Who Am I?
Trudel Jean-François（28歳）タトゥーアーティスト。カナダ人です。 2007年から入れ墨して。Studio Zen Tattooの上司です。旅行、芸術、日本のタトゥーに情熱を注いでいます。
Jean-François Trudel, 28 years old, a professional tattoo artist since 2007 and owner of Zen Tattoo studio in Laval. A traveling artist, who is passionate about Japanese style tattoos.
At a young age, I was fascinated by tattoos. I would paint with my mother and always be drawing in my spare time. While in high school, I decided that I wanted to become a tattoo artist. I didn’t know anything about tattooing, so I started the wrong way: I took a tattoo class, which I attended every day after school. Tattoo classes are usually a rip-off as they are as they are not taught by working tattoo artists (their primary source of income is through teaching) and they don’t teach you much. You can’t learn an artform in a couple of hours; it requiresd a proper apprenticeship. But back then, I didn’t know any better.
My art program in CEGEP allowed me to improve my creativity and increased my interest in arts. My heart was still set on tattooing, so after completing CEGEP, I went to work full-time in tattooing. Without realizing it, I was starting the most passionate adventure of my life. I started to develop my skills by working in different tattoo studios across Montreal and Laval and was starting to get recognized for my realistic tattoo style.
I was doing every tattoo style, but the style that I loved the most was Japanese inspired tattoos. My love for Japanese style brought me to the US to get tattooed by Jack ”Horimouja” Mosher. Overly motivated, I managed to do my whole backpiece in 2 months (I wrote a blog about this story, check it out!) Not only did I get tattooed during that time, but I also spent most nights with Jack drawing and learning from him. It was an enriching experience! He taught me a lot of different techniques, which expanded my skill-set in Japanese style tattoos. Meeting with Jack motivated me to open my own shop in March of 2012. Since then, I managed to build a shop with a great crew of reputable artists.
Traveling is the best way to learn. I have traveled to Asia (visiting Japan 3 times), to the US and to Europe to learn and perfect my tattoo style: Neo-Japanese. I use realistic tattoo techniques (3D tattoos) and I combine them with the Japanese style to achieve a new style of Japanese tattoo where shadings and colors seem more realistic.
I have attended seminars given by the best tattoo artists, have been tattooed by the greatest tattoo masters and I have visited the biggest tattoo conventions all around the world. I’m very grateful to have had such great experiences! But what I cherish most, are the new friendships that I have made with artists as passionate as I am about tattooing.
Over the next years, I would like to work on my tebori tattoo technique which is a traditional Japanese hand tattooing technique. I’m still an apprentice in tebori. I have a deepest respect for this traditional art; therefore, I will take my time to perfect this technique with the help of some of my friends in Japan.
I will always be a student in tattooing as the learning never stops when you’re an artist. Thanks for showing interest in my art; I’m very grateful for my fans! Here are links to some of my work: