In conversation with Lyzard hair tattoos

Colorful patterns, vibrant designs, and exuberant animal prints – enter Lucas Avila, who puts pen to his canvas, and adds his own flair to street style. Except the canvas is a freshly bleached buzzcut, and the paint is rich hair dye. Between puffs of his cigarette, he spun a story so vivid we felt transported into it. Originally from Spain, he soon discovered the opportunities of bustling Amsterdam, and with show-stopping 3D snake hair, showed the city what he is all about. Yet hair was only the beginning. Brewing underneath lingered a true desire to pour his ideas from his mind into fabric. Like the reptile that shares his name, Lucas goes through ecydisis, not afraid to shed his old skin for a newer, brighter one. This is reflected in his work where no buzzcut are the same, each more imaginative than the next. Our conversation slithered across his many identities – Hair tattooist Lyzard, Fashion designer Lyzard, Spiritual motivation coach Lyzard.  Read on and fall into a pit of pure adventure, where he shared his love for the impact the haircuts have, funky editing, and a 2-page manifestation diary entry that came true.

Good morning! How are we feeling today?
Amazing. I’m a morning person, so today I woke up early and got everything done. It’s only 10 a.m. and I already feel super productive.

Wow, give me whatever you’re on. You describe yourself as an artist with an unconventional journey, coming from a small Spanish town to the hustle and bustle of Amsterdam. Could you walk us through this journey?
Basically, I have always been super attracted to colours. Even in primary school, instead of colouring pre-printed books, I would draw princesses with huge dresses and also mermaids, and then we would all colour them together. I remember the first thing I wanted to be when I was younger was a fashion designer, and I don’t know where this came from because no one in my family was an artist. Later on, I studied more traditional subjects, but I went to art school on the side, so I was always developing my art. And then one day, I was on Instagram scrolling, and I saw this guy with a leopard print on his hair, and I was completely blown away.That same day, I went and bought bleach and tried it myself. I had never touched hair dye or bleach in my life and didn’t know how it worked, but I experimented and did my thing. I thought I was going to look crazy, but when I looked in the mirror, I froze. It looked so fucking cool.

What was particularly special about that moment?
Honestly, I was never interested in hair colour. All my friends were a bit emo, having pink, black, or one solid colour all over but it didn’t feel like my vibe. Everyone I saw with coloured hair looked the same, and I wasn’t feeling the vibe of that. That changed the moment I saw a picture of leopard-print hair. It was so cunty, so bold. 

And what were the steps after that?
First of all, I love symmetry. When I started, it was just me experimenting on my own head. For nine months straight I kept a leopard print and it became my signature. Eventually, people started asking me for designs. I would always ask their favorite color, animal, flower, or graphic element – triangles, 60s vibes, whatever really – and then create a symmetric design around that. It wasn’t random; it followed a kind of rule that felt organized and made sense to me. From there, I kept pushing myself, the crazier and more impressive it got, the better. I don’t like to repeat designs, so each new client forced me to rethink and go further. My skills grew – sharper lines, more realistic effects, more cunty in general. When I already felt like colours were easy for me, I started to do 3D designs. I even tried working with long hair, but that was absolutely not my thing. Then influencers, DJs, and people who wanted hairstyles for music videos from outside Spain started reaching out. The problem was I was still charging 30 euros for cut, bleach, design, and color. I realised opportunities were out there, and I thought people were not ready for this in Spain. That’s when the idea of moving somewhere became super alive in my head. Anyways, I came to Amsterdam and fell in love with the place. I was wearing this 3D snake hairstyle at the time and people would stop me and ask for my IG handle or ask whether I could cut and paint their hair. That same day, I also went to a museum I love, the same one where I’ll now do my runway. I drew a little map to find the gay street since I still didn’t have a phone, and ended up at the museum. 12 days after coming back to Spain, I signed a contract for a place in Amsterdam, and I moved. That’s how I usually work, I don’t always make the decision directly, but I make decisions around it that force me to take action.

I love that though, sometimes taking the steps intuitively instead of mulling it over for too long is the way to go. Are there things that you do that really get you in the workflow of coming up with the designs?
When I want to design something, I just grab a paper or my iPad. I sit in front of it and imagine the vibe and I want this to feel. It sounds a bit crazy, but I just like to squeeze my brain in a way, and then I have an idea.

