Jeff Gogue, who is he?
Honestly, if you come across his work without any context, you'll stop scrolling for a while. Jeff Gogue is American, and he's one of those artists who has built such a coherent universe that you recognise his work before you even see his signature. Neo-traditional, Japanese influences, Mucha. Female figures with real character, colours that work at depth, compositions that hold on skin the way they would on canvas. In April 2014, he led one of his seminars in Avignon, at Graphicaderme, as part of Tatouage & Partage. I was fifteen. Honestly, I had other things on my mind.
Friends of my parents
My father has always organised seminars. Nikko Hurtado, Shane O'Neill, Joe Capobianco, Jeff Gogue. Back then they were just friends of my parents passing through. I had no idea I'd become a tattoo artist one day, so I didn't really clock who they were.
It's only when I started looking for my own references, years later, that I realised what I'd had right in front of me. That's one of the strangest things about growing up in that world. The global recognition, you figure that out later.
What you take in at fifteen
Three days of seminar. Jeff Gogue talked about his process, the way he builds an image, his pictorial references. But what stays with me ten years on is one thing. For him, you paint out of love. Not technique, not ambition. Love. At fifteen you hear that and you nod along. Ten years later, you actually get it.
What his work passed on without me knowing
I wasn't thinking about becoming a tattoo artist back then. But when I started finding my style, something was already there. This idea that a tattoo can hold several references without losing its coherence. That Japanese influences and Mucha can live in the same image without it falling apart.
That colour isn't an end in itself but a way of building depth.
I'd watched it happen in front of me at fifteen without realising. It's exactly what I try to do with Art Nouveau in my work in London today.Watching someone at that level work in real time changes something in how you understand the craft.
What I actually take away
Same as with Shane O'Neill, you realise it's not the gesture that makes the tattoo. It's everything that comes before.
The thinking, the choices, the way you approach the body as a surface with its own rules. Growing up seeing that is like receiving a standard before you've ever held a machine. Which probably explains why I'm so demanding with myself.
→ See the 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 scratch, explain their choices, their references, their way of working. One of the most effective ways to understand what's really happening behind a tattoo.
Because his work is genuinely in a category of its own. He blends neo-traditional, Japanese influences and Mucha in a way that actually holds together. It's not one style layered on top of another — it's a real compositional logic. Exactly the kind of artist you need to watch if you want to understand how to build a coherent universe on skin.
His process, his pictorial references, his way of thinking through a composition. And one thing that stays with you long after: for him, you paint out of love. Not technique, not ambition. Love.
A direct one, even if I didn't realise it at the time. This idea that a tattoo can hold several references without losing its coherence is exactly what I bring to my Art Nouveau colour work in London. See the portfolio.
Fifteen. Jeff Gogue was just a friend of my parents passing through. The global recognition — I figured that out later.
Yes, my father organises them regularly. It's one of the things that makes Graphicaderme unique — internationally recognised artists coming to work and teach in Avignon.
