Needles Side Tattoo
Thonon-les-Bains, France

What year did you start tattooing?

I started tattooing in 2000.

How did you get into tattooing?

Tattooing came to choose me.

Where did you apprentice?

I didn’t have a formal apprenticeship. I started to get involved in a shop by just hanging around. It ended up not working out because they had these old-school crazy rules that I didn’t recognize at the time.

Do you have any special training?

Stripper dancing training for three years.

What conventions have you worked at? Have you won any awards?

I have worked at the Evian Tattoo Convention, Tattoo Jam and Tattoo Freeze in the UK, and The NYC Tattoo Convention. This year I won the award for Most Innovative Style at Tattoo Jam and Best of Saturday at Tattoo Freeze.

How do you describe your style?

Super cool, ha ha. The goal of my work is to bring people to a new reflection of the stuff that they want, to concentrate on the emotion behind the need of the tattoo—to bring people somewhere they didn’t expect. Sometimes you see a splatter on the street and you know that it is beautiful but you don’t quite understand why. It is because the balance is perfect. That is what I am looking for in my work, balance.

What inspires you as an artist?

The dump—everything can be inspiring. Other artists. Like I said, splatter in the street, crazy walls, crazy
places. Everything and nothing. Sex.

What other mediums do you work in?

Sometimes I try to paint, collage, and do some street art.

How have you branched out from tattooing?

Tattooing has inspired me to paint more and create art that is not tattooing while still being inside the idea of the tattoo.

What tattoo artists do you admire most?

I love a lot of them for different styles, different behavior, different ways to think about the work. It’s hard to say you admire one artist all the time because the work is always changing and evolving. But you can look at certain periods and say an artist kicked ass at this time.

What kind of tattoos do you look forward to doing?

If you look at my work, I do all projects, just my interpretation of them. I appreciate all projects—but of course sometimes one theme is much better than another.

Is there anyone that you would like to tattoo?

Could be nice to tattoo an artist that I love. Either from music or movies or even from tattooing.

Before someone gets a tattoo what advice do you give them?

You should go to the ATM now because I don’t take cards.

Is there a tattoo that you haven’t done yet that you are dying to do?

A theme of Jim Morrison portraiture or a Doors-themed tattoo.