Ruco was born in Rome in 1991 and he has been drawing since he can remember.
During high school, he began to take an interest in the world of tattooing and approached thisjob as soon as he finished school.
Ruco began tattooing in 2012 in Florence, while studying Art Printing Techniques at the Academy of Fine Arts and he began receiving invitations as a guest in several studios around the world: Mexico, Israel, Honk Hong...
His figurative style is the result of numerous influences from the most different fields. The main thread is related to the taste for the grotesque. Passionate about masks, he made them a source of research, producing them by hand.
In addition to his own tattoo studio in the heart of Rome, Ruco pursues his other passions in a small private studio where he finds his space to create masks and costumes, model clay, paint, and so on.
In 2018 Ruco brought out the research project related to the theme of the tattoo ritual "STILLIFE BRÜCKE" in collaboration with Servadio: 4-handed sessions in which the surrounding environment becomes the subject of the tattoo, whether it is a predefined and static composition or a changing and dynamic situation. In this way, the subject is not previously decided nor born from the imagination of the artists but represents what you have in front of your eyes during the ritual.
Ph. Credits: Shyla Nicodemi
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In the following few lines, I shall describe the process that brought me to the publication of this manuscript.
This book, originally conceived in Italian, derives from the necessity of pouring out a collection of images that continuously pop up in my head without the ability to actually draw them. The limerick, as a narrative instrument, seemed to me a rather appropriate and natural way to depict such images while avoiding wordy descriptions of the characters that appeared (and still appear) in my mind.
After the first stage of writing – which lasted more or less one year – I decided to read a few of my limericks (still in Italian) to my friend Ruco, who kindly offered to draw the images described. We didn’t initially know how many limericks (of the ~100 I wrote he should illustrate and, after a few iterations and attempts, we picked 3o pieces from this wider ranging mosaic of descriptions. I was fortunate enough to see many funny sketches that were not included in this book.
When everything seemed done, we realised that a book of limericks in Italian might be somewhat limited in scope. As such, we decided to extend this horde of grotesque characters to a more general audience by attempting an English translation.
A direct translation was eventually deemed impractical, so it was decided to more loosely adapt the original limericks with the aim of keeping the same pivotal objects that make the verses fun to read.
In short, what you will read in Italian may be quite different from what you will read in English. For some, this may be a problem; for me, it is a feature.
Adapting the limericks into English was the hardest part of the process (considering that I am not a native English speaker), and it would not have been possible without the help of three fellows, Sara Bipede, Leto Peel and Tom Percival, to whom I am deeply grateful. Adapting the limericks was also useful in that it made me read further material in English, which resulted in an improved Italian version.
I hope you will enjoy reading this collection. I personally recommend approaching it as A limerick a day and I look forward to potential future editions.
On a very final note, I would like to thank Chiara lacobini and Ruco for their unwavering support in this and in other projects.
“Matteo Cinelli”
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