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Bougne

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Intervew Bougne

@pascalbagot

Brought up under the sun on the Basque coast, Bougne plunged into tattooing after a first decisive passage under the needles. The Bayonne native realised that the tattoo profession was an opportunity for him to professionalise his drawing. Twenty years later, it is now in his native town that Bougne is refining his know-how and versatility with a strong newschool accent.

Can you please tell us a little about yourself?

My name is Nicolas Bouney, but some people prefer to call me Bougne. I am 45 years old. I was born in Bayonne and grew up in Anglet, by the ocean. I worked in several shops during the first ten years of my career and then in 2011, with my wife, we decided to open Black Mirror in Bayonne.

Which of these two mediums comes first in your career, tattooing or drawing?

Drawing, of course! Nothing original, though. Like all kids, I started drawing as soon as someone put a pencil in my hands. It quickly became a game, a hobby, a way to create my own worlds. I ate reams of paper and felt pens! As a child, I wanted to be a cartoonist. However, this was not the path I followed later on.

How did tattooing come into your life?

Growing up on the coast, I inevitably saw tattoos on the beach. Foreign surfers had all sorts of tattoos, surf-trip souvenirs and the like... Then there was skateboarding, musical influences as a teenager and I guess, little by little, it all made its way into my head. Until the day I had the opportunity to act. Taking advantage of a stay in Spain, I got inked by Dan, a French tattoo artist who was working in Calle San Nicolas in Valladolid at the time! I remember it like it was yesterday. I was more motivated by the experience than by the choice of design. It blew up in my face. From the first stroke of the needle, I knew I wanted more!

How did you decide to make it your job?

It was a combination of circumstances I would say! Originally I went to Toulouse to learn the trade of dental technician. But once I'd passed the CAP, I dropped out after a year and a half. I then tried my luck at an art school to see if I could do something with drawing. During that year, a friend of mine gave me a bike, an old Spaulding with a power supply and some odds and ends that he had salvaged, thinking that I would make good use of it. But I didn't know how it really worked and, aware that I lacked some knowledge, I left it in its box. Back on the coast in 2001, I had to find a job. Looking through the classified ads, I came across a job offer in a piercing shop. I didn't get the job but I made friends with David, the boss, who had just arrived in the area. I told him that I would actually be more interested in learning tattooing than piercing. So he put me in touch with Riton -alias Henri Buro- who was working in Biarritz at the time and I started my apprenticeship with him.

What happened next?

Riton taught me the basics of the trade, like soldering the needles, etc. But he didn't own the salon and it didn't click with the owner. But he didn't own the salon and things didn't work out with the owner. I left the shop and David (who had introduced me to Riton) offered me to work for him. I did the summer season in Mimizan and the rest of the year in Pau, with my friend Antoine Paul (now at Dark Lines tattoo club in Belgium); he was a piercer at the time. I worked for a while at Carlo's in Troyes before a period of self-doubt when I stopped tattooing. Then Antoine asked me to join Dimitri (the Belgian!) in Dublin. I didn't stay long, only a few months, but the experience was intense! Shortly after my return from Ireland, Caro, who ran Urban Primitive in Anglet, asked me to work with her. I stayed there for four years before opening Black Mirror in Bayonne.

Have you always done newschool?

I've always done a bit of everything, with no particular influences at first. I wanted to tattoo! It didn't matter what style, and unfortunately it wasn't always successful. But what I always liked to draw already had a taste of newschool. Comics, cartoons, surf culture from the 80's and 90's with its cartoon designs, like Jim Pillips', skateboarding, video games, graffiti... these were the images I liked to reproduce.

What do you enjoy doing?

I like the range of possibilities offered by cartoons. There are no limits, no rules, you can invent everything, mix everything. In short, you are free to create. What I like most of all in this style is to recompose the volume of the subject, exaggerating certain proportions to make it more fun, more alive and, if possible, unique thanks to the personal interpretation I make of it - although certain themes come up more than others.

I sense a graffiti influence in your letters, am I wrong?

I discovered graffiti at the same time as the Hip Hop culture in the late 1980s. I immediately liked the shape of the 3D letters, the crazy characters with huge proportions, the colours... It had a little cartoon feel to it. And at the time I lived in Toulouse, there was a big graffiti scene, especially with the Truskool. From the city centre to the disused factories, via the skateparks, I was evolving in an environment very animated by street art. Contrary to what one might imagine, I only admired it during all these years; I never took the time to learn to paint. But the images are there, well "anchored" in my head.

Many of your motifs belong to popular culture: superheroes, video games, films, etc. Does this define your graphic universe?

It is above all the client's request that initiates the idea of the design and the different themes from "pop" or "geek" culture translate perfectly into newschool. Having said that, being myself from the generation of the first TV cartoons and video games, I was immersed in this "pop" culture from a very early age. These are themes that I know. And as I didn't grow up, the basis is there!

Are you into comics, anime or ukiyo-e?

The renderings that we see in animation today are completely crazy, I love it. And comics are always present in my life, even if I don't spend as much time on them as I would like! As for prints and Japanese culture, I don't know much about it. I have images in my head, but not the history. In fact, I'm just starting to get interested. It's a fascinating universe that I've been watching from afar for a long time. There are many sources of inspiration and making newschool versions of it is becoming more and more interesting to me.

You also do, very well in fact, a little realism. The Spanish tattooist Ben Banzai recently told us that in comparison, newschool was less popular and that's why he started doing it. Is this the case for you?

Newschool is indeed perhaps a little less popular, depending on the trend. It is true that realism remains a timeless style, it comes back more often. It appeals to a clientele that is probably less attracted by the idea of wearing a motif with a childish and colourful look. Some people know my work from my newschool creations but we are in a small town and I am a tattoo artist. So I adapt to the demand, whatever the themes or the styles. In any case, thanks for the compliment!

Which artists and tattooists do you look up to and why?

I don't look at one artist more than another. Of course, I admire a lot of newschool tattoo artists like Dimitri HK, Logan (Barracuda), Jamie Ris, Tom Strom ... to name a few. There are so many talented people. I see all kinds of work and not only in the field of tattooing. I discover new ones every day and some of them set the bar so high technically that it always gives me the same desire to progress, to do better.

You were doing a lot of conventions before Covid, how do you feel about this interruption?

Good and bad at the same time !!!! It's always painful when someone changes your habits and I must say that, professionally, I feel like I've been in slow motion for two years. I feel like I've lost sight of some people, and that I'm not so much in touch with tattooing on a daily basis. It's a strange time... I'm living it like a bad 60's sci-fi scenario that I didn't want to participate in at all. Personally, I would have preferred an alien invasion. The big positive point, which is priceless, is that we enjoy our family life much more. It does make me think, though, that I'll probably do a lot less conventions in the future. + Instagram : @bougne Black Mirror 7, rue Pannecau 64 100 Bayonne @blackmirrortattoobayonne