Salong Betong was born from ink, music, creative fireworks and community. Far beyond what many of us know as a tattoo studio, Salong Betong is a place for makers and doers, driven by passion, curiosity and a neverending lust for life. The love for ink is at the heart of what they do, but the list of creative ventures that goes beyond tattoos is long and continuously expanding. From launching sneakers and fashion items to making logos and posters for music artists. From graffiti paintings to their own television series and social projects with youth.
“When Salong Betong started, we wanted to revolutionize the Swedish tattoo scene. We had different inspirations and style influences. While the tattoo world at the time was largely known for its colourful designs, bold lines, bikers and rock ‘n roll, we specialized in the black and grey tattoo style, with lettering, fine lines and realism. We’re connected to the world of hiphop. Instead of with skulls and rock memorabilia decorated walls full of tattoo examples, we went for clean, minimal and bold. But most importantly: beside our love for tattooing, we love to do many things. Fashion has been with us from the start, as well as graphic arts and expanding ourselves in the digital world.”
Over the years, Salong Betong has built an impressive ecosystem of expressions, resulting in much appreciated design collaborations with Reebok, Johan Nyström, Unicef, Bea Szenfeld and Swedish Match. And now, the collaboration with Kosta Boda is a fact. Four different glasses with bold graphic designs have come into life. The project is inspired by fashion collaborations, but then applied to a new material: glass.
“The more things you are interested in, the more interesting life becomes. You feel passion for life. Arts, fashion, cars, porcelain. When you are at a restaurant and the cutlery is beautiful, you feel that attention has been paid to the details. When you get the unique possibility to do something with your passions, you should go for it. Making a glass is something we’ve been wanting to do. We really wanted to make a Kosta Boda glass designed by Salong Betong. Not the other way around. Kosta Boda is such a cool brand. That’s why we wanted the glass to shout, for the brand to be all over it. Like graffiti on a subway. We love playing with graphic and logos, and it was an honour to play around with such an established brand logo and have fun with it.”
What the future will bring is unknown, but the key for Salong Betong, as well as their message, is to have the courage to dream big. No matter your background or where you come from, you can do great things. And who knows, what’s next on Salong Betong’s path: designing urban spaces, animation or creative ventures in the metaverse: “Virtual reality is impossibly cool. You can make paintings and sculptures in 3D with neon or fire. You can walk through it and see it from different angles. The best things about doing different projects, is that it’s like rings on the water. We do something, that brings us to something, that brings us to the next thing.”
The sky is the limit.
Written by Stephanie Verstift