French by origin but deeply rooted in California, we had the pleasure to speak with Laurent Trelaun, co-owner of ‘Shangri-La Tattoo’ in San Rafael and resident artist at ‘Black Heart Tattoo’ in San Francisco.
Hi Laurent, what inspired you to become a professional tattoo artist?
I’ll start by telling you I am a tattooer based in the Bay Area in Northern California. I guess I was inspired to become a tattooer by going to tattoo shops as a child with my mother. She’s fairly tattooed, so it was never something that was frowned upon and always something I was interested in.
I assume you’re French, right?
Yes, my family is French, but I was born in San Francisco and have lived in California my whole life.
I think you often take tradition in tattoo art and infuse a bit of your own artistic ideas into it. What do you think?
I think taking the basics of those Traditional designs is great, but I guess tend to put my own spin on it where I can, looking at classic designs and then building off of them. I think from painting flash and bigger stuff. I found a pallet that works for me in both painting and tattooing.
Do you think you’ve had a mentor in your life? Or do you consider yourself a self-taught artist?
Oh yeah there’s plenty of people. First and foremost, Ed Hardy. His tattoos and paintings were everything to me from a very early age. I apprenticed under Theo Mindell (IG: @theomindell), so he was a huge influence and probably the biggest in how I tattoo and paint.
I was fortunate to come up at a time when the shop was pretty stacked with artists, so people like Stuart Cripwell (IG: @stuartgcripwell), Bryan Randolph (IG: @bryanrandolph), Matt Howse (IG: @matthowse) and also Paul Dobleman (IG: @pauldobleman) were instrumental in helping me learn as well.
Each of them showing me different pieces to the whole tattoo puzzle.
So let me get this straight: You own a tattoo shop in San Rafael (‘Shangri-La Tattoo’) and you also work at ‘Black Heart Tattoo’ in San Francisco. What are these two shops like? Can you describe them for me?
Yes I split my time between two shops. So my place, ‘Shangri-La Tattoo’ (IG: @shangri_la_tattoo) is a smaller appointment only studio in San Rafael, CA, that we opened in 2020 during the Covid lockdowns. Currently it’s myself and my business partner Bryan Randolph (IG: @bryanrandolph), and we have a third station for guests that are coming through town.
I also work a few days a week at ‘Black Heart Tattoo’ (IG: @blackhearttattoo) in San Francisco. The opportunity to be back in a busy street shop was a no brainer, and also getting to work around everyone there, specially the owners Jeff Rassier (IG: @jeffrassier) and Scott Sylvia (IG: @scsylvia) has been a huge inspiration and learning opportunity.
What do you imagine 2025 will be like? Have you already marked a series of tattoo conventions and guest spots in your agenda for this year?
2025 is going to be great. In addition to working at both ‘Shangri-La’ and ‘Blackheart Heart’, I’ll be doing probably four or five conventions, and some guest spots mixed in there too.
I think the shows that are confirmed for ‘Shangri-La’ as of right now are ‘Tattoos and Blues’ (IG: @tattoos_and_blues) in Santa Rosa, Ca, the ‘Electric City’ tattoo convention (IG: @scranton_tatcon) in Scranton, PA, and also the ‘Pagoda City Tattoo Fest’ (IG: @pagodacitytattoofest) in Morgantown, PA.
Still figuring out the rest of the year, but there might be a Europe trip in there, we’ll see what I can make happen.
What is your biggest dream (yet to be realized) related to tattoo art and your life in general?
I think the biggest dream is to just keep tattooing. I love what I do, and I am very fortunate that people put their trust in me to do their tattoos. Oh and definitely paint more!
And your last famous words are… ?
Whatever the job, big or small, you owe it to yourself to give it everything you can.
Do the work and it’ll come back to you ten fold!