Hey, whatever works, works.
In general, I like symmetry, flowers, waves, stuff like that, and I just make a little salad in my mind. It’s like some AI, sending prompts to my mind. And usually the clients always tell me, ‘Wow, I didn’t even know that that was what I wanted, but that was what I wanted’.

Well, magic. And do you have like a favourite buzzcut you have painted so far? Yes, I think it’s the second one on my page, the orange and yellow with rows. And there’s also one that’s an optical illusion in pink and black, following the shape of an infinite loop.  

Whose head would you be eager to tattoo (celebrity or otherwise)?
Doja Cat.

You were so quick at it – you didn’t even stutter.
She’s a fashion icon. She’s unapologetically weird. She’s the moment. 

Truly. If your clients were secretly mythical creatures, what kind of hair tattoo would each one rock?
If it were a mermaid, I would do 3D waves and play with the colors turquoise and blue to play with the effect of the lower and higher parts of the ocean. And then a bit of white on the tip of the waves. If it were a lizard or a dragon, I would carve scales and I would paint them with a green shade of colours. 

Do you ever feel sad that there’s an impermanence over the art you make, being on someone’s head, walking away after your final brush stroke, or washed away over time in the shower?
You know, that is true, that it’s a bit sad because you are there for hours. But there is something bigger than that – it’s how they fucking feel after the haircut. You get to see how excited they are, how they stand taller, how they shine. I don’t care that they are leaving. When they do, I always tell them to enjoy it. And the feedback has been incredible. I’ve gotten voice messages from my clients at 3. AM, music playing in the background, so I know they are at some party, having fun. And they tell me that they feel amazing and beautiful, and that everyone loves it. I also have crazy, random stories. I went to the store and the cashier loved my haircut so much they gave me a discount. There are always crazy things happening because it’s so easy for people to approach you when there’s something striking, because sometimes it’s a bit awkward to just approach someone and say hi, but this kind of gives an excuse for it. It’s as if I rescued animals and they have been in my house for a month. And their wings are healthy again and they fly. Of course I got attached to the animal but I’m so proud that it can now fly.

What’s that saying again? When you love them you have to let them go. Now, you collaborated with brands like Nike. Do you have any dream collaboration or partnership that you would love to realise?
I’d love to create some hairstyles for the runway for Jacquemus or Acne Studios. Or maybe doing Wizkid’s hair for a music video. It would also be cool to design the patterns that I do for my clients, but on fur boots or jackets. 

You have your own fashion brand as well, Lyzard Wear. I also saw that you’re gonna have your first fashion runway, congrats! Tell me more about how you got into fashion.
Yes, so I use Lyzard as the umbrella name for everything I create. I always wanted to be a fashion designer, but my family thought I was a bit too crazy. They let me go to art school and experiment with hairstyles at home, but when it came time for university, they pushed me toward something more stable. I chose industrial design engineering, finished it, worked for a year, and realised it wasn’t for me. I still wanted to pursue fashion, so I enrolled in a one-year online course in pattern making and garment building and I completely fell in love. The first piece I made and wore confirmed it — this was what I wanted. I interned at a designer’s atelier in Spain, and it felt right, but I couldn’t find work in the field. To get by, I worked in a CBD shop and took side jobs, and eventually stopped sewing. 

And what drove you to make a collection now?
Well, a new housemate moved in. He is obsessed with productivity, always reading books about mindset and discipline. One day, he asked me to write down my biggest dream project for the year and I wrote down to have a fashion runway. He asked if I could do it, and when I hesitated with excuses, he told me straight up that those are just excuses. We started waking up every day at six in the morning, working on our ideas before our jobs. Even if it wasn’t about making them come true it was about doing something. Little by little, I began designing again and working on the collection. One book he gave me said something that stuck — if you want one thing, you have to push ten times harder than feels natural. If you want 10 people to see your work, you need to show 100. Then I thought, ”okay, let’s fucking push”. I put on a suit I had made myself, hopped on my bike, and went to the museum What is Happening Here Gallery. By chance, the owner walked in as I arrived. He told me I looked stylish, and I told him I had made the suit myself. He told me to bring my work to the museum, but I didn’t just want to hang pieces, I wanted to do a runway and he agreed! He said I could do it the very next weekend. I’m telling you, he was crazier than me. But we made an agreement –  if I brought the people, he’d give me the venue for free, make money from the bar, and I’d cover sound and equipment. When he asked me for a date, I picked September 13 on the spot. From that moment, I had a deadline. Now September is around the corner, and the show is happening. There’s no turning back.

