Rebel Circus: Hi Gogo! Our first question is: you have an odd stage name, how did you come up with it?
Gogo Blackwater: I started my modeling with Suicide Girls in 2004. upon signing up, you were required to pick a nickname, or model name. Gogo was short and nice and there really is no crazy story behind it, it just had a good ring to it!
Blackwater comes from a time when I was looking to make some really big changes in my life. the name blackwater kept coming up, in street names, people names, while talking to friends.. you know how sometimes one word keeps presenting itself over and over? that's how I knew Blackwater had to be my name.
Rebel Circus: When and how did you get into alternative modeling?
Gogo Blackwater: when I was 18, my friends at the time gave me the first Suicide Girls coffee table book (the one with Mary on the cover) for my birthday. one of my girlfriends wrote in the first page "one day we will be like them!." Roughly a decade later I was on the cover of "hard girls, soft light," in my opinion the best book SG has published so far. They published my photos in several different types of merch before that, but Hard Girls Soft Light put things into a new perspective. life came round full circle, just like that.. a beautiful reminder of the magical and bizarre nature of our human experience.
Rebel Circus: You've been a Suicide Girl since 2005. Tell us about the impact it has on your career.
Gogo Blackwater: maybe not so much about my career, but i'd like to talk about the impact it had on my life in general. When I started, SG was a subculture of badass "freaks" who didn't give a damn about the standard definition of "beauty". I grew up in an extremely catholic country that really frowned upon anything different than "normal," even just dressing in black was considered insane and worthy of ostracizing. Bullies and responsible adults alike considered us on the same level as criminals: suicide girls was one of the only places were we could outrageously flaunt our being different, taking our clothes off for cheesy pinup pictures as a form of saying "fuck you, i'm beautiful." Some people like to nit-pick and say it was just another form of exploiting the female image, but they don't realize the HUGE relief that website brought into our lives, especially back in the day.
then slowly, through the course of a decade, it actually became something ALL type of girls considered appealing, classy, and beautiful. I can't even wrap my mind around the number of applicants the website receives daily. I believe it's ALSO (but not exclusively) thanks to internet phenomenons like SG that today women like myself can afford not only to live their lives without being treated like scum, but actually have a real career that pays the bills and allows them to live a routine much different than the slavery of the 9 to 5 existence. I can't think of anything more creatively defeating than that type of life honestly (unless that's your thing).
in the broader spectrum, of course, it's not SG itself, but "the internet", in general. Information flows so freely and so staggeringly fast, that dogmas and ignorant judgmental behaviors are slowly but surely being pulverized into oblivion (and not even that slowly, honestly. a decade is nothing in human history), and the little goth girl inside me that used to be considered so alien and so inferior is grinning proudly every single day thanks to it.
Gogo Blackwater Tattooed Model
Rebel Circus: When did you get your first tattoo?
Gogo Blackwater: When I was 17, my mom had to sign a permit and everything :)
Rebel Circus: Which is your favourite tattoo style?
Gogo Blackwater: Neo traditional with esoteric elements without a doubt. I think traditional and neo traditional stand the test of time much better than any other tattooing styles.
Rebel Circus: Who's your favourite tattoo artist? Would you like to suggest your trusted tattoo artists to our readers?
Gogo Blackwater: I can give you a list, I can't pick just one! Ashley Riot, Vale Lovette, Uncle Allan, Rachi Brains, Alexander Grim, and Grez are my top favorites. I would recommend these artists to anyone! the work they produce is consistently amazing and new and very personal.
Rebel Circus: You also run a style blog Miss Blackwater. What came first, blogging or modeling?
Gogo Blackwater: It's a little like asking if the chicken or the egg comes first. they were born hand in hand!
Rebel Circus: We know you love wolves and you're also donating your calendar proceeds to an association that protects wolves. Where does this passion come from?
Gogo Blackwater: It's an animal i've always been attracted to, and deeply in love with. I guess on some levels i identify with their sense of extreme loyalty to the pack and inherent freedom. maybe it comes from another life when i was one of them! haha.. (I hope that doesn't read as too serious)
Rebel Circus: What do you hope comes next for your career?
Gogo Blackwater: I was just in Paris to act in my very first short movie with TV legend Jane Badler. Acting is something completely new that i enjoyed perhaps too much! I hope I get to do more of it in the future!
Rebel Circus: Last but not least, a silly question: What's your biggest pet-peeve?
Gogo Blackwater: WHISPERING. Oh my goodness, Please never, EVER whisper to me: I'll lose my temper, i'll start a fight, i'll burn the house down!! Even when there is too much whispering in a movie, i have to immediately switch it off. I'm getting aggravated just writing about it..
And that was all for our Rebel Girl of today! If you want to know more about Gogo check her Facebook, website and style blog.