Brice Poil, the burlesque tatooer
After having considered a career in parachuting, banks, and insurance, Brice Poil eventually realised he had to pursue an artistic career. Drawn by the permanent aspect of tattooing, he was trained by his acolyte Rocky Zero, who taught him the secrets of the trade. Brice doesn’t feel the pressure to make his mark in the field; above all, he wants to lead his clients into his own world, inspired by underground culture. He likes to play around with French expressions, and takes great pleasure in loosening tongues thanks to his burlesque and bawdy atmosphere. According to him, “in order to know, you have to drink”! His choice of adding the color “lie de vin” to his black and white drawings says it all… According to Brice, textiles are an ideal compromise, between an indelible tattoo and a drawing hung up on a wall, to assert your personality. In order to quench his thirst for independence, Brice Poil opened his own workshop in Nantes, Les Vilains Bonshommes, with his friend Rocky Zero. Since then, he has created his own studio where he’d willingly brand your skin with a bit of bawdiness and debauchery…
Hi Brice! We couldn’t help but notice that you have quite an unusual background. How did you go from insurances to tattoos?
Through the back door! I really tried out loads of things; first off I worked in a bank for a year, then I enlisted with the paratroopers. At 20, my high school diploma in the bag, I did a law degree specializing in insurances, got it, but I still felt like illustration was my true calling. And if I were to do drawings, I might as well draw them on someone for life! Tattoos have that alluring aspect to them in that they’re permanent. As I didn’t do an art degree, it’s my meeting with Rocky Zero that made all this possible.
How do you make a name for yourself in this field when you haven’t got an art degree?
I have no idea! I’m far from having made a name for myself, I’m only trying to bring people into my world, my atmosphere, my desires, my loves, my troubles; the hardest bit is getting them to be receptive.
Your drawings are often born from words. How would you explain this passion for the illustration of the French language?
Wow! Well I’m extremely bad at foreign languages, and far from being an expert in French! But it’s mine, I understand it, I only hope it does too.
What is your favourite expression?
“To know, you have to drink!”
There’s a burlesque influence to your creations, but also a bawdy, gently debauched feel to them as well. Where do you find your inspiration?
I could state that same expression again! I don’t know, it’s a mix of life, of a stunner, of good food! Tongues are loosened, sometimes they slip and then you get expressions that are slightly wrong but funny, and the images come with them.
When we look at your creations, on paper or on the skin, we notice you always use the same colours: black, white, and a kind of Bordeaux red (to stay within the theme). Why make that choice?
Yes, there comes a point where you have to decide, create an identity, so that the artist can be recognised straight away. Rocky helped me out a lot with these artistic decisions that were slightly foreign to me in the beginning. As he was famous for his reds and greens, I had to do the same and find my own hues; Bordeaux red speaks for itself. I’m incredibly happy that my illustrations are recognised today, especially when clients that only have black tattoos are open to my coloured creations.
As well as tattoos, you also create for other mediums such as prints or flash. What did you find interesting in creating for textiles with OLOW?
Tattoos are destined to never leave your side, illustrations stay hanging on your wall at home or wherever, so I think clothes sit nicely in the middle, you go out wearing them, you assert its meaning, then you go home and you take it off! Or not! To each their own night!
We will soon be able to find you at your tattoo studio Les Vilains Bonhsommes in Nantes. What made you want to start your own adventure?
Rocky Zero and I needed our independence, our own place; it seemed logical for us to open our own studio.
Can you give us one or two French or foreign tattoo artists you particularly like?
I like Beatrice Myself’s work a lot, who inks my skin as often as possible, as well as Olivier Chaos who isn’t a tattoo artist but whose illustrations adorn my living room. More recently, probably due to my desire to use more colours, I stumbled upon Liam Alvy’s tattoos that I find particularly wicked!
