Robert Niegel来自德国的一个小山村，却有着不寻常的经历，除了要工作和每周定期的滑板以外，定时去日本做他的纹身也变成了他的一种生活方式。作为世界上不多的由日本纹身大师三代目亲自动手纹的全身作品，Robert的身体就是一份艺术。不妨跟随本期Individuals来看看这个不寻常的滑板人物。

1.给大家介绍下自己吧

我叫Robert Niegel 今年34岁，来自德国。我之前在海德堡大学读中东文化，主修汉语，辅修日语。而且我还在04-05 年在上外交换学习。09年我搬到了上海，并为德国发动机润滑油品牌Liqui Moly（德国力魔）工作。我喜欢纹身，旅行，喜欢车也同时喜欢滑板。我在上海已经呆了差不多6年了。

2.在机油公司里工作是什么情形？每天都需要做些什么呢？

我很庆幸我可以找到一个我自己很喜欢的工作，在2008年毕业后，我很想呆在上海，所以无所谓什么在上海的工作我都会申请，开始的时候什么也不太懂，因为我修的是英语么，所以在商业上几乎什么也不懂。但现在好了很多，我们有了差不多10个人和我一同来做东亚的生意。我的工作内容呢，基本上是去做品牌宣传，到各地去旅行，每年差不多100天都在外面度过，其实我现在就在从台北到佐樱的高速列车上面，我会参加一个我们公司赞助的赛车比赛。

3.你经常在亚洲旅行，最喜欢的是哪个国家？感觉上海如何？

我去过很多亚洲的地方，但有些东南亚的小国还没去过，比如越南和缅甸。我现在最喜欢的亚洲国家是日本，因为那里很干净，虽然忙乱但是井井有条，而且日本人也都是彬彬有礼的。整个日本都一直很高效率，这也许是我德国人性格的原因吧。我已经在上海呆了差不多近10年了，这里一直是我很喜欢的文化中心，所有的东西都在不断的发展，文化，艺术，设计，经济。而且上海人会很开放很支持各种文化的发展，这也是我喜欢这里的一大原因，但空气似乎在逐渐变差，而且上海的绿地也变成了只能看不能用的地方，这失去了绿地的本色。

4.来聊聊你的纹身吧，在哪里纹的？又是怎么开始的？

我其实在上学的时候就想纹一个试试了，但是那个时候的我就想如果我的纹身可以是一个日本的纹身艺术家做的那是最完美的。我一直在等这个机会，直到我看了当时和我一起滑板的一个好朋友Hiro的纹身我才记起来我应该去找他的纹身师帮我纹一个，Hiro也是答应帮我牵线联系。一周之后，我飞到了横滨和Hiro见面，他给我介绍认识了一个老人，这个老人是纹身师，但是已经退休了，他现在不接新的纹身，只纹些他还没有结束的项目。但他的儿子（继承人）会帮我纹身，于是我翻了翻手册本，看到了一幅 Horiyoshi III (三代目彫よし)的作品，可能是和我好友Hiro的名字很像的原因，我想把这个纹到我的身上。谁知道这个纹身师的儿子跟我说也许 Horiyoshi III会亲自帮我来纹。他把 Horiyoshi III的电话给了我，让我回到上海后给他打个电话，于是我回来第一件事就是打电话给 Horiyoshi III。

当时我心里有盘算，估计他肯定会说不，或者委婉的拒绝我，谁知道在了解我是谁和为什么想要这个Tattoo后，他决定帮我去做一个Tattoo，我当时真的是激动的无话可说了。后来我了解到 Horiyoshi III 其实是日本仅存的几名现代纹身大师。一个月后我又来到日本，专程找他来纹身，据说我的纹身也是他的闭关之作，在帮我纹完后他就真的正式退休了。

