What makes a true artist? Some will say it’s technical proficiency. An artist—no matter their craft—must be masters and stun you with the sheer scale and beauty of their work. Others talk about the depth and purity of an artist’s soul. How they must be sensitive to the full scope of human emotion and use those feelings as drivers of creativity. Even more will claim the artist is someone who never plays to the crowd. Instead, they’re fiercely independent, shunning the masses and always striving to discover the parts of humanity that only they can understand and voice. To me, what makes someone an artist is that they’re never beholden to their past. They’re in constant transformation, fluctuating between ideas, characters, and even artistic forms as naturally as a chameleon changes colour. When you think about an artist in this sense, not many people come as close to doing justice to that title as Danis Nguyễn.
Danis recalls his childhood with a glimmer in his eye. He remembers waking up early in the morning, heading out with friends from his neighbourhood to go swimming on the beaches of Nha Trang, catch crickets, or play football. While he very much felt a part of his community as a boy, the older Danis got the more he started to wonder whether he truly belonged. This was only magnified when drawing, rock n’ roll, and tattoos entered his life. It was the former that would go on to define his upbringing the most.
Danis began drawing at the age of eight after his family enrolled him in art classes. He quickly found himself engrossed in the craft, and as a lot of children are, was drawn by the simple curiosity to depict the things he saw, learned about, or found beautiful. His inspiration then was a childlike fascination that sought to appeal to beauty in all its many forms: whether through a portrait, portrayals of Vietnamese culture and stories, or anything his imagination could come up with. Danis possessed an innate talent for the craft, particularly drawing with detail, and this skill eventually transferred to different styles of the art form like painting. For Danis, painting opened another world. What he loved was that it allowed him to turn the images inside his head into something physical and real. He got to tell stories through imagery and express himself with colour, brushstrokes, and composition. Despite how difficult it could be to authentically convey what he felt inside, it was that difficulty itself that excited him. Oil painting and lacquer painting were among his favourite ways to work. Having said that, given that lacquer took a lot of time and effort to get right, Danis spent more time dedicating himself to oil painting. In particular, he loved the moment when colours blended into one another. He spoke about this with all the verbosity of a true poet, noting how the meeting resembled the union of rain and sun to create a rainbow, or that sense of peaceful quiet you get when you’re sitting in the mountains at night, watching the fireflies and constellations above. Throughout our conversation, Danis would continue to pepper his sentences with such thoughtful lines, speaking to his unique understanding of the world and his place inside of it.
At the age of twelve, Danis passed the entrance exam for his province’s gifted art program and he was awarded a scholarship. While his parents—who had both been doctors in the war—still might’ve had trouble understanding their son’s obsession with art, this scholarship at least provided them with the comfort that what he was doing had merit. On the other hand, what this achievement did for Danis was crystallise a belief that had been growing in his mind for some time. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to rely on his parents in the future given that following them into the medical field wasn’t a realistic path for him. So began a period that not only catapulted Danis’s artistic capabilities, but also his want and need for independence. However, the lines between independence and rebellion often blur, and so it was during the subsequent teenage years that Danis began listening to rock n’ roll, drinking and smoking, and spending nights with his friends far away from any watchful eye.
Rock n’ roll entered Danis’s life with a bang. First on the soundtrack were bands like Metallica and Slayer, who captivated him with the might of their sound. Eventually musicians like Coldplay, Soundgarden, and Eric Clapton would play nonstop before Linkin Park and Radiohead took over. For the teenaged Danis, music served as a source of inspiration, comfort and understanding—giving him not only role models to look up to, but an identity by which he could define himself. As he put it, the whole style of rock n’ roll offered a revelation, and Danis leaned into it as much for the attention it might get him from girls as well as the ego boost of feeling “cool”. Walking down this path, it wasn’t long before Danis ended up getting a tattoo. He was sixteen and the world seemed his for the taking in the way that it only can for rebellious teenagers. It would be four years before he started learning to tattoo on his own but from the moment that first tattoo gun pierced his skin, his destiny was etched into his soul.
Given his devotion and talent at art, Danis later received a scholarship to the Nha Trang College of Culture and Arts. While he and his friends had been expanding their minds through music up until then, heading to college where an even larger community of creatives studied put Danis in a position to meet and connect with people of all different personalities and backgrounds. According to him, these teenage years—from his first discovery of the rebellious sound of rock n’ roll to the hotbed of cultural and creative exploration at college—served as the foundation for the individual he has become today. They taught him independence, resilience, and gave him the confidence and willingness to stand on his own two feet.
After college, Danis moved to Saigon where he continued his studies in fine art at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Fine Art. It was here he would meet Phan Vũ Linh, a fellow artist who would go onto pioneer Vietnam’s digital and concept art scenes. Incidentally, Linh also loved rock n’ roll music and it was through their connections in this community that they became friendly. After graduating, Danis took his skills as a painter and applied them in the film industry. Besides that, he also worked on commercials and even helped out at a furniture business. It was the latter venture that introduced him to his wife Phoebe. Twenty-five at the time, Danis had already been married once and fathered a son. Meeting Phuong, he knew that what he needed was a family woman who would take care of everything and give him the space to flourish as an emerging artist. While he joked that she didn’t like rock n’ roll so they have their differences, they got married and have been ever since. In the same year Danis became a husband, he also started getting heavily into tattooing. Part of this had to do with his love of rock n’ roll and his friendship with director Lê Thanh Sơn. According to Danis, Sơn would organise a monthly rock concert which he would frequently attend. Through these events and his already substantial connections with members of the rock community, Danis became the go-to tattoo artist for many of these musicians. In this manner, he grew his brand, reputation, and clientele even before he’d opened his first tattoo studio.
The other, more reflective reasoning behind Danis’s emergence as a tattoo artist came as a result of the need to earn a living. Simply put, there’s a stability in tattooing that doesn’t exist in painting, given that it’s an industry where a client pays for your services, as opposed to the latter where you’re trying to sell a product to a customer. While Danis loves everything about painting, the one thing he dislikes is the harshness of the world that painters—and artists as a whole—must endure. As he put it, most painters do not possess the luxury of money which would allow them to live and work in an environment where they can devote their time and spirit to their craft. While it’s true that great pieces of art have been produced in dire circumstances, for many up-and-coming painters, poverty can feel as if it's always around the corner, making the artistic journey one that’s more defined by hardship, pressure, and loneliness. This is why many end up pivoting in a different direction to support themselves. As a consequence, the world loses out on artists who—if they’d had the time, support, and space—might’ve changed everything with their art.
Saigon Ink started when Danis turned twenty-seven. Their first store opened far away from the city center and after a week in operation they were hit with a fine because they didn’t have a license. From there, Danis decided if he was going to do this, he needed to take it seriously. He paid for a license, established a company under the name Saigon Ink, and then began figuring out how to run a business. He’d been tattooing mostly on friends on-and-off for seven years at that point so he wasn’t new to the craft, but what separated him from most other tattoo artists was his background in painting. As Danis said, “without painting, I could’ve very easily become a master ‘copy’ artist. Someone who can reproduce what they see, but doesn’t understand the structure behind it.” Painting helped him distinguish between what was truly creative and what was merely recombined. With his foundational knowledge of form, colour, light, structure, and the composition of an image, Danis was able to stand out with his tattoos. This garnered the Saigon Ink brand wide-spread acclaim and points to their current success. With three different outlets in the city and roughly twenty different tattoo artists now working in the company, the brand is a proud torchbearer for Vietnam’s position in the global tattooing scene. However, for Danis, the road to glory wasn’t without its bumps.
Becoming a business owner meant that Danis could no longer just focus on art. Alongside his tattooing, he had to manage, market, and operate a business, which, as it grew, began to attract different artists who came with their own egos. For Danis, ego is not the problem per se, but when egos clash it becomes an issue. That’s why he constantly has to remind himself and the artists that work for Saigon Ink to leave their egos at the door. It took a while for Danis to learn how to do this, especially considering he had to assume different roles and responsibilities throughout this period. The reality was, he could no longer simply be Danis the artist. He was also Danis the businessman, husband, and father. Eventually in this journey, Danis would come to the epiphany that he’d rather take his time going far with others instead of going somewhere quickly by himself.
When he turned thirty, Danis was able to buy his first car and house. By all measures, he was a success. However, despite these worldly possessions, he found himself plagued by a simple question: What is happening to me? As a businessperson, he recognised how easy it was to be happy. All he had to do was make more money. But as an artist, something was missing. Eventually, he began to lose passion for his work. Nothing excited him any more and he experienced a wave of depression. Money was boring. Status was boring. He even joked that sex became boring. As the universe around him began to lose the sparkle that had once made it shine so beautifully, Danis began to wonder why human beings suffer. He started by reading different philosophies in hopes of finding an explanation. It was only when he dived into Buddhism that he began to find answers that satisfied him. However, this quest wasn’t merely as simple as reading a book and discovering the truth—Danis went on the road to find his truth. These travels took him to different parts of Vietnam where he sought out teachers and monks. Staying with them in their temples in the mountains, he devoted himself to spiritual training. Beyond Vietnam, he even travelled to India, Nepal, Thailand, Cambodia, and other regions. He says he was fortunate enough to meet Lamas on his pilgrimages, many of whom he confided in. At some point, he began to think that if he wanted to heal himself, perhaps he needed to try to attain enlightenment like so many of them appeared to have. However, the deeper Danis went on this soul-searching journey, he realised that reaching enlightenment is as difficult as plucking a star from the heavens. More importantly, he knew who he was. He was a painter, tattoo artist, husband, father, and lover of rock n’ roll. He knew where he belonged.
While the journey of self-discovery is neverending, after three years of travelling and asking questions, Danis began to feel a lightness return to his life. There were a few things that helped. Meditation was one. Just as medicine is prescribed to cure the body’s ailments, Danis came to understand that meditation can be used to heal the mind. However, when I asked how he meditates, he chuckled and revealed that he doesn’t meditate in the traditional manner, seated in the lotus pose with his eyes closed. Instead, he joked that meditation is simple, all you have to do is inhale and exhale. That’s why Danis believes you can meditate in different situations—whether it be through his exercise practices of yoga and boxing, or even when you’re out drinking with friends. Secondly, Danis cited the lessons of the “Seven Chakras” and the “Call of the Buddha” as being monumental for his mental and spiritual well-being. As he explained it, the Seven Chakras are like seven doors through which a person can learn more about themselves. The first chakra is related to a person’s foundation and their effort to survive. The second chakra is connected to passion. The third is the realisation of who one is. The fourth is the heart and love. According to Danis’s learning, he says a person can open the first three chakras and possess talent and skills, but if their heart isn’t opened, they may still use their abilities in a negative way. However, when the heart chakra opens, people figure out how to use their talent and skills to benefit themselves and others, and at its purest, to spread love. From there, the following three chakras open doors to higher states of awareness, happiness, and fulfillment. For Danis, this is the dream of opening oneself and it’s why he has the Seven Chakras tattooed on his fingers. Similarly, the Call of the Buddha also appears as an inscription on his hands and serves as a reminder to place his mind in a wide, non-attached and empty state. By doing so, he gives his mind the space to hold and appreciate something new. As he put it, “in order to take in more good things, we first have to clear away the trash in the mind.”
For someone who emphasises spirituality and philosophy in his life, it’s no wonder Danis also carries a similarly refreshing and poetic view on his role as a tattoo artist. For starters, when I asked whether he thought tattooing was art, he told me he didn’t want to immediately label tattoos as “art” or “not art”. For starters, he spoke of the difference between art and tattoos given that the former can be passed down from generation to generation whereas the latter only exists for the duration of an individual’s life. As such, tattoos are more ephemeral but they are also more connected to the person bearing that tattoo. This is because Danis believes every tattoo possesses a story that’s linked to a memory, moment, or milestone in a person’s life. Rather than being concerned about whether tattoos are art or not, what matters more is this story and the role the tattoo artist has in helping someone tell this tale. As Danis put it, “as the needle passes through the skin, one cell is lost and another is born. After a tattoo is completed, many people experience a change in their state of being: they become happier, more confident, prouder, and feel newer than they were yesterday. Every morning, they look at the tattoo in the mirror and see it as part of themselves. These stories are what make me love being a tattoo artist.”
Thanks to a combination of technical prowess, selflessness, and his philosophical approach to his work, Danis has been able to play a major role in the development and recognition of Vietnam’s tattoo scene. In 2015, this was acknowledged with his inclusion in a book published by Yale University Press called “The World Atlas of Tattoo”. Featuring over 700 colour illustrations tracing the historical and contemporary practices of tattooing around the world, Danis was the only Vietnamese tattoo artist recognised in the book. While achievements like this showcase the mark Danis has been able to make as an individual tattoo artist, it’s his work with Saigon Tattoo Expo that demonstrates the impact he’s had on the communities around him.
Started in 2018, Danis co-founded Saigon Tattoo Expo with the purpose of bringing the international tattooing world to Vietnam and simultaneously, introducing Vietnamese culture and identity to those from abroad. At the time there weren’t many opportunities for tattoo artists in Vietnam to participate in an event of such a large scale, which is why Saigon Tattoo Expo gave them their first real taste of the artistry, expertise, and standards of fellow tattoo artists outside the country. A three-day event, Danis also wanted to incorporate a variety of elements such as performance, music, stage art, and competitions to bring tattooing out from the alleyways and into the mainstream. In particular, it’s the competition aspect of the Saigon Tattoo Expo that remains so memorable to Danis. Many artists take part in producing a work and pour a great deal of time, effort, and spirit to ensure they’ve left no stone unturned. When they win, expressions of joy burst open. Conversely, those who lose are silenced. Danis, witnessing the dichotomy of emotions on full display, once more recognises the breadth of human feeling and understands the artist’s ego on an increasingly personal level.
As stated earlier, I believe the truest artists are in constant transformation and are never beholden to their past. Danis, despite his decades of work as a painter and tattoo artist, has never forgotten this. This is why when the opportunity arose to give acting a shot, he decided to go for it. His first appearance was in a movie released in 2017 called “Em Chưa 18”. Directed by his friend Lê Thanh Sơn, the film was a box-office success but Danis described the experience as difficult given how shy, timid, and inexperienced he was in the field. After that he swore he wouldn’t act ever again. Fast forward a decade, he was invited to play a mob boss on Hùng Long Phong Bá 4 and the prospect of playing such a character was impossible to turn down. This time, thanks to his growth as an individual and an actor, not to mention his desire to challenge himself in a new field, Danis said the work was more fulfilling and it allowed him to understand the true artistry of acting. More recently, he’s acted in Hộ Linh Tráng Sĩ, a Toronto Film Festival selected film and Vietnam’s all time highest-budget production. A tale of seven “Spirit Guardians” on a mission bestowed upon them by a late Emperor, Danis plays one of the Guardians alongside a stellar cast and crew including the likes of director Nguyễn Phan Quang Bình and actors Johnny Trí Nguyễn and Dang Tran. With each role, Danis’s confidence as an actor has grown and it’s why he’s been able to grace the screen in a variety of movies.
Given Danis’s lack of formal training as an actor, he approaches the craft with an instinctual, method-esque approach. What he’s concerned with is figuring out how a character thinks, moves, and breathes, and in this manner he’ll begin to adapt to the nuances that make a character an individual. Danis considers this process of embodying a character’s skin to be the most challenging part of acting, and yet also the most satisfying. For him, acting allows one to explore characters that are on the fringes of society or those who are simply different from them, all without any karmic retribution. He can play a mob boss or a historical figure and occupy such a person’s mindset and behaviour but once the director yells cut, he knows that he can return to himself as Danis and leave his character’s actions behind. Sometimes, he won’t know how to move from one moment to the next but he’s found that acting in and of itself is a teacher—everytime you act, even if you’re mumbling through lines or stumbling between spaces, you’re gaining more experience.
Danis has already made his mark in more ways than one, and yet he shows no signs of slowing down. Looking into the future, he told me he has a body of paintings he wants to complete for an upcoming exhibition. Beyond that, he wants to continue focusing on creation. Regardless of the medium, what matters most to him is creating art that carries his distinct identity. As an artist who’s been successful for several decades now, he says he’s been able to do this given his balance of emotion and discipline, which is a combination he believes all artists need to strive for. As he put it, “your emotional state has to be calm and clear enough for you to work with joy. When the mind is tangled, it is difficult to complete anything. But emotion alone is not enough. You also need a schedule, deadlines, and the habit of finishing one thing before jumping to another.” He stresses that in the modern age, it’s even more difficult to do this given that artists can no longer just focus on creating, but also need to produce social media content, market themselves, and build a brand. That’s why he’s grateful for his family, friends, and the support systems around him as they allow him to focus on what matters most: the art.
So what makes a true artist? If an artist is really someone who isn’t beholden to their past, then Danis is a prime example of an individual who only looks ahead. Despite his period of confusion in his thirties, his journey into himself allowed him to discover the true spirituality one can gain from introspection and Buddhist thought. If you meet him you’ll understand that the teachings have paid dividends. He’s continued to be successful in business and with his artistic endeavours, but more importantly, he’s happy. You recognise this when you get a chance to talk to Danis. There’s a calmness about him, an ease and unseriousness that makes it a pleasure to speak to him. Ultimately, the greatest lesson he wants to impart is, “If you want happiness, love others; if you want success, help others.” Considering who he is and all he’s done so far, I’m certain he lives by this mantra everyday.
