We caught up while he was on a small world tour, with this excellent Brazilian tattoo artist who has his beloved private studio in Araranguá/Santa Catarina.
Hello Led, is yours a real name or is it a stage name?
It’s my artistic name. Led is short for my real name, Coult is a mix of my two last names.
How did you fall in love with tattoo art and the Realistic (I’d like to say Ultra-Realistic) style in particular?
I was tattooed for the first time when I was 17 and immediately fell in love with that vibe The whole environment, the people, the music, the noise of the machine, the smell – it was a perfect storm and the rest is history!
I quickly realized that Realism was the style that combines the most techniques, and you have to be able to perform them all at a high level. I simply fell in love with the challenge.
What do you like most about it?
My favorite thing about Realism is that I never know what the final art will look like until it’s done.
Your artistic eye on Nature (animals and vegetation) is impressive and your stroke and use of color rivals certain National Geographic photos. What is your secret (if any)?
Well, if I tell you, it won’t be a secret anymore! (laughs) There is really no secret, but one thing that helps me a lot is to really take my time to find the images that are really expressing something.
My job is just to translate those feelings into my art.
When you dedicated one magnificent tattoo to jazz legends like Louis Armstrong or Billie Holiday did you listen to that music with your client in the studio to create the right atmosphere?
Yeah, that’s how I do it with every tattoo, I try to find the songs that connect us to the art! (smiles). Not really any favorites on the playlist, most of the time I listen to artists that nobody knows. whatever is not trending I guess…
Tell me about your workplace (is it a private studio?) and especially your city Araranguá in the state of Santa Catarina in Brazil?
Yeah it’s a private studio. You know, we try to approach our customers differently than a regular tattoo studio, from our studio design to our creation process. Our goal is not to just provide you with a tattoo, we want to provide you an experience. We chose our hometown Araranguà as our base so we could stay close to our family.
Do you have any international tattoo conventions or guest spots in Brazil or abroad in the coming months?
I just did ‘Inked out – NJ’ (IG: @tattooshowsinc) and ‘The New York Tattoo Convention’ (IG: @thenewyorktattooconvention). From there I flied to Germany for ‘Elite Tattoo Convention’ in Köln/Cologne.
And your last famous words are… ?
Being a tattoo artist means to be focused. It’s all about dedication on perfecting your craft. Your success solely depends on you.