What is the idea behind it?
My fashion approach is imagining that your outfit is your uniform for the battle of every day. Clothes and aesthetic choices say way more than the body itself. You don’t choose your body, but you do choose how your inner world is projected outward. So what I’ve done and what I’m doing is basically a super fashionable armour. My garments are what a futuristic society would wear for war. War wouldn’t be condudcted with bombs, but with technology, money, and data. In that sense, everyone is a fighter, whether they hold power or not. The clothes themselves are buffed and symmetrical, following clean lines. 

You paint, you design, and you cut hair – What do you enjoy doing when you’re not juggling the arts?
Living adventures to feed my mind. I’m doing all of this pretty much full-time, and sometimes I feel like I’m working and not living. So every moment that I have free, I’m looking for adventures. Sometimes it takes me to bad stories or good stories.

If you could describe your work with only 3 words, which words would you pick?
Organic, entertaining and playful.

I would add funny into the mix – your marketing oscillates between silly and absurd, in the most fun way possible. And I was curious, is the editing or the marketing part, I guess, also part of a persona?
Now it is.  A friend of mine moved to Rotterdam to study, and when I visited her, I also wanted to see Amsterdam. At the time, I didn’t even have a smartphone. I had been living a year and a half without one because I felt overwhelmed. Clients would take pictures of their hair with their own phones and send them to me by Gmail. I still had Instagram on my iPad, so I’d receive them on there and post. But honestly people would take such shitty pictures, so I started editing them on Photoshop and Procreate. That’s how I fell in love with editing. Even now, with a camera and phone, I still love the editing side. 

What’s something you can’t live without?
My mind goes to places…

It’s a safe space, you can say anything.
I was going to say something dirty. But no, I’m not a whore. I swear. I would say something that I can’t do without is socialisation.

I get it though, we’re social creatures.
It sounds so empty, but also beautiful clothes. My God, it sounds so, so empty. “One thing you cannot live without?” Oh, my purse. Fuck my mom. Fuck my dad. Fuck my phone. But that purse though. 

What advice would you give to other up-and-coming artists?
What I can say is that while dreaming is important, it’s just the oven. You have to add flour, eggs, and everything to bake the banana bread. Dreaming without the will to work on what’s necessary to fulfil it is going to lead to frustration, so if you want to avoid that frustration, motherfucking work.  Just stand up from your bed right now and do something. I’ve heard this in hundreds of millions of interviews, but it’s really what works for me. Don’t ruminate on what is holding you back, you have to be the one to push yourself up. 

Just a second, I’m taking notes, haha.
This is my spiritual coach moment. I think the mindset is the most important. One wonderful day after another is going to become two wonderful days. In terms of productivity, you can do something, no matter how small. That could be deciding the name of your brand or following people and reaching out to them to ask how they accomplished something. That’s also action. 

What are you manifesting for the rest of the year?
Oh, I have it written down. It’s a bit cringy, but my flatmate forced me to do it at the beginning of this year. Can I read it?

I’m all ears.
‘Finally, this adventure of fashion embarks on a journey with the fuel of discipline. Hard work, love, and fashion. I’m going to work really hard, and by the 25th of December, I’ll have presented my collection during Amsterdam Fashion Week, officially or extra-officially. Everything starts in my room with my little atelier that I’m going to be building slowly. Where I would record, design and create my unique pieces that are born from my head and express visually how I feel. I will have my own labels, printing screens, fabric, machines, lights, and everything I need to create. I will be sharing this on social media with a structure and an objective. Half through the year, I will already be a bit more known in terms of fashion. I’ve met some designers, I offered some collaborations, events and participated in pop-ups. When this is already on the way, I would launch my collection that will go to the streets on people’s bodies and finish in a lot of stores with my creations, museums, expos, video clips and famous people.’ Almost all of these things have come to fruition – I’m having a private show, my own label, and have had some collabs. I love fashion that much. It’s almost impossible that with this passion, talent and decision, I will not make everything that I want. Period.