community curated, a playlist by bgm
bgm x endy
The talented designer and tattoo artist BGM, from Yogyakarta, Indonesia, took over our playlist with tunes that are essential for him during his tattoo sessions. This multidisciplinary artist draws much of his inspiration from music, which plays an influential role in his creative process. Listen to what keeps his creativity flowing through the link below.
Interested in his story? Make sure to read the article down below and take a walk through his journey to where he is now. And we know, we know. Those tattoos look damn good. Based in Indonesia or planning to travel around Asia? Hit BGM up on Instagram to make a pitstop on your journey.
Bramastya Bayu or BGM (b. 1994) is a multidisciplinary artist and tattoo artist based in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The choice of the name BGM (Back Ground Music) as his alias is based on his personal connections to various types of music in the world of console games, which include electronic music, tecno, jazz, jungle, house, drum and bass, break beat, funk to rock and metal.
His love for visual culture began in 2012 when he studied Visual Communication Design at Institut Seni Indonesia Yogyakarta. His liking for Japanese comic and manga illustration styles has shaped the direction of his illustration work to the present day.
During college, besides spending a lot of time skateboarding in the skateboarding community, he also actively participated in art exhibitions held in several cities in Indonesia.
In 2016, he created a skateboard clothing brand, BTTB (an abbreviation of Back To The Basics), inspired by jazz and funk music. Under BTTB, he collaborated with many other skate brands in Indonesia such as Woyoo Wheels Surabaya, Buck Store Semarang Fellow Skateboard Jakarta and Vast Skateboard Yogyakarta to make full length skateboard videos.
In the same year, he also spent a lot of time as a cameraman for the media in several music events such as GG Shiver "Dimitri Vegas Like Mike Jakarta", "M83 Junk World Tour Jakarta" and "Tame Impala live at Senayan Jakarta". Alongside his involvement as a cameraman at music events, his knowledge in camera handling was also contributed to Eko Nugroho's documentary film entitled Bunga Kering Pembatas Buku, commissioned by Okunoto Japan and Wolbachia WMP (World Mosquito Program) UGM Yogyakarta.
2020 was the year when he started learning tattoo professionally and decided to focus on it. His passion and commitment in pursuing tattoo was proven by making a tattoo tour in 2021 to 2022 to several cities such as Solo (Yesyou Tattoo Flash Studio) Surabaya (Idle Hand TT), Bali (Lab01 and Ruang Arati), Jakarta (Sidespace Tattoo Parlour) and Bandung (Dead Head Studio).
Besides a commission for Irwan Ahmett's presentation for TEDx Jakarta, he solidified his position in tattooing by initiating OST Atelier (Original Sound Track Atelier), a tattoo collective that later manifested a studio for several tattoo artists based in Yogyakarta to present day.
It is undeniable that music is very influential in BGM's personal and career development. Music for him not only sparks endless imagination, emotions and articulation, but is able to connect his various personal interests in the process of creating (drawing, skateboarding, tattooing, and many other things) and in producing something. In 2023, BGM is still and will focus on doing various tattoo tours to several cities such as Jakarta, Bali, and Bandung.