 and welcome to this edition of Create a Life You Love. I'm super excited today because one of my greatest friends is here, Laurent, who owns a tattoo shop and is a tattoo artist and I cannot even emphasize the word artist enough. I'm so excited to share his work with you and let him explain to you how he got started in this industry and what he has evolved it into. Hi, Laurent. Thank you so much for being here. Go on calling. So I just wanna jump right into all these beautiful tattoos but first, let's talk a little bit about you, okay? The first question, growing up, I know I saw people with tattoos but back then they weren't as artistic as they are now and they were a little... Scruffy. Scruffy, perfect word, awesome, yes. And it would have never appealed to me to think I wanna put something that's scruffy on my canvas and that's really the way you look at human bodies now as a canvas, right? Absolutely. So when did you know, when's the first time you saw ink and that's obviously what people call a tattoo sometimes? Yeah, ink, tattoo. That you said, that you said, that's what I wanna do. That's where I'm gonna put my life. So the first time I saw a tattoo, I was just like a little kid. I don't know, I must have been like maybe like four or five years old and I was just like blown away by that thing even though it was like a scruffy thing, you know? Just because it looked so, I don't know, kind of like tough and like those people were just kind of like, they seemed free to me, you know? It was kind of a tattoo back when we were really young was a sign of rebellion. Absolutely. It wasn't until probably like 20 years ago or so where it became like more of an artistic statement over rebellion and the people who had tattoos, those scruffy tattoos were sometimes very scruffy and like tough. Absolutely, absolutely. Now, Laurent, you're originally from France. Yes. So here, back when I was very young and would see somebody with a tattoo, they typically might be involved like with some motorcycle people or something like that. It was the same back home, you know? It was, okay. Motorcycle gangs, military. Okay, yes, military. Yes, yes, I completely forgot about that. Musician, just people that were like out of the society kind of, you know? Rebellious. Rebellious. Very, very rebellious. So yeah, you will not see like any like mom having a tattoo or like a doctor or something like that, you know? But now. But now everybody has one. Yeah, everybody wants to express their feelings and emotion through their canvas or their skin and what they really love. Absolutely. They want to put it on, which is, it's amazing to be able to do that and express it in a way that is also beautiful, not always scruffy, but if they want the scruffy, they can still get the scruffy. Yeah, no one does that now, you know? It's more something, a statement about their individuality, you know? Yes, yes. So, yeah, you know? So, now, about four is the first time you saw the tattoo. When did you know like, this is what I'm going to take my living in? When did you say, I'm gonna put scruff on people? I was 14. 14, 14 years old. Okay, so tell me, what were the steps you took? Like if you know at 14, were you very artistic at that point? I always drew. I always loved tattoos. I always wanted to have some, but I never thought about doing it myself. And I don't know when they just came to me. I was like, well, you should do that. So, I decided to do it. I went to see, I saw my parents. I was like, I want to quit school and do tattoos. They were swirled. They were? No, they were not. Oh, yeah, that's sarcasm. Okay, yes, they were not. No, absolutely not. What did they say to you? They were like, no way. So, plus I was too young. So they were like, you need to keep going to school, graduate, whatever. And then you do what you want. Okay, so then, but you kept it in your head. Like you never waited from that. So yeah, I always kept it in my head. I always, I kept on drawing and, you know, like getting my skill kind of like up, you know? And then I decided to do it. I had to teach myself just because there was no one around to show me like I wouldn't recommend doing this nowadays to anyone just because there's so many places, so many people doing tattoos that if no one wants to teach you how to do a tattoo, you should take that as a warning, you know? But you don't have it. But like in my case, I had no other choice. So that's what I did. They're really, in the past, there really wasn't a school. Oh, there was nothing. To teach you how to do it. There's no school really. Like usually you go through an apprenticeship. Yeah, okay, an apprenticeship, yes, yes, yes. That makes more sense. There are schools, but same thing. I would not recommend going there because they're just scamming you. Yeah, I can see that. So at 14, you knew that was it. This is what you wanted to do. Now, between the age of four and 14, did you see a lot more tattoos or did it just stick to you like that? Yeah, I saw some hand-poked tattoos. I saw some biker tattoos. That was pretty much all I saw. Okay, okay, perfect. When did you give your first tattoo? I was 19. 