Tattoo artist portrait: L'encre de Mizu

Hi! Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions! Can you introduce yourself to our readers?

Hi and thank you for this invitation!

I'm known by the pseudonym "Mizu", I'm the manager of L'encre de Mizu, a business known mainly for tattooing.
I express my art through other media, being primarily an illustrator. I also sometimes take logo commissions for small businesses. Finally, I occasionally take the time to test my skills in photography, and recently in sculpture.

What is your background in tattooing? (studies, career change, apprenticeship, self-taught, relocations, ...)

I studied graphic arts and visual communication, first at ESAAT in Roubaix, in secondary and then in higher education, and I continued my studies in Namur at the Haute Ecole Albert Jaquard. I first did a year specializing in Video Games, then I switched to the Illustration option, as 3D digital was definitely not my forte.
Initially, I was destined for character design and concept art, but through internships, I ended up changing my mind and turned to tattooing. The process took me time, I needed to have enough confidence in myself to say that I was capable of inking people without the possibility of going back, and finally I was lucky enough to meet a tattoo artist who told me he had the same phobia of blood as me, which basically removed the last psychological obstacle.

I moved to Brussels after finding an apprenticeship to start tattooing. Once I had honed my skills and built a loyal clientele, I started working alone, privately. After 10 years in the flat country, I had to return to live in the Lille region, in March 2020. It was the best time in the world to relaunch a tattoo business, wasn't it? Well yeah...

Can you tell us about your preferred style, which is easily identifiable, and your influences, both graphic and musical?

I'm identified with my style that combines my influences from Japonisme, Art Nouveau, Symbolism, Gothic art...
There's a term I learned in school that sums up very well what I'm trying to express: The images of the floating world.
It's the translation of Ukiyo-e, the Japanese artistic movement of the Edo period. It's a bit as if I was trying by my means to transcribe my parallel world which would be a sort of patchwork of divine, ethereal, sometimes epic visions.

Music has a very important place in my life, and it inevitably has consequences on my art. Not with everything I listen to, obviously. I must say that I have extremely eclectic musical tastes. Ask my clients, it can go in all directions haha! 

I listen to a lot of extreme Metal, that's where I have the most knowledge, but if it's violent it will just play into my recreational plan and not my creative one.
I could obviously produce darker things but I think someone would have to commission me for that, it wouldn't come from me naturally.
So, the music that has a real impact on my production are projects that have this same desire as me ultimately, but instead of expressing themselves visually, they express themselves through music. I'm thinking especially of Alcest and Midnight Odyssey. I can also be influenced by classical music. Music that really allows you to detach from our world, in summary.

During this period when tattoo parlours are closed, how are you currently occupying your time?

I sleep! Hahaha...
In reality, I'd like to be a bit more active on my professional and personal projects, but when morale is low, it's difficult.
I do some flash designs when the mood strikes, I have some client projects but I don't like to draw my designs too far in advance because I prefer the design to be still fresh in my mind when I tattoo. It avoids moments of confusion like "oops, what was this line here again, the stencil is half erased...".
I have a logo commission, I've finally seriously started sculpting, and that's pretty much what it comes down to at the moment.

You have already used Distrolution Merch for merchandising and/or communication materials. Can you talk about your experience with us and the reason why you make merch?

Yes, do you remember the time when there were expos and other conventions? There you go... haha!
Basically, it was obviously a desire I had, as an illustrator, to produce prints and t-shirts, and conventions were the best place to promote and sell them. In the end, all of this stayed at home, I sold a few which made some clients happy. They are so pleased with the t-shirts that they're asking me for new ones!

Because we have quite a few musician readers here, do you play an instrument, do you have a band or a background in music?

I can't say I play an instrument yet, no. I bought a bass guitar last year, I had started to practice and let's say a difficult event made me drop the learning. Since then, I've been trying to find the energy to take it up seriously again in addition to my other activities, but it's difficult, I'm mentally tired.

What is your ideal playlist for working?

I have a miscellaneous playlist no.2 that I like to play when I'm tattooing, in which I've banned all the aggressive sounds that can be found in my miscellaneous playlist no.1 haha!
Whether it's for clients who don't appreciate it, or for me if I need something calm for my concentration. There's a lot of stuff in there, pop, electro, rock, shoegaze, rap... Everything that's cool and not too scary!
If I'm working solo on a drawing, during the creative process phase, I need a playlist with long tracks. If I listen to things that are too calibrated, it will break my trance.

To conclude this interview, can we talk about your (future) projects?

It's still too early to communicate about my future projects because they haven't even reached the prototype stage yet, whether in sculpture or otherwise... I obviously won't fail to communicate things on my networks, so don't hesitate to follow me on Instagram, Facebook and regularly live sketching on Twitch: @lencredemizu