Brazil 'bullet' artist enjoys fame in pro-gun Bolsonaro era

"I don't know much about arms, I know art," says Rodrigo Camacho as he wields a replica AK-47 assault rifle that he made out of bullet casings in his Rio de Janeiro garage.

A fervent admirer of the police, military and President Jair Bolsonaro, the heavily tattooed Brazilian artist creates pictures and sculptures out of ammunition casings discarded by police during training or by sport shooters.

In his workshop -- a brightly-lit garage next to his two-story house, which he shares with his wife and black Labrador called Prince -- Camacho stores thousands of used casings, fuses and projectiles in wooden boxes.

With glue and the skill of a former architecture student, Camacho spends many hours transforming the bits of metal into effigies whose true form is only visible form a distance.

"Some people compare my work to trench art (pieces sculpted by soldiers with remnants of ammunition), but I just consider myself to be a Brazilian artist who believes in his country," Camacho says in a gentle voice that belies his tough image.

It is a conviction literally etched on his skin, with the musical score of the national anthem tattooed around his left forearm.

Camacho began working with bullets and casings 18 months ago after visiting the Rio headquarters of BOPE, a special operations unit of the military police which is often deployed in the city's crime-ridden neighborhoods.

Before then he had done carpentry and made rustic decorations on request.

"A deputy commander friend in BOPE invited me to the headquarters to make a bench out of pallets," he says.

"Seeing the cartridges on the ground gave me the idea of using them to make" the group's logo.

The intimidating image -- a skull pierced with a dagger superimposed on two handguns -- was used to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the elite unit.

Camacho has been inundated with orders, mainly from police, military units to decorate their bases.

Camacho's newfound fame only increased when he gave Bolsonaro one of his portraits of the president.

Camacho is also an unabashed admirer of Rio de Janeiro state Governor Wilson Witzel, who has applauded the deployment of snipers in the fight against drug traffickers and even suggested he would like to use missiles against criminals.

"Rio needs a strong arm," says the artist, who gifted a larger-than-life portrait to the controversial governor.

Following media coverage of the Bolsonaro and Witzel portraits, Camacho has been inundated with orders, mainly from police and military units looking to decorate their bases with pieces exalting their work.

But as most of his work ends up being unpaid -- in many cases in exchange for the bullet casings -- Camacho is looking for sponsors, public or private.

His favorite piece, made for a seminar on police deaths and injuries in Rio, shows the silhouette of an officer on crutches saluting the grave of a fallen colleague.

"They are the real heroes," says Camacho.

Agence France-Presse