ARTIST STATEMENT:
Paul Massaro’s work navigates the uneasy terrain between beauty and disturbance, drawing from anatomy, Surrealism, and Renaissance art to construct images that are at once disciplined and disquieting. Based in Buffalo, New York, Massaro approaches painting and pen-and-ink drawing as a means of examining the body not simply as form, but as a vessel for fear, vulnerability, and psychological unrest.
His compositions often evoke dreams turned hostile: visions that hover between the familiar and the grotesque, the elegant and the abject. Through meticulous draftsmanship and painterly intensity, Massaro reinterprets classical visual languages to confront themes of existential dread, nihilism, and inner fragmentation. The influence of Renaissance art lends his work a sense of structure and gravitas, while Surrealism opens the door to distortion, symbolic ambiguity, and the logic of nightmares.
Massaro’s imagery is intentionally unnerving, inviting viewers into a space where certainty dissolves and emotional discomfort becomes central to the experience. His work speaks to the darker dimensions of consciousness—those that are often repressed, yet persist beneath the surface of waking life. In this tension between control and collapse, order and delirium, Massaro creates a visual language that is haunting, expressive, and profoundly human.
TATTOOING:
Paul Massaro opened up his first tattoo studio in Buffalo, NY in 1984. He quickly became popular for his finely detailed custom tattoos. Paul has tattooed all over the world. From the United States to South America, Europe, and Scandinavia. – His reputation for consistent and superlative tattooing undeniable. In the late 80’s and through the 90’s Paul worked most of the major conventions in Europe and the United States.
He became famous for his twisted up tattoo machines, scary black and gray work, and portraits. He would constantly be found tattooing other artists and is considered the “tattooist tattooer.” In the early 90’s Paul also worked in lower Manhattan at his second shop called Bizzaro 2. This shop was an import/art studio/tattoo parlor.
Currently Paul can be found in Buffalo, New York 1126 Hertel avenue. Paul’s wife Tammy also works at the studio with him. Tammy is a Registered Nurse, and an accomplished tattooer / body piercer. Paul not only offers great tattooing and skillful body piercing, but he also has an art studio, and import shop with goodies from all over the world. To this day, all tattoos in the shop are custom, one of a kind designs. So, if you are looking for your unique one of a kind tattoo, he is who you want to go to.