His Traditional is marked by a strong stroke, black outlines, always the same size, and a colour palette limited to the canonical colours of this style. As are the subjects he tattoos: roses, skulls, eagles, panthers… and mandalas. Meet Mors, a French-born tattoo artist currently based in Leeds with a great desire to get around and enjoy the work of tattooer he loves.
Hello Mors welcome to Tattoo Life. We have recently published three ebooks of your tattoo designs in your typical style. Would you like to describe what they present and your style to our readers?
If I had to describe my style, I’d say it’s some kind of American traditional made in Europe with a twist. I try to respect and work with the classic traditional codes: bold lines, limited colours, classic designs… while having fun with it and trying to bring my own style and identity to it.
Two of the three books are a mix of line designs, some kind of archives of the past few years of my work as a tattooist.
They both show the classic panel of design I like to work with: tigers, panthers, snakes, roses, mandalas, torch, eagles…
etc Name a classic traditional design, and it’s in it. I’ve also put a few of my paintings in them. The third book is only dedicated to mandala, and variations of design based on one specific principle.
What are your favourite subjects?
I do love animals in general: big cats, tigers, panthers, eagles, snakes, moth. I also love doing landscapes, skulls, and basically anything with fire. I’m really trying to have my own style of drawing, so I can basically draw anything my own way. It’s a work in progress, but the goal is that people could tell I did this tattoo or this design just by looking at it.
You have managed to customise your Traditional: for sure the distinguishing features are the bold outlines, very powerful colours and a touch of irony in the subjects you present. What can we add?
I’d say it’s a good definition, one unique size of bold line, and a panel of 3/4 colours maximum. I mainly use brown, yellow and red in all my tattoos. I like my tattoos to look like almost stickers, one shot, clean, and readable from miles away.
The subject of one of your ebooks is the mandala. Why this subject to be interpreted in 50 different ways? And how did you present it?
Mandalas have been my “trade mark” for years now. Don’t ask me why, I just started making them and my customers are still asking for them to this day. I’ve made hundreds of them over the years, every kind of variation while trying to keep the same patterns, some kind of language if I can say. Knees, elbows, stand alone, in bigger composition… I’ve used them in so many different kinds of way, I kind of felt they deserved their own little book.
I like your opening text where you explain that your collections of drawings should be used as samples and not as images to be copied in every details. Why this text and what message do you wish to address here?
It’s the famous never-ending discussion: where does inspiration end and copying start. There will always be lazy tattooers that will copy a design line for line, sometimes even without thinking it’s a wrong thing to do.
I just thought it was important to explain in the book that each design was made totally custom for a specific customer, got tattooed, and is not up for grab.
Inspiration is normal and these books are here for this purpose.
But for the sake of your customers, tattooers should put a minimum effort to create their own unique design and ideas. As each customer is giving us the honour to mark them for life, I reckon it’s the minimum of respect we can have as tattooers for them and the craft, they deserve it don’t you agree?
Can you give us two elements of your growth path in tattooing? Where do you live and work and do you attend conventions?
The plan is to keep doing what I’m doing, maybe adapt my style to create bigger tattoo designs and back pieces. I am a French tattooer living in England at the moment, in Leeds, and my bookings are always opened. Next few months and years will see me travelling even more in the UK, Europe, America, doing guest spots and conventions all over the world.
Biggest incoming convention will be: Bristol tattoo convention, Tattoo Expo UK (Surrey), Wild tattoo show (Namur), Tattoo Planetarium (Paris) and hopefully Gods of Ink (Frankfurt) next year.
Thank you Mors for this interview, last question before saying goodbye. Is there maybe a new project you want to anticipate to our readers or something you care about?
Many thanks to you guys for this opportunity to talk a bit about my work, and bigger thank you to anyone who will take interest in what I do and buy one of the ebooks.
Plenty of projects are in the work at the moment, so you can follow everything through my Instagram where I will post things in due time. In the meantime, I’ll just keep tattooing as much as I can, and as many people as I can and enjoy the best job in the world! Thanks for reading me.
BOOK OF LINES BY MORS
Panthers, flames, daggers, skulls, snakes, butterflies, tiger’s heads, the sacred heart, the Rock of Ages… are presented in single plates or as flashes distributed on the same plate.
