Canadian born, Douglas grew up in United Kingdom and moved away in Holland where she worked at Salon Serpent alongside to great artists as Angelique Houtkamp or Kim Ahn. Then she worked also in Brighton (UK), alongside Phil Kyle at Magnum Opus. Now, she is settled at Taiko Gallery in Berlin and she don't want to leave anymore. Determined to not put a label on her style, her art is crossing neo-traditionnal, illustrative pop culture and comics influenced. Her women faces are well-known as she added some unique touches of whimsy with fancy elements as nature and pets personnifications. Let's meet her dazzling talent and fun new cute tattoos, which figure men in underwear.
Could you introduce yourself as a tattoo artist ?
My name is Guen douglas im originally from Canada and UK because my mother is french-canadian and my father is scottish, so i grew up half my life in canada and half in the uk and then we left canada when my parents went of. I originally wanted to go into law and i took criminology in an english university i dropped of at 18 after 2 years discovering boys and Rock'n'Roll all that kind of stuff and i partying and bartended for a long time. Its kind of starting late for a tattooer, i did start tattooing in 2005, when i was already 26 years, so i've been tattooing for 12 years this year and know i live in Berlin, for the last few years, i did Rotterdam in 2009, Amsterdam for 3 years, brighton few years but i don't want to move a lot like that anymore as moving is also a stressfull experience too, i got a dog now, a nice appartment, hopely i will stay in Berlin a little bit.
Did your style evolved a lot ?
Yeah i definitly think moving to Europe, influenced it, cause the style in Canada is usually Art Nouveau, sort of graffiti illustrative, with always that sort of push over there, and coming to Europe people really like more traditionnal japanese or traditionnal tattooing, so definitely i try to found a middle ground between illustrative and traditionnal and now i see myself, maybe i went more one direction and now sort of it settling into when i look at my tattoo maybe four years ago from now, i can see a sort of constency to the present.
Colors are one bullet point of your style, aren't they?
Colors are always changing, right now i'm really enjoying doing kind of traditionnal color skins, moodier things, because for a long time i was tattooing a lot of women and doing a lot sort of soft palettes and my work even if its feminin its also very strong and bold, so i thing sometimes its nice to have this contrast of a sweeter subject with a really strong impact. You have a new influence in your designs with those sexy, fun and pop subjects in your tattoos, why? A little bit yes. I think that was also a mix when i got this idea of neotraditionnal because everyone was always putting me in this rack of neotraditionnal, i mean it even doesnt exist, its a mix and its like alternative music in the 90's, its like they put everything in there. I think the minute i got rid of that title (neotraditional), i kind of thought what do i love, what was i influenced by, and comic books was a really good one for me too, growing up. I love comic books, Marvel etc. my brother was trained as an animator so i watched a lot of cartoon with him, so i think there is still some elements of traditionnal in there, its a constant for me : strong line black and solid color and a comic twist because i 'd like to be able to twist any of this thing and apply it to each design, based on what design needs to make it work. Some designs are better more traditionnal, some are better a little more illustrative, more comic...Its nice to having a repertor rather than i only do traditionnal or only do this. For the client and with why would makes it the stronger design, without having stuck myself in a corner only doing one thing, only use those five colors or...i can do whatever i want.
Now you are doing those sexy designs, its feminist, its funny and powerfull, aren't they?
The sexy stuff i was drawing for me i was always sort of « goody two shoes » in tattooing like the good girl, like its nice to do with a sense of humor cause sex is funny and all of these stuff for me is like making a standard/in, even amongst all the men in tattooing, we also objectify man and the first time i did one of those man's crotches ? One of my man tattooer friend's said « oh thats a bit gay », and that's funny that you assume the viewer is male, cause it never occure to you that maybe women look at men in their underwear and think « well that's hot » and then he felt really ashamed cause it's true. The viewer is not always male so all of these things are not just for gay man, they are for straight women, and gay women too, and like everything in between, it's been a great conversation about tattooing on gay tattooers which is really fun lots of male tattooers from all over the world do those fun crotch arts which for years i've never met gay tattooer even in tattooing, but they dont have to hide in the shadows ! Its been a fun way to connect with different people, to collect also. When you dont know what to get you can get this one of those. I’m doing women’s crotches… it’s small, funny thing you can hide somewhere on your leg. They're pretty fun to do too.
Do Berliners like your style ?
Most of my clients are still not necessairly berliners, we get more and more but the style in Berlin is more lots of heavy black work and minimal kind, so what we feel is we have the only market. You see a lot of minimal, sort of black work traditionnal and solid black but there is nothing on the corner of comics and illustrative. There is new school people but as we don't really fit into much of any categories...I think its nice place to live, and its nice to visit, its not a super expencieve city, we dont have to work as much, we can take time with our clients and push to have a better experience rather bang out tones and tones of tattoos. It's important for me when you get out of the shop you had a really nice day. It 's an experience, we hang out but we have the ability to do that cause we are two and there is nobody else.
What's next for you ?
I definetly want to stay in Berlin for now. I dont see me anywhere else and i think doing more of the same i do currently : i love to make some fabrics, and i'd love to do some side projects. I did some pins, buttons, tee – shirts... This year i don't do prints cause last year for me have been going down with thoses, i dont even have really place on my walls so i think people also. I'm not really traveling so much, so i need to establishing myself, to find my place, and its middle Europe, everyone can get there easily. There is a tone of things to do as clubs and whatever you are into ! There is something to do in Berlin everynight. You can have a good experience, people come to visit and its not even just tattoos, its not like the middle of nowhere ! Guen Douglas – Taiko Gallery, Berlin @taikogallery @guendouglas guentaikogallery@gmail.com guendouglas.bigcartel.com