19, awesome, awesome. And do you remember what it was? Oh, yeah. We always remember our first, right? It's on me, so I do remember why it is. You gave yourself a tattoo? I did. Oh my gosh. So what was it? What was the tattoo you gave yourself? Oh, it's a scroll with some characters and like a little mask, you know. Nice. On my leg. Sonia, nice, I love that. Perfect, perfect. So, okay. And you obviously started in France. Yes. Because that's where you're from. So you worked in France for a while giving tattoos? Yeah, so I opened a shop with a friend of mine. I was over there for maybe five years. Okay. Yeah. And then I traveled a little bit around and I came to Milwaukee about 12 years ago. Okay. And then when you started in Milwaukee, what was that like? How did you start off here in this area? I went around, I looked for a job in a tattoo shop. I got a job somewhere. I didn't like the place, so I quit and I found another one. And then at some point I just decided that I wanted to do my own. Okay. And the name of your shop is? It's called Old Salt Tattooers. It's in Bayview. Okay. Excellent. Awesome. Now, I'm so excited to get into this but I still wanna ask some more questions. I wanna make sure I get through some of the more important ones because you have such beautiful art and I wanna get to that. But here's a few questions that people have sent me. So obviously you create your own tattoos because all of these books here are all your designs, correct? Yeah. So about 80, 85% of what I do is custom work. So by custom it means that the people, they come to me, they have an idea. You know, like it could be anything. You know, they're like, I want this with this and it to look like that. And usually they bring the kind of like pictures to kind of like guide me around what style they want because I can do like different style. And I just do a drawing for them and most of the time 99% they like it and then I do the tattoo. Nice. So you do create the tattoo but you also do other people's tattoos? I do that too, you know. So I can create a tattoo for you or if you bring, I don't know, if you have a favorite painting or a favorite CD jacket that you want to get tattooed or like a picture of your grandmother or anything pretty much, you know, you can just bring it to me and I'll do it. Do you prefer to do your own design or somebody else's like that? I like both, you know, yeah. Cause sometimes just while copying a piece of art from a great artist is also something good to do, you know. Yeah, absolutely. So what is the favorite design that you have created? If you have a favorite, like one that sticks out for some reason? Well, it's like asking your parents if they have a favorite kid. I don't, you know, I have things that I do prefer, you know, they're pretty much all like in the books. I really like to do Japanese tattoos or like old school Americana like this one. Do I have a favorite one in particular? I have one tattoo I really like which is actually nothing special but the story was quite funny. It's a peppermint patty. Okay. You know, it's a little character from Charlie Brown. From Charlie Brown. Okay, correct. And she's doing something special cause it's in memory of the guy. Basically he did the tattoo in memory of his grandma. Which looked like her and the, yeah. That's all I can say about the design on TV. That's so sweet. That's very sweet. I love that. So when most people come in for a tattoo, they obviously, there's some kind of meaning that they have behind it. It means something to them. Like people might see something they like. My sister has a barbed wire on her arm. But now she, it was kind of a trend at that point and now she's like, oh my gosh. She wants to call her that. She's like, okay, that was pretty typical for the time. But most people now with tattoos being what they are and how they are, when they come in they probably have like a story or a very important meaning behind the work. 50% of the people do have stories behind their meanings. After you still have like a, quite a big number of clients that are just doing something cause they like the way it looks. Okay. Just for like, yeah. Like, I don't know. Like they just want to look a certain way cause it's just like a design, you know, with no meaning behind it. Gotcha. So people get tattoos like my sister and they might later on think, what was I thinking? So you do actually do cover ups and can take an old tattoo or a fade, what they call a faded tattoo and either bring it back to life or do a whole new design over it. Absolutely, yeah. So I just did one like a few weeks ago, like a guy had like a firefighter pinup on his arm which was like, looked really bad, you know, and I just went over it and she looked like she got plastic surgery. Oh, nice. Otherwise, like also I do cover ups, like you said. So, you know, they have like an old tattoo that's bad and they want something over it. Sometimes what they want is not doable for the cover ups so I have to kind of like guide them throughout what's possible and what's not and then I do it, if they agree with it. Excellent, excellent. Now, do you do, and I ask this, I've seen this a lot like the face tattoos. No, I don't. Yeah, I don't, I don't. Yeah, me neither. Yeah, the body is better, right? Yeah, absolutely. Okay, back to my list of questions. What do most people, is there a most common type of tattoo that people want to get or want to have on their body? I wouldn't say there's a most common design but there's definitely like periods where people come up with the same thing, you know, as far as lately I've done a lot of sacred geometry design, you know, which are really cool. Can we look at some sacred geometry designs? Yeah, let's see. Just to see, is that this book? Yeah, this book, so. Awesome. So these sacred geometry. Like here's, that's part of one, you know. Let's pop this up a bit. So this is very, very unique and you can see all the detail in this. Is there anything in here you'd like to explain? Like what her purpose or his? The guy in that particular design, Eric, his name, he was like, I want a leg sleeve with sacred geometry. Do whatever you want. So I was like, actually, I usually don't like that. You know, I'd rather like you give me like guidance. Those one are called the flower of life. So basically it's, how should I explain that? It's something like that has to do with also like biology and like cells and stuff like that or they like develop and reproduce. So it's pretty much starting from like the beginning, you know, and like then they multiply each other. And then it comes to like other places, other things that are like part of like sacred geometry. And I just use like other sacred geometry for like background. I love that. That is gorgeous. Yeah. So there's a ton of them. Like, let's see. Oh, that's really pretty. Like that too. So, you know. So it's pretty much a design that's like geometry call and just like repeated, you know, over and over. Very nice. That's one of the latest trend, you know. Nice. They also get a lot of like traditional American tattoo. Yeah. I love that sailboat. Thank you. I love, I'm going to pull this up just so we can get a closer look. Like if you first look at it, you don't realize all the detail, but then as you go through it, like there is so much detail in so many layers. And it's a real artist that can make the layers look like layers, like not just a flat. Not a flat one. Like this almost looks 3D also. This one here with, and then just the amount of detail and color. This looks, it doesn't, it looks like it could actually be a picture. Yeah. And that's beautiful. That takes talent. That's a skill. That somebody has to have to be able to do that. Okay, so there are sleeves for the arm, which if somebody doesn't know that, that's like covering the whole arm, right? I've never heard of a sleeve for a leg though. Oh yeah, leg sleeves. And that's becoming more popular now? Yes, it is. It's not the biggest part of the business, but yeah, there's quite a few people that do it. I'm doing, I'm starting one like next week. Okay, perfect. Now how long does it take to do a sleeve? Let's just say. Well, that's gonna depend on how big and how tall you are to start with. Okay. You know, because the more skin you have, the more time it takes. I can't really tell you like a specific time, because it also depends on the design, you know? Let's say that a sleeve you need to probably count something around like 15, 20, 25 hours. Okay, so then you don't do that all in one day, no way. It's different, it's different session, you know? So usually they come, I do session of about like two, three, four hours at a time if they want to sit that long. And they come back like a couple of weeks after or a week after, you know. Beautiful, I love that. So then my next question is, oopsie, can, have you tattooed minors? I know that minors cannot come in alone, but if they came in with their parents. In Wisconsin, you're not allowed to tattoo minors even with the parents. Really? Yeah, they can go to Illinois, but not Wisconsin. Okay, I got it. So no minors in Wisconsin. No minors whatsoever. But once they turn 18, they can pull out the gun. But they need to bring their ID. And I said, if you're a minor, bring your ID, that's right. And so I, and I know this is relative and it depends on your pain threshold. A lot of people are hesitant to get a tattoo because they're afraid it will hurt. That's true. It does hurt a little bit, you know. A little bit. But it doesn't hurt that bad, otherwise I would be out of business. Yeah, it's been explained that from people who I know who have had tattoos, they say it's very addictive. Yeah. It's like a sweet pain, if you will. I know, yeah. It's kind of like scratching a sunburn. Okay. Okay. It's not completely comfortable, but it's something you can do. Okay. And that's true. Let's talk a little bit. Now I'm excited because now we just get to get into your work and look at some of your tattoos. And I have kind of looked through these books a little bit prior to getting started. And I really wanna talk about a couple of them. And one of them is this one right here. Because this one, I mean, this is a beautiful piece of work. How intricate and how detailed this is. How much time approximately did this? And this is your design. That's my design. So he came, he said he wanted a dragon, back piece with an eagle. I actually think that you can see the whole thing over here. That's so much better. That's a much better picture. Yeah. There's actually a whole background now on it. A tattoo like that. I would say something probably around like 30 hours. Wow. Yeah. It's amazing that this can be done. Oh yeah. And that it can be done in 30 hours. The amount of color, the amount of detail. Now is there a story behind this one or is it? Absolutely not. No, it's just. It's just what you wanted to get. Okay. Yeah. Excellent. I actually think I know this guy. Yeah. I swear to goodness, I think I know that guy. I don't remember his name, but it was a nice dude. Oh, I think because I know somebody who had, he's getting all the Milwaukee. Buildings. Tattooed on here. Yeah, and he, yeah, that's interesting. I wonder if that's the. So yeah, him for example, he came. He was like, I want to slave with the, that represents Milwaukee. So I asked him like which building he liked in particular. And this one is one of my favorite. Cause for example, like the home bridge was kind of like tricky to make, to work on the tattoo. Cause basically you're tattooing like non organic pieces on like an organic subject, you know? So like you don't want it to just be like just a bunch of building like slapped on together. So you need to think about when he's going to move his arm, like how it's going to look and stuff like that. So I kind of had to like trick the bridge to make it work. And yeah, it's a beautiful tattoo. That's amazing that you would think about that because some people might not think about when you're moving, how does that look? Yeah, I did. That is amazing. That's a beautiful, that is a beautiful tattoo. So is there something in one of these books that you want to show me? Otherwise I'm going to keep turning pages and find the one that I, there was, I think it's in this one. Okay, so first of all, I love this, but there was another one, this one. Is that it? Yeah. This one. Yeah. I mean, and then this is, this is the bigger, this is. This is the side. This is this, right? So basically her, like she was sent to me by another tattoo artist who just didn't want it to do it because it was too much of a headache for him to deal with it. She just, she liked hexagon and like sacred geometry and she's into like evolution. So all of those eyes are like different, like animal species, you know? Okay. That she's into. Those are eyes. Those are eyeballs. So all of these are eyes? Yeah. That is crazy. You have a cologne, you have like an octopus, some birds, some stuff like that. And I don't know if there's a picture in there, but I was joking. I told her like, I should put my eye in it too and she let me put my eye. That is awesome. So, but again, like you see this whole piece of work and then within the piece of work. There's other ones. There's pieces of work, like just one eye. This eye is ridiculous detail. Thank you. And just amazingly spot on and beautiful, like that is, that's gorgeous. And to see that, and then like a lot of people do the flowers. Yes, they do. Yes. Show me what you want to show me. Oh my gosh, like that. I love that. That's so pretty. Yeah. Like for example here, there's a cover up on this one. Okay, so this one here is a cover up. Yeah. Do you remember what was below it? Some tribal handband. Okay. Yeah, tribal used to be really big too, right? It used to be really big. Yeah. I love this lion too. It has a lion, it's nice. That's very, very, very good. There's so many of them, like it's like impossible for me to pick one. Wait, okay, this one I did, if you don't mind, I'm going to turn back for a moment. Okay, this one, this is one of the kind of, it's not scruffy, but I was like, oh, that butterfly is so pretty. I'm at very, very real skull. But in some, in some, I'm the word is community, but in some ethnicities, the skull is very, very religious. Absolutely. Absolutely religious. Okay, go ahead and show me what you, we're looking for here. Like for example, like the locomotive here. Oh, I love that one too, yes. And it's very difficult to make clouds look real. Yeah. To make these clouds look that or smook or... Actually, not pretty. Not for you. Not for you, but I have not seen, and I've seen a fair number of tattoos, but I've not seen anything that like... Okay. And especially when you take it from the arