Simone El Rana

Simone El Rana was born in 1973 in Arezzo, a small town in Tuscany where he still live with his wife. The root of his work is his passion for tattoos: He has been cultivating it since he was young. In fact, when he was 17, he got his shoulder tattooed with an eagle by one of Italian’s pioneer of this art, Maurizio Fiorini. After this “initiation rite” he started going more and more often to Maurizio’s shop, which was horrible compared to today’s tattoo shops.

Quite obviously, he got interested in holding a tattoo machine shortly after, but he soon realized he didn’t have much feeling with it. Luckily enough, though, his 20 year experience as a goldsmith let him find another way to stay within the tattoo world. Fifteen years ago he made his first jewels, and since then his production has always increased, so the job he used to consider as a sideline one has soon become his principal one. But what actually marked his presence in the tattoo world are ex-voto compositions. For years now he has been travelling around the world to explain the meaning of ex votos, telling this tradition typical of neo-Latin countries. The idea for these works comes from his passion for religious icons and antiques: he has always been fascinated by them because he grew up in Arezzo, home of one of Italy’s most importants antiques fair.

His approach to religious elements changed in 2006, when he took part to an exhibition of skateboards in Paris. After that experience he started customizing skateboards, snowboards, surfboards and recently musical instruments, too. He usually drills the board using it as a frame; then, he mounts several antiques in its hollow and he decorates the outer part.

He has got many interests beyond that, and this way he has started making compositions that are given as award to the best tattoo artists at tattoo conventions’competitions. He actually makes awards for Tattoo Conventions in Milan, Rome, Trieste, London, Long Beach, Sacramento.

In the last 5 years he has opened up his working horizons to the field of art. He took part to exhibitions in several art galleries, such as Spazio in mostra in Milan, Antonio Colombo arte contemporanea gallery in Milan, MF galery in NYC-Genoa, Mondo pop in Rome. Both his job as a goldsmith and his artist activity are made even more appealing to him by collaborations with close friends and talented artists. As a goldsmith, he always has Massimo Bennati working alongside him, while to make works of art he has been working with Massimo Gurnari, Vanni Cuoghi, Laura Giardino, Danilo Pasquali, Massimo Giacon and many more.