From cabinetmaking to tattooing, Florian aka “Strange Dust” found the perfect job to develop his dark universe. The fascinating wildlife, full of strange animals and scary beasts, the young French man ‘mad of drawing’ is depicting on his customer’s bodies, seems like an endless exploration. By avoiding colours, he keeps also the flame of a “school of black” which popularity for the last years has seen a great expansion. Especially in Lyon, probably the occultest city in France.
Can we get back to your professional background, which initially, if I understood correctly, doesn’t have anything to do with tattooing… ?
I chose very early to be a manual worker, and at 18 years old I studied to become a cabinetmaker. I wanted to make furniture, I liked the artistic side of it. I loved so much carved furniture, very kitsch, a little bit baroque… I wanted to create things. Unfortunately, these kind of made-to-measure objects are still very expensive and I realised things were harder than I expected… since Ikea appeared. As a conclusion, this profession is dying. As I couldn’t emancipate myself in this field, I decided to change.
Were you drawing simultaneously?
I always did. One of my motivations to study cabinetmaking was the six or seven hours of drawing lessons every week. After furniture, I moved to wood sculpture. I like this material because of its definitive aspect. Once you’ve worked on it, you can’t go back. I thought I would be able to make more creations but, then again, I realised it was far too rigid for me ; I needed to draw and to express myself. I made a pause which lasted four years and I survived doing small jobs. I got enough time to think until I realised one morning that I had only one life to live. At 23 years old, I got back to my studies.
Drawing studies ?
Yes, I went to Emile Cohl, one of the best drawing school in Lyon. It was a dream that I had since I was a child to go there. They were just opening a new section, street-art oriented, for students to become muralists and do big frescoes on buildings. I did three years there, during which I studied hyperrealism and trompe-l’oeil (an art technique that uses realistic imagery to create the optical illusion that the depicted objects exist in three dimensions).
What memories do you keep from these school works?
It wasn’t my style. I was much more into American comics. I liked authors with a very specific approach, like Mike Mignola and Hellboy. But later I enjoyed more freedom. For my degree, I remember doing a project about the “Bête du Lyonnais” which is very similar to the one of the “Bête du Gévaudan” (a famous French story about a mysterious beast devouring humans between 1764-67 in Auvergne) but which happened to be earlier and that nobody knows about.
What goal did you have when you joined the school?
I wanted to get the proper tools to do my stuff. In my head, things have always been very clear. Whatever happened, even if I had to cope with small jobs, I wanted to develop my style and my dark universe. I was strongly determined to achieve that. After classes and eight hours of drawing, I would get back in the evening to it until 2am. It was visceral to me, even if I wasn’t very ambitious. My dream though, since I was a kid, is to do concept-art, for video games or films…
How did tattooing came in ?
During my last year at school, I had the chance to work during week-ends as an apprentice in a shop in Lyon called Small Tattoo. It’s been now five years I’m working as a professional tattooer. Tattooing always attracted me. It was part of my world, made of metal music, gothic culture…, and people around me had some. But I didn’t really like what I saw until I stepped into social networks where I discovered more relevant styles, artworks which had nothing to do with japanese, tribal, etc. I was really into etchings at the time - my first graphical inspiration-. As it became more popular I realised that it was possible to do it too and I decided to give it a try.
Was it easy to adapt ?
My drawing was not right for tattooing : Too thin, too little - then, I had to adapt it to the skin canvas. It took me some time to find the balance. I would look a lot to French tattooer Maud Dardeau’s skin works. I had never seen that before, that breadth. Then, I evolved to something more illustrative, which is what I’m doing today.
How did you sleep to that ?
I got tired of doing dots and lines, I wanted to try new techniques, to master shadings, etc. I wanted to be able to do shadings properly, for example. To use it, I realised that I needed to make my drawings more complicated.
Why did you choose to work only in black ?
At that time, when I started, there wasn’t a lot of black work going on. It came through the influence of artists like Jean-Luc Navette (French illustrator, former tattooer, also from Lyon). But I loved that ! I always had in my drawings this obsession for a perfect black, I wanted it to be the blackest possible, with nuances in the textures. I tested everything to achieve that : Indian ink, painting, etc., until I realised that I could with my coloured pencil, and by varnishing my drawings it would provide a similar rendering, with more nuances in my lines, and more diversified shapes. On skin, black seems to be something very simple to do; but in fact, it is the most difficult thing. But I’m now starting to get solid black which stands.
The animal world is a strong source of inspiration for you…
Yes, since I’m a kid. I always had better connection with animals than humans. I like to bring human evocations to my animals, wether it is in the morphology, the eyes, etc. When I was living in the countryside I used to spend most of my time with them. From that period comes my love for creatures, the European folklore, vampire stories and werewolves. I especially like bats, millipedes, I’m fascinated by insects in general. They don’t have a lot to envy to humans, even though we might think we’re more evolved.
What other references are important for your inspiration?
Films like Alien which my father let me watch it when I was only six, the Dracula from Coppola… I love David Cronenberg for example, The Fly specifically. It makes me sad too but I like melancholy. I’m very pessimistic by nature and I think that it helps me to handle it. I love Existenz, The Naked Lunch… Films by Christopher Nolan too. I’ve been moved a lot by the folklore like Dracula, I was very much into it when I was a teenager. I liked the gothic culture, werewolves, vampires… I’ve seen and read everything about it! (laughs). It’s really my culture, I woke up during that period.
A “school of black” which is now not only restricted to metal-heads and gothics appears to have developed through the years. How do you explain that appetite ?
It pleases me so much. Some years ago, people would look at us in a strange way but now, yes, my customers are opening themselves to that. Sometimes, I even ask myself : “ What are they doing here ?” (laughs). There are some interesting mixes operating right now, in the hip-hop culture, the street-wear world and the street culture in general. It is getting closer to the dark culture that you can witness through more dark tattoos, even creepy ones.
Even though you like to draw with pencils, you’re using digital tools. Is it compatible ?
I was very reluctant to use them, like a lot of us, but I completely changed my mind. I started using Cintiq from Wacom -at the time people were laughing a lot at me, but now I notice that most of them are into it. I’m working now on iPad pro, it’s a great tool. It is right that it allows some people to « cheat », but personally, I feel like I’m working on a sheet of paper. I draw the same way. Of course, it has less charm than a traditional tool but I think it is important for our generation to master the digital aspect. To me, it is a productivity tool, allowing to produce prints and that kind of stuff. It is also useful for tattooing, it allows live experimentation, instant intervention done in a very intuitive way. It allows people to have a preview of the project too. But you cannot satisfy yourself with it. It is important to maintain the connection with the old traditional way.
How do you see your work evolving?
I’d like to make it more complex and do more elaborate compositions. I was satisfied until now with simple ones to train my hand, but I’m starting to get bored. The next step will be more ambitious, with more symbolic and occult things, in which people will be able to find themselves. I’d like also to get closer to things like HR Giger’s, more organic and alive. My drawing is still too rigid.
CONTACT : Instagram : @ strange_dust Facebook : @strangedust
