
Traditionally, artists use petroleum to moisturize the skin while tattooing. Some tattooers suggest using it in the aftercare instruction for their tattoos.
“You’re sealing the pores up,” Sabur said. “That tattoo isn’t going to get any oxygen and it’s not going to release moisture from the body. So, when that happens you’re suffocating the tattoo and either going to get a bad heal or it’s just going to take longer to heal.”
He stressed, “You want to use something your body either naturally develops or something your body could use to heal properly.”
The holistic methods have attracted a loyal clientele that flocks to Sabur for his precise line work and whimsical illustrative realism.
“I’m booked out months in advance,” Sabur said, explaining he is currently booked until January and could extend that into the summer or fall of next year with the messages flooding his inboxes.
Sabur is currently charging $175 an hour for large to multiple session pieces but offers flat rates for smaller tattoos.
Bronwyn Haymes, 21, has been tattooed by Sabur three times.
“As I went to him over and over my trust for him grew,” said Haymes. “His consistency in professionalism and amazing talent made me feel confident and comfortable with the decisions he made. After the first session of my second tattoo I gave him complete control.”
Before Stay Humble, Sabur worked at Red Thorn Tattoo and Read Street Tattoo for six years. He has been tattooing at Stay Humble for two years.
“I went to Stay Humble and it has been the best shop I have ever worked in,” he said.
Sabur said that his tattoos often use symbolism to create a larger meaning to the art, asking his clients to start a conversation.
“I want to create stuff that makes you look at it, makes you think ‘what the hell is this person saying, what is this person trying to tell me,’” said Sabur. “It’s a great thing to be able to have this transition through the past 13 years of growing and getting to a point where I am at this new level where I create work that is solely from my heart so that people can see where I’m coming from and want to get work that has some deeper meaning to it.”
Before starting out as a piercer, Sabur said he worked a handful of odd jobs like bartending and delivering Edible Arrangements. He began drawing skateboard art and once he got into tattooing, the style evolved to more illustrative realism.
“It wasn’t until I went to a few shops and really learned where my style was going that I realized I needed to stick with what was in my mind […] and then more people will see what I do and ask for it,” he said. “And that goes for anybody, whatever it is you do.”
Ironically, Sabur had been encouraged to pick up tattooing much earlier.
“When I originally started, I didn’t want to be tattooing,” said Sabur, who models elaborate tattoos on his own body. “My dad wanted me to be a tattooer. My dad had bought one of those Chinese tattoo kits and wanted me to tattoo him.”
It was halfway through Sabur’s tattooing career that he was introduced to holistic methods of healing through tattooing. The products he uses during tattooing and recommends for aftercare come from a brand called Sacred Solutions, created by his ex-wife and fellow tattoo artist, Jacquelyn Singer Sabur.
Sabur said he first started using Jacquelyn’s products to alleviate a problem with athlete’s foot.
“This information is kept from us by the FDA and the pharmaceutical companies because you make more money selling drugs,” he said, referring to the natural methods of healing.
After witnessing the product’s healing properties, Sabur said he decided to try it for tattooing and has seen nothing but good results.
“Everything is handmade, everything is cruelty free, all natural,” he said. “All the herbs spices and floral aspects are all healing.”
Ingredients for the Stellaria Salve from Sacred Solutions, as noted on sacredsolutionsskincare.com, are described as “a lovely blend of apricot oil, black cumin oil, beeswax, chickweed, and plantain extract to soothe irritated skin, soothe that fresh tattoo, sunburn, and/or dry, itchy skin.”
Sabur is not the only artist acutely aware of the setbacks of petroleum-based products for aftercare.
“There is better technology right now which is called Tegaderm and it is the same thing they use for burn victims and it helps the tattoo heal much faster and with less chance of bacterial infection,” said Taylor Roy, who works at Calavara Tattoo Co. in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. “Vaseline is terrible for tattoos because it is high in petroleum and petroleum tends to irritate tattoos.”
Sabur said, “I would like to see [holistic products] get bigger for many reasons so that people can be more educated on how to heal their tattoo properly, but then wake up to other things like how to take care of their bodies.”
Sabur also recommended letting the body’s natural resources heal the fresh wound that is a new tattoo without antibacterial soaps and petroleum-based moisturizers.
“The dry healing aspect is letting your body do what it’s built to do,” he said. “It’s to regenerate itself, to heal itself. We have bacteria in our body that fights off external bacteria. It does its thing. There are little workers doing its things in us to keep us going.”
Sabur agreed that his commitment to his clients and the art he puts on their bodies are what makes him such a standout tattoo artist.
Anatomy and the shape of the client’s body often influence the flow of Sabur’s designs.
“All tattoos have to have a flow,” he said. “Sometimes you have to be like ‘I’m sorry, but this geometric thin line work is not going to work over your musculature.’ Anatomy is everything. Sometimes you have to tell the client ‘No.’”
Sabur said he is convinced that his move to Stay Humble reflects his own career path, noting “tattooing is what makes me humble. It allowed me to slowly kill my ego so I could create my work on a different level.”