This young artist from Reunion Island, gave himself all the means possible to become a new school big shot and made it! His style, often inspired by Japanese art, is modern, solid, highly colored and has a touch of humor. Here’s the portrait of a rising figure of the new school style tattoos.
Léo is settled in Le Tampon, on the heights of the city of Saint Pierre, in the south of Reunion Island. His workshop is located at the far end of an industrial estate, set apart from the towns and their agitation. The premises are spacious, there are two floors and an awesome skateboard ramp. Lo-cated above a CrossFit gym and a car tuning shop, the music interweaves with the sound of with dumbbells, revving engines and skate tricks, but most of the time the atmosphere is quiet and relaxed with a breathtaking view of the mountain on one side and the sea on the other.
Léo was born in 1990 on the island. He is a pure product of the Reunionese diversity with Indian and European origins amongst others. Léo has been drawing since his early childhood. He went through regular studies and finished them with a Bac Pro ( editor’s note: equivalent to a High School Diploma ) in graphic communications. He also took private drawing lessons with one of his teachers. As a teenager, he was attracted by graffiti and started covering the walls of the island, an art that he practices less now, as tattooing leaves him little free time. At the end of his schooling, he was hired in the communication department of a local town. After a few years working without real motivation, he found himself without a job. It was 2012 when Betty’s (Léo’s girlfriend) neighbor, who happens to be a tattoo artist, suggested that he try it out. Léo, during a booze-fuelled even-ing, persuaded one of his graffiti buddies, Neja, to be his first victim. The next day, the sober guinea pig turned up and the adventure began for Léo. The ‘tattooist neighbor’ quickly showed him the ropes. Léo told us "He gave me a machine with a 5 liner: "there, you have a pedal, you put the machine down and voila, you’ve made a line" then after that, he went in the other room to tattoo his girlfriend, and I had to do it alone. And since that day, I haven’t stopped tattooing..." It's true that it's a rather short apprenticeship and for the record, the buddy ‘guinea pig’ also became a tattoo artist.
In 2012, the second St Denis Tattoo Convention was held on Reunion Is-land. It was the occasion for Léo to meet tattoo artists from the mainland and all over the world. Super motivated, he asked the artists tons of questions (editor’s note: with his most beautiful smile, private joke). He was advised to attend other conventions and get tattooed by artists he likes in order to observe them and learn faster. Léo, hailing from the graffiti world, was admirative of the work of Logan Barracuda, graffiti artist turned tattoo artist in Seville (Spain) and undoubtedly one of the most talented artists of the new-school, so he left for Seville.
With his willpower, patter and sheer nerve, he showed up at the Barracuda shop to get inked. Luckily for him, Logan had a free slot the next day be-cause of a cancellation. Léo got his shoulder tattooed and took advantage of the occasion to harass Logan, asking him if he could stay and observe him in his shop. Logan finally gave in and so Léo stayed in Seville for sev-eral weeks. He returned regularly and grabbed the opportunity to have both arms tattooed by Logan, one of which was tattooed in only two weeks, one session every two days! It was an accelerated training and an important meeting for this young and ultra motivated tattooist.
On Reunion Island in 2012, he tattooed for a while at "Même pas mal !” Seb's shop in Saint Pierre, then opened his own shop in Le Tampon in 2013. When asked the question "Wouldn’t you like to work somewhere else than Reunion Island, it’s a small island, aren’t there fewer possibilities? » he an-swers "No, I'm proud to be from Reunion. It’s probably the most ‘westernized’ of the French overseas territories. I know that on the mainland, they think that we don't have internet or electricity " he laughs "and that when they see a beautiful tattoo here, they say that it can’t have been done on the island. But it was, damn it! We've got a lot of great artists here, in tattooing, music, graffiti etc... plus I'm really happy here with my family, my friends, the mountains and the sea."
In 2017, after months of renovation work which they carried out themselves, Betty and Léo opened their new premises. Settling in a private workshop was a choice. "The street shop, the ‘walk in’ process doesn’t suit me, neither does working in a hurry... I wanted to work on my style and do my own thing", said Léo. "In the shop, I was often asked for projects that I didn't want to do, and I didn't want to be seen as a guy who refuses everything, now people really come for what I do."
From the new school to a more traditional style. Leo, with a graffiti background, naturally fell into new school but already had a few years of experience, he discovered other styles such as ‘neo-trad’ and traditional Japanese. This can be perceived in his work’s evolution. He admitted "4 or 5 years ago, if someone had asked me for a tiger, I would have done a ‘Tigger’ (the character from Winnie the Pooh). Now when I do a tiger, if you look at a photo of a tiger, there’s never an orange-carrot kind of color whereas before, I would have gone for a super flashy orange... on the other hand, I think I'll always keep my lines a bit new school, but concerning the colors, neo-trad and traditional Japanese styles inspire me a lot", "I'm going to tattoo with a ‘Sol Nova tebori’ he laughs. For Léo, lines are very important. "In new school, the fashion is to remove more and more lines and replace them with tons of small gradations, I prefer to keep the lines, I think it's more solid over time. »
When he has a bit of spare time, Léo, being a fan of electro music, mixes techno as part of the duo ‘Léo au carré’ with another Léo, which explains the name of the band, translating as ‘Léo squared’. Our thanks to Betty and Léo for having us and we wish them great success in their numerous projects. DHK More info on Instagram: cameleontattoo Facebook: Léon.tatouage report by DHK translated from french by James
