Who is Jeff Gogue?
Honestly, if you stumbled upon his work without context, you'd be stuck for a while. Jeff Gogue is American, and he's one of those artists who has built such a coherent universe that you recognise one of his pieces even before seeing his signature. Neo-traditional, Japonisme, Mucha. Female figures with character, colours that work in depth, compositions that hold on the skin as they would on a canvas. In April 2014, he led one of his seminars in Avignon, at Graphicaderme, as part of Tattoo & Share.
My parents' friends
My father has been organising seminars for as long as I can remember. Nikko Hurtado, Shane O'Neill, Joe Capobianco, Jeff Gogue. At the time, for me, they were just friends of my parents who visited us at home or who we'd go to see when we went away to conventions abroad. I didn't know I'd end up tattooing one day, so I didn't really measure who they were. It was only when I was looking for my own references, years later, that I realized what I'd been seeing without realising it. It's one of the strangest things, growing up in this industry. You only truly grasp the global fame much later.
What you remember at fifteen
During the three-day seminar, Jeff Gogue spoke about his process, his method of building an image, his influences. But what remains, years later, is a single phrase. For him, we paint out of love. Not out of technique, not out of ambition. Out of love. And he's right.
What his work transmitted to me without my knowing
I didn't think about becoming a tattoo artist at the time. But when I started looking for my style, something was already there. I talk about it in My article: How to build your identity in tattooing. This idea that a tattoo can blend several universes without losing its coherence. That Japonisme and Mucha can coexist in the same image without it becoming a mess. That colour isn't an end in itself but a way of constructing depth. This is exactly what I'm trying to do with Art Nouveau Today.
What I really retain
Watching someone of this calibre work live changes your perception of the profession. Like with Shane O'Neill, one understands that it's not the gesture that makes the tattoo
It is all of the above. The thinking, the choices, the way of approaching the body as a surface that has its own rules. Growing up seeing that is receiving a requirement before even having a machine in hand.
See my portfolio
Not a convention, not a lecture. An intimate format where an artist shares their process live, over several days. You watch them build an image from A to Z, explaining their choices, their references, their way of working. It's one of the most effective ways to understand what really goes on behind a tattoo.
Because their work is unclassifiable in a good way. They mix neotraditional, Japanese-inspired, and Mucha styles in a way that works perfectly. It's not one style placed on top of another; it's a genuine compositional logic. Exactly the kind of artist we need to understand how to build a coherent universe.
His process, his pictorial references, his way of thinking about composition. And one thing that remains long after: for him, one paints out of love. Not out of technique, not out of ambition. Out of love.
A direct link, even if I didn't realise it at the time. This idea that a tattoo can contain multiple universes without losing its coherence, that's exactly what I'm trying to do with the'Art Nouveau Today.
Fifteen years. Jeff Gogue was just a friend of my parents who was visiting. Global recognition, I realised that afterwards.
Yes, my father organises them regularly. It's one of the things that makes Graphicaderme unique, international-level artists who come to work and teach in Avignon.
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