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VICE 对三代目采访回顾：

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5.这个Tattoo耗时多久，又有什么特殊的含义？

我从2010年开始纹这个身，而且现在只是完成了一部分，在日本纹身是按“节”来计算的，每一节45分钟，我完成了64节的纹身，本周应该是做第65-68节的纹身。在日本纹身是一个有机的过程，纹身师会让纹身和人身一同成长，理论上来说，一个纹身直到纹到无皮可纹才算结束（除了脸，手，脚外）。我开始的时候是一个后背的纹身，后来加了大腿和胳膊以及前胸。其实选这个图案也没有什么特殊意义，很多人认为这个图案是有很深意义的，因为这个图案在日本纹身中还算常见，名字叫”Ōmori Hikoshichi beats an Oni” (大森彦七鬼女退治),是18世纪的一个雕刻作品讲述的是一个14世纪的武士和女鬼战斗的故事。在我的前胸和胳膊上我有两只蛇，一只嘴里含着牡丹，一只嘴里含的是心经，我希望我可以既掌握知识同时也能拥有我自己的天性。

6.除了工作外，你也是个很正经的滑手，你是怎么开始滑板的？

我在一个德国小镇长大，房子外面是森林和旷野，我第一次拿到一块滑板是在我8岁左右的时候。但我有自己第一块真正的滑板是在1992年左右，当时还是从帮家里和朋友家干农活挣的。后来一直磨着爸妈带我去我们小镇上的滑板场滑板，那里其实也没什么东西，就一个Mini Ramp和一些小道具。在我18岁后，开始对改装车感兴趣，所以就不怎么滑板了，2004年，我又开始了滑板，当时我借了金运运的滑板想滑一滑结果就停不下来了。

7.当你开始工作后就很少会有时间滑板了，你是怎么权衡二者间的关系的？

其实不应该说是权衡，因为工作永远都是第一位的，但我依然是能滑的时候肯定会出来滑板，如果在上海的话，每周末至少一天会出来滑一会儿。我最喜欢的地点是吴江路，在淮海路Nike门口也很不错，还有南京路步行街都是相当好滑的地方。

8.5个最喜欢和最讨厌的滑板品牌？

我喜欢PlanB因为我很喜欢PRod还有他的Primitive也不错，Zoo York蛮帅的呀，还有Helas。10年之前我还蛮喜欢Element，但现在感觉他们太环保，一直在树林里滑板，很不爽快，还有Selfish Skateboards，我更喜欢看Jeremy Rogers滑板而不是去说唱。当然我也很喜欢FLY，这么多年一直在不断的进化，而且给人的感觉一直很专业。

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English Version：

1. Introduction

My name’s Robert Niegel, I’m 34 years old and I’m from Germany. I’ve studied East Asian Studies in Heidelberg (德国海德堡大学), my major being Chinese and my minor Japanese. For the Chinese part, I’ve done two semesters abroad at Shanghai’s SISU (上海外国语大学) between 2004 and 2005. I moved to Shanghai in early 2009 just after I started working for LIQUI MOLY (德国力魔), a German manufacturer of engine oils for cars, trucks, motorbikes, etc. I’m into tattoos, traveling, cars and of course skateboarding. Shanghai for 6 years already. Wow.

2. Work Life

I consider myself very lucky to have a job I really like. In 2008, after graduating university, I was looking for any job that would get me to Shanghai. To be honest, in the beginning I had little idea of what I was supposed to do. My education had focused on languages and I was lacking a proper background in the business field. So it came all down to learning by doing. Not easy, but it has paid off – nowadays I’m having a small team of around 10 people to cover my company’s East Asia business. We take care of our customers in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and Korea. Shanghai is conveniently located right in the middle, and most of my customers are within a 3 hour reach. My work can maybe best be described as “business development”. Doing whatever it takes to increase brand awareness and turnover. I’m on the road for more than 100 days a year, no matter if regular working days or weekends. In fact, I’m typing this from onboard the high speed train from Taipei to Zuoying, where I’ll attend a racing event sponsored by my company. Through my business trips I get a fix for my car- and traveling-hobbies. Sometimes I even can get some work done on my tattoo. I usually don’t skate on business trips, because I don’t have the time to. Business trips are almost twice the workload compared to regular days.

