Enola Tattoo, when ornamental elements merge with spirituality

Looking forward to becoming a mother and happy to be working at ‘The Circle’ in Toulouse, the sweet Enola confessed to the microphones of TattooLife.com.

Hello Enola, can you explain how you chose to be a tattoo artist in your life?
It was a long journey but I’ve been into drawing since my childhood. I’ve done some design studies and at my 20th birthday I received a tattoo machine from my friends.

So I started to tattoo them for fun but it was too much pressure so I didn’t want to go deeper in this discipline! (laughs) A couple of years later, when I was travelling in Australia, I started to draw again. I was in the countryside doing farmwork without any distractions in the middle of nowhere. At this time I didn’t have any money and my pencil case had only 3 pen. That’s how I started doing dotworks and create shades.

What were the milestones on your path and how did you fall in love with your decorative, research-filled style on dots?
When I went back to Melbourne to continue my housekeeping work I was surrounded by Indian people and I started to learn their culture/mentality and I felt very close to their values.

I’ve always been interested in the aesthetics of ornamental but at the same time I started to learn more about spirituality.

I really wanted to reconnect my spirituality with the way I draw. I thought that the way to do it was with tattoos.

I found an apprenticeship pretty quickly after I realized that. It was awful but I’ve met great people who encouraged me in this way. After 2 years I went back to France to find a tattoo shop and go ahead with my story.

Does your love for Indian and Eastern spirituality have a bearing on your work, or is yours exclusively an aesthetic project?
It can be both. Most of the time I try to put positive intentions into my work and hide some talisman inside of it if I feel the customer needs it. I believe in positive attraction and the fact a tattoo can really change your life and the way you look at yourself. If it’s conscious it’s even better because the power of your intentions is more powerful than anything else!

Can you explain how you create your designs?
I ask people what they really want and if they need to put something special inside of it. Sometimes it’s only a “feeling”, let myself disconnect and I just go with the flow. In both of cases I think everything happens for a special reason and the person choose what he/she needs in that specific period of time. It can be spiritual, aesthetic or whatever and I’m just the hand to help them in their journey.

What do you focus on most when you tattoo? Does the sketch have to be perfect from the beginning, or do you let your artistic flair/improvisation carry you?
I let myself go when I’m drawing but for the tattooing part I want it to be the most perfect and clean possible.

Sometimes I’m doing freehand or I can change some details in the middle of the process but I need to feel it!

What is the tattoo scene like in Toulouse?
There are a lot of tattooists and shops in Toulouse. For the size of the city it’s massive and you can find every kind of shops, styles and tattooists. So I think it’s pretty much the same as big cities.

What is the most relaxing situation when you have to start tattooing a client?
I’ve got my little ritual. I come earlier at the shop when no one is there. I put my playlist while I’m doing the cleaning task, put some incense and open the window. I prepare my stencil with relaxing music and the light of the sun. After that little moment of “meditation” I receive my client with a coffee or a cup of tea. I take only one person per day so we really take the time to discuss about the placement and the tattoo itself.

Tell me about your private atelier ‘The Circle’?
At the beginning we built ‘The Circle’ (IG: @thecircleappt) with Sean Allaili. We met each other in a street shop and we realised we wanted something less commercial, more ethical and fair than the street shop we used to work for. A concept more like home, not like a factory.

The first goal of ‘The Circle’ isn’t making money but feeling comfortable in a nice place, being free to create and developing together.

No ego, just a bunch of friends having fun and tattooing together: our common target is the passion for art, peaceful attitude and friendship.

I read on Instagram that your agenda is currently closed. When will you reopen it to new clients?
I will reopen it in September for the period of November/December 2023 and January 2024. I’m actually pregnant so it’s time for me to take a little break and be focused on my family. After that I would like to change my schedule, take less projects and have more time to create.