Toronto’s has become indie music’s biggest stick-and-poke artist

Sadstab

LOCKDOWN HAS BEEN AN INTERESTING CHALLENGE TO NAVIGATE FOR TORONTOBASED TATTOO ARTIST FION LIU — a.k.a. Sadstab — especially considering their modus operandi: tattooing touring artists.

While Liu’s paycheques come from a variety of sources, they’re best known for their work as a stick-and-poke artist, a career that pays in ways other than cash.

“There have been a few times where I have tattooed musicians and they’ll trade me with tickets to their show, merchandise, autographs, hugs and friendship,” Liu, who has stabbed 55 touring acts as of press time, explains.

Those artists include members of Unknown Mortal Orchestra, PUP, Snail Mail, Waxahatchee, Swearin’, IDLES, Charly Bliss, Weaves, the Horrors, Jeff Rosenstock, FIDLAR, Daughters, A Place to Bury Strangers, Palehound, Whitney, STRFKR, Casper Skulls, PONY, Pretty Matty, Two Door Cinema Club, Kaleidoscope Horse, AJJ, Dune Rats, For Jane and more.

Despite their industry connections, you won’t get a hint of elitism talking to Liu. Rather, they pour themself into their work out of an earnest desire to give something back to artists.

Since 2015, Liu’s homegrown business has morphed from a passion project into a hub for bands on the road. With such a diverse clientele, Liu’s pieces are similarly varied, like when the entire touring Waxahatchee band got tattoos of Bath & Body Works candles or when Chastity’s Brandon Williams and Ellis’s Linnea Siggelkow got matching roses. Each piece, like PUP vocalist Stefan Babcock’s knee cactus or Sadie Dupuis’s magic wand, is tied to a unique or unusual story.

Liu’s career tattooing bands can be traced to a chance booking with Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s Ruban Nielson while he was in Ontario for 2016’s WayHome festival.

“I asked if he could come to my studio ’cause I don’t have a ticket nor a ride to go to the festival,” Liu explains. “Instead of that, [he] offered festival passes for me and two friends so I could enjoy my first-ever music festival experience.”

Liu doesn’t have tattoos themself. Rather, for them, the way to engage in their favourite art form is through appreciation. Their healthy vinyl and cassette collections serve as some of their most cherished tools of the trade, as they consider a good soundtrack crucial to setting the mood in their workspace.

“My ‘must-have’ tools to create the perfect tattoo are good lighting and brush pens — [and] if available, a turntable,” Liu explains.

Their multidisciplinary sensibility is exemplified through the way they turn a love of music into a permanent, visual medium — though their all-time favourite piece actually dates back to their Ryerson days: their tattooadjacent art thesis.

“I wrote my will in a colouring book format and talked about how my body will be transformed from a machine creating art, to a dead machine recycled and becoming art,” they say. “My professor added an ‘A’ next to my name on purpose as he recalled my story about my name.”

“‘Why Fion, not Fiona?’” Liu asks their father rhetorically.

“Because you got to earn the ‘A’ yourself.”