3. Traveling

I’ve come around in Asia for quite a bit, but I’m still missing out some countries in Southeast Asia that I really want to see, like Vietnam and Cambodia. So far my favourite is Japan. I’m interested in Japanese culture and language, and I appreciate that everything there is very clean, people are very well mannered, organised and orderly. The whole country runs very efficient and I like that. Maybe that’s my German side… I mostly go to Tokyo, but I’ve been to other places too in the past. Kyoto for example – very beautiful and quiet. Nice to relax and get lost in. But back to Shanghai: Great place to live! It has been 10 years already since I’ve been to Shanghai for the first time. What I loved back then still goes for today. It’s the constant evolution and the change the city and its inhabitants go through. Always something new to discover and experience. And folks here, no matter if artists or entrepreneurs, are not afraid to try out new things and to innovate. It feels we’re at the forefront of today’s cultural and economic development. What’s normal to us, seems crazy for the rest of the world – being able to pick virtually every style of cuisine for dinner, go out to eat every day or just have your favourite one delivered home, have a thousand bars and clubs to go to, have renowned artists on our doorstep almost every week, there’s crazy architecture all around uns, higher, better, faster, and so on. Once you’re used to it, the rest of the world seemingly becomes a boring place. However, I’m missing nature around here, and the pollution (air and water) is increasingly becoming and issue for me. Even though we live by the sea, we don’t get to enjoy any of it. The air is getting worse, and I don’t like to picture what it does to my lungs. All nature in and around Shanghai has been transformed into theme-park like look-but-don’t-touch areas. There’s nothing real, nothing raw about it.

4. Tattoo I

My tattoo is kind of a long story, that started around 15 years ago. I was in high-school back then and thought having a tattoo would be cool. I never got to make up my mind about the motive, so after a few years of thinking back and forth, I almost dropped the idea. Only if – so I told myself – one day I could get a real Japanese tattoo done by a real Japanese artist in Japan, then I’d do it. Back at that point, chances for that to happen were pretty slim. 10 years later after just having arrived in Shanghai for work, I found out that one of my Japanese friends, Hiro, who I used to skate with, had a backpiece done by some artist in Japan. That was a now-or-never moment. I asked him to hook me up and he said no probs. A few weeks later I booked a flight to Japan and met up with him in Yokohama. He brought me to the studio and introduced me to the son of the artist that did his tattoo. I got told, that the old man himself had retired and would only finish up tattoos that he had already started. So his son would do the tattoo for me. I barely knew anything about tattoos back then, and so I thought ‘whatever’! I was too hyped that I got to do a tattoo at all. They handed me a pile of books with the designs of the tattoo-sensei, of which I was to pick one I liked. The artist-name on those books - Horiyoshi III (三代目彫よし) – sounded familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it. Little did I know at that time, that I “accidentally” ended up at one of the most known contemporary Japanese tattoo-artists. That guy’s a legend. I went over those books for hours trying to pick a design that I liked best. At one point, his son came up to me and told me maybe Horiyoshi III would do my tattoo by himself, I should give him a call after I went back to Shanghai. So I did make that call about a week later and explained who I was and if it’d be possible to get a tattoo from him. I was nervous as hell and expected either a “no” or a waiting time of weeks, if not months. But all I got was a “yes” and a “can you come in tomorrow?”. I was blown away when I heard that! I couldn’t go there to start the tattoo just the next day, so I scheduled my flight for about a month later and that’s when it started, on June 12th, 2010. Why he decided to do it himself, despite having retired – I don’t know. He’s back on “active service” now (meaning not retired anymore), but for a while after I’ve started the tattoo, people told me I was the last customer he’d accepted. Sometimes I think all of that is crazy. I’m from a small town in Germany, who would have thought I’d end up there…

5. Tattoo II

I’ve started the tattoo in 2010 and it’s far from finished. There’s still a lot of work to do. When I go to Yokohama, I get tattooed in “sessions”. One session is around 45 minutes. So far I’ve got 64 sessions done, and I’ll be doing session 65 to 68 this week. It’s kind of an organic process with the tattoo “growing on me”. In theory, it’s not finished until there’s no skin left to tattoo (other than the face, hands and feet, which stay untouched in Japanese tattooing). I’ve started off with a backpiece and had added sleeves to it later. Right now I’m about to finish the background work around the backpiece, which now goes down to my upper legs, and I’ll do the rest of my arms after that (full sleeves). Upper chest as well, that one is connected to the sleeves. That’s as far as I want to go for now. Full back, chest and full sleeves. There’s no deeper meaning to the motives I picked. Most people assume that there is one, since it might be common or obvious, but I picked the designs simply because I liked them. The one on my back is called “Ōmori Hikoshichi beats an Oni” (大森彦七鬼女退治). It’s part of an late 18th century collection of paintings / wood carvings depicting ghosts, demons and warriors. It is the story of a 14th century warrior being attacked by an Oni, which is disguised as a woman. On my chest and arms, I have two snakes. One is holding a peony in her mouth, the other one a buddhist scroll with the Heart Sutra (心经). Maybe here’s a little bit of meaning. I picked the flower to represent nature and the scroll to represent knowledge. Both are important to me.

6. Skating I

How did I start skating… I’ve grown up in a small village in Germany with forests and meadows right outside our house. I was used to do outdoor activities all day every day. I’d be outside on my bicycle all year and I went skiing in the winters since I was 3. I got my first skateboard on my 8th birthday (give or take), a toy-board from a toy-store. Red deck with a skeleton on it, and yellow wheels. Few years later, I think 1992 or 1993, I bought my first “real” board at a skate-shop. I was 11 or 12 years old. And I remember that I’ve earned the money myself by helping my family and friends out with some garden-work. Around the same time I also switched from skiing to snowboarding. I’d bring my skateboard everywhere we went for holidays and I’d annoy my parents until we went to each and every local skatepark along the way. My home skatepark was very small, it only consisted of a mini-ramp (a very nice one though), a quarter-pipe and some space to do flatground. I mostly skated on my own, and all my basics are pretty much self-taught. After about 3 years I changed from skateboarding to snakeboarding (which was a big thing among snowboarders in Europe) and then later to inline-skating. When I was 18, I got all into cars and tuning (改装车), and that was when I ceased most of my “activities on wheels”. I started skateboarding again in 2004, at the age of 23. I was in Shanghai that time and ran into a group of skaters at People Square. I asked someone to borrow me a board, I think Jin Yun (金云云), and after a few minutes I knew I gotta skate again! Since then I’ve been skating basically every week.

8. Skating III

“Balance” isn’t really the right word here. Because that sounds like I skate a lot, haha. Work always has to come first. But I still try to skate as often as I can. For sure one day on the weekend (if I’m in Shanghai), and once or twice during the week. During the week means in the evenings, usually between 10 pm and 2 am. My favourite spots are on Wujiang Road (吴江路), in front of the Nike Store on Huaihai Road and the pedestrian street on East Nanjing Road. Those marble ledges there are the best. Love that spot! I don’t mind if I skate alone, or if I have my homies come out and join. It’s either a fun session together, or I get to focus on practising new tricks. As long as I get to skate, I’m happy.

My top fives? I like Plan B, I like what P-Rod is doing with Primitive (what’s up Peacock!), Zoo York is dope, Hélas of course (and love to see the homies pushing it), and yes – I think DGK is cool. Worst skate brands? 10 years ago I thought Element was the shit, but now I think what they release is sometimes a little bit too eco, long hair and skating in the forest. However, I’ve just seen their new am edit  and that was pretty cool. I’m not sure about Selfish skateboards, and I rather watch Jereme Rogers skating than rapping. Other than that, it’s more that I’m not interested in many other brands, rather than disliking them. Oh, and Fly sucks. They’re the worst! Haha, just joking!! I think all of you are doing a really good job to push skateboarding in China. I’ve seen you constantly evolving over the years, and you’re operating on a really professional level already. The shop is sweet and the website always keeps getting better. Keep throwing out videos. I’ve seen some edits and it’s really good stuff! Don’t get lazy guys!