Pro Team Artist Interview: Alex666cold

COMMUNITY

2026-08-31

Most artists find their way to tattooing. Alex666cold built his way in – literally. At 13, in Belarus, he built his own machine: a small motor, a guitar string, the barrel of a gel pen, all running off a 9-volt battery. Before that summer was over, he had already given his first tattoo to a friend.

Today, Alex666cold works out of Wrocław, Poland, in color realism and hyperrealism. Portraits, cover-ups and miniature work sit at the heart of his practice.

I got into tattooing very early – I was 13, and I did my first tattoo at the very end of that summer, right before September. I’m 31 now, so this fall I hit 18 years of tattooing. More than half my life. And it lands right as I’m joining Revolution, which feels like a gift I’ve earned.”

How Alex666cold Got Started in Tattooing

It started with machines I built myself – a small motor, a guitar string, the barrel of a gel pen, all of it running off a 9-volt battery. I sold those machines to my friends from the block, and I tattooed with them myself. My very first tattoo was a Pisces sign on a friend’s shoulder – two little commas lying on their side. It was hell for both of us. He still had it last I knew – he never touched it. We lost contact many years ago.

Then my mother backed me. We were living in Belarus at the time and you couldn’t buy a real machine there, so she helped me order my first professional one – a coil machine – all the way from Poland, and we waited for it to arrive. And honestly? I didn’t like it. It spat ink, it had its own weird character. My homemade ones – motor and guitar string – fed ink perfectly and never sprayed the skin. The coil took me a long time to understand and to tune.

Old school and neo-traditional were everywhere then, built around bold, clean outlines. Alex666cold went in another direction.

I could never lay a line like that. I still can’t, honestly. That’s exactly why I went into realism: it’s the one style that doesn’t need perfect bold linework.”

The Kraków Course That Turned Into a Job

Alex666cold dates the start of his professional career to 2013, when he went to Tattoo Familia in Kraków. He enrolled in a tattoo course because he wanted an official certificate to hang on the wall when he eventually opened his own studio.

As far as I knew, it was the only studio in Poland running courses for tattoo artists and issuing official certificates, and I went there for the paperwork – I wanted something official on the wall for when I opened my own studio, so people would take me seriously. That was the whole reason. I honestly don’t remember why it mattered so much to me back then.

By the second day, he was already explaining things to the other students. At the end of the course, the owner, Robert, handed most of his fee back and asked him to stay at the studio.

When it was time to pay for the course, Robert looked at me and said, ‘Man, you’re the real deal. Keep your money.’ He took about 100 euros, just enough to cover the paperwork for the certificate, and gave the rest back. Then he asked me to stay and work at the studio. That’s where my career actually started – I didn’t leave with a certificate, I left with a job at Tattoo Familia. I went straight to the shop and spent that money on a new machine, a Stigma Prodigy, and I worked on that machine for years.”

At Tattoo Familia, he worked around artists including Kamil Mocet, Paweł Głód and Gabriel Tattoos. It was also where he met Ryan Evans, who Alex666cold still calls “a god of black and grey.”

The Conversation That Changed His Tattooing

Ryan Evans was a major figure for Alex666cold. But when he talks about the artist who actually changed the direction of his own tattooing, the answer is A.D. Pancho.

We met in 2014 at the tattoo convention in Łódź, at a venue called Dekompresja – this strange multi-level space, and the whole thing was still proper underground, really informal. That was the era when tattooing was still a subculture. He was working on one killer piece – back then everything he did was all over the internet – and he turned out to be a totally down-to-earth guy, no ego at all. He took a break, and we stood outside having a smoke, talking for about an hour and a half. That conversation became a turning point in my tattooing. It gave me the strength to keep going and keep pushing my quality up.

Beyond that, I don’t really have idols. What motivates me are the people around me, their stories, and how much they put into what they do. I try to take something from everyone who impresses me.”

Color Realism and Hyperrealism: Technique Comes First

Portraits sit at the center of Alex666cold’s work. He likes sci-fi too, although he says he rarely gets to tattoo it. His view of hyperrealism is practical rather than romantic.

Everything I do sits in hyperrealism, and hyperrealism means putting a photo on skin one to one – so it doesn’t take much imagination. What you need is technique. Realism and hyperrealism use every technique that exists – dotwork, lines, tiny dots, packing color with completely different needles. Color realism, like hyperrealism, is a huge base of knowledge on every technique. Plus knowing which one to grab at the right moment.”

That technical range is also why cover-ups sit so naturally inside his work.

Color realism and hyperrealism. I also do a lot of cover-ups in the same style – realism with a ton of detail is exactly what you need on a cover-up. All that detail is what buries the old work.”

The Details Nobody Notices at First

Animals. Characters from films. Monsters – I love the texture on monsters. And all the small strange details: fabric folds on a full-body piece, the little things nobody notices at first.

I prefer smaller portraits over big ones. Big ones are fine too, but the miniature ones are where I’m happiest. Basically anything that demands a huge amount of detail.”

Staying Sharp After Nearly 18 Years

Mostly by looking at a lot of work and by talking to people. I don’t really have time to paint or draw outside of tattooing, unfortunately. But when I sit down to tattoo, I’m completely locked in. My colleagues will back me up on that.

And there’s one rule that probably built my whole career: I never use drugs, and I never drink while I’m working. My head is always clear and fully focused, and I think that’s exactly what has kept my level steady for all these years.”

Seminars and masterclasses are the part I really love. I love watching the people I teach take steps forward. That motivates me.”

Why Alex666cold Joined the Revolution Needles Pro Team

It’s a big step forward for me, because I’ve finally found something I’m happy to work with every single day – on every skin, every tattoo, every task.”

His relationship with Revolution cartridge tattoo needles began on the other side of the machine.

My first contact with Revolution cartridges was, funnily enough, on my own skin. I went to my friend Oxi for a session – she was tattooing a demonic Catholic priest on my leg – and I noticed straight away that those needles behave differently. The hit is muted, softer, less painful. And after a single pass there was an enormous amount of ink sitting in the skin. I was working with other brands at the time and it just wasn’t like that for me.”

He asked what she was using. Oxi put together a pack of 20 cartridges for him: 19, 15 and 9 Soft Edge Magnums, plus 9 Round Shaders.

Usually when someone gives me needles, I put them in a drawer. Maybe I’ll try them one day, maybe I won’t. But these I was actually curious about – and the moment came.”

The Shoulder That Changed His Cartridge Tattoo Needle Setup

I was working with my usual needles and the ink was going in worse than normal. Every tattooer knows the shoulder behaves completely differently on every person. Sometimes packing color into the top of it is brutal. I finished day one very unhappy with how my setup was behaving on that skin. So on day two, more or less out of desperation, I started trying different needles – including Revolution. And they just worked. They gripped the skin properly and packed color fast. I finished day two around 6:30 p.m. instead of the 2 a.m. I had planned for.

That night I recorded a story with no agenda behind it at all – I just told other artists to try these needles, because it’s out of this world, that’s how good they are. And my gut was right.”

Alex666cold says he has since used the cartridges across every skin and placement he has put them on, including the areas he finds hardest to saturate.

They’ve worked on every skin and every placement I’ve put them on. You can pack ribs with them. You can pack backs. All the places that just won’t take color with other needles. Healing is consistently excellent. I haven’t had a blowout or a healing problem since I switched to Revolution. The saturation left after a pass is on another level. I never got that from other brands. My speed went up by around 30%. The trauma to the skin is far lower. And the Round Shaders take pressure really well without blowing the skin out.”

Teach, Don’t Advertise

As for what I want to bring to the Pro Team: I want to teach, not advertise. Through my seminars and masterclasses I can show artists on live skin how you actually dial in your machine and your hand with these cartridges. Watching someone I taught move forward is the thing that motivates me most. That’s worth more than another promo post.”

Alex666cold’s Favorite Tattoo Needle Setup

His setup is built around control. With Magnums, that means Long Taper.

All my Magnums are Long Taper – they let me stay on the skin longer and saturate it the way I want. Medium Taper hits harder and packs the ink in practically one pass, which isn’t how I work.”

Cartridge	Gauge	How He Uses It
3 Round Liner	0.25mm	Marking out
3 Round Shader	0.35mm	Fine detail
5 Round Shader	0.35mm	Detail plus small areas of color
9 Round Shader	0.35mm	Larger areas of color – used rarely
5 Round Liner	0.30mm	“One of my favorite cartridges.” Sharp detail, especially in the focus area
7 Soft Edge Magnum · Long Taper	0.30mm	Detail. “Sometimes I go to 7 in 0.35, which is a bit stiffer. The 7 Soft Edge lays color softer and lets me pass over the skin several times – which is exactly what I need.”
13 Soft Edge Magnum · Long Taper	0.35mm	Large areas
19 Soft Edge Magnum · Long Taper	0.35mm	Large areas