Artists are often creative people and the story of Digital Punk is perhaps a textbook example of it. It took only a few months for Mr. Unleashed to find a second passion, with which he can fill the eventless time, with ink. René learned the craft of tattooing and turns out to be particularly good at it.

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Digital Punk was about to board a plane for a booking in South Korea at the beginning of this year, but the coronavirus put a stop to this. Instead of performing all over the world, he ‘just’ sat at home with his family. “My daughter got a set of colored pencils and I just decided to start drawing with her”, the 35-year-old DJ tells. This went pretty well, because he had never drawn anything in his life before. “People said they didn’t know I could draw at all. But I didn’t even know that myself.”

“I started drawing portraits and 4 months later I did my first tattoo”

Anyone who knows the Roughstate DJ a little, knows that Digital Punk has quite a lot of tattoos. On advice of his environment, he decided to purchase a professional drawing set and this resulted in his first real drawing. He showed this result to his tattoo artist, who was tattooing his leg at the time. He said: “This is pretty good man! Maybe you should come to my shop more often, so I can teach you some things.” And so René immersed himself in the art of tattooing.

Things moved quickly from there. Digital Punk soon got the hang of the trade and was allowed to provide someone with a tattoo by his teacher Rob Holterman in August. Realize for a moment: four months earlier, the hardstyle DJ had never drawn anything.

Since then, Digital Punk has been tattooing someone every week, including various fellow DJs such as Rooler and Sickmode. “In this time, when I am not allowed to perform, this is so positive”, explains Mr. Unleashed in his mini documentary. “I get exactly the same feeling from this, as I do when making music. This really gives me something to be happy about, because these times are difficult for everyone and I don’t know how long this will take. But I want to (besides my music career) definitely keep tattooing for the rest of my life.”

Want a tattoo by Digital Punk? You can!

In the meantime, quite a few people have already sat in the chair at Digital Punk; you can even make an appointment with him soon at Black Void Tattoo in Zwolle (The Netherlands). Do you want to stay informed about his second adventure? Then follow the @tattoosbydigitalpunk Instagram account and check the documentary below.

Footage taken from Instagram page Digital Punk / TVL Media