Her works are refined illustrations depicting flowers, botanical subjects, created following the flow of body shapes to embellish them and make them graceful. Exactly like the dragon that she has on her body, about which she tells us in this interview: we introduce you to Chou, a Korean tattoo artist who loves travel and new adventures that can provide inspiration for new learning.
Hello Chou welcome to Tattoo Life. Would you like to introduce yourself to our readers?
Hello, I’m Chou (Daye), I’m a tattoo artist from Korea and I live and work in Canada. I learned tattooing in Korea and then I had the big chance to work at the Chronic Ink Tattoo, the coolest studio in Canada. Now I work in two cities: Vancouver and Toronto. However, as I’m in deeper love with the city of Vancouver, I stay in Vancouver a little more than in Toronto.
Why did you decide to move to Canada?
I have always enjoyed having new experiences, that’s why I came to Canada, because I wanted to learn as much as I can from my new environment!
Let’s go back to your start: what was your first step in this industry?
At the beginning I was fascinated by this job because it seemed so cool to me! But then the more I worked I was drawn by it.
The most important thing when I work is how to decorate the part of the body to make it as beautiful as I can.
Along with that, I have to faithfully express the topics that my clients want. When I see work done successfully after clearing the whole process, I feel tremendous joy.
Can you describe your style? What are your favourite themes and your hallmark?
I would describe myself as an illustrator close to Realism. If I could create a visually beautiful combination, I would like to put everything together. I’m very inspired by blackwork tattoo artists.
Recently, the point I care most about is ‘flow’, I mix flowers, animals, snakes and things that are requested of me to best render the curves of the body part I am working on. People often say of me: Chou knows how to use colour. I use a lot of dark and unsaturated colours, and I think that is my signature.
You draw very well and you have a particular love for flowers, why?
Nature’s subjects, especially plants, are really good to express curve or flow, and they can implement a variety of colour. That’s why they express my favourite aspects of tattooing and why I do a lot of drawings with flowers.
But I also really like Kitsch style work, in particular, I like to put together images of Minions and famous paintings, and the interesting results of the combination of two heterogeneous images are so lovely. When I sit on my desk to draw, I always think about it.
What do you like to express through your art?
I have a huge dragon tattooed on my body, and everyone who sees it appreciates its beauty. The work is pretty clunky. But it fits my body shape perfectly and expresses my personality very well. I want to do the same for my clients and this is what I want to express through my tattoos.
I see you are travelling for guests, where are you going next?
Yes, I do guests! At the moment I’m based in Vancouver, Canada but from March I will go to UK and in April I’ll take part at the UK Convention (UKTTA). In May I’ll go to Germany, I was there to visit the country during an art exchange student program when I was at University, and I got a lot of artistic inspirations from there. In June, I will go to Taiwan.
There is a special colour that is unique to Taiwan. It inspires me artistically and makes my mind flexible.
And there is another tattoo convention in Taiwan. I want to interact with Taiwanese tattooers a lot. It seems that my routine is based on always seeing and experiencing new things, then returning to a quiet place and recreating them. Plans for the second half of the year are still vague, but I hope to meet new people wherever I go. Let’s meet soon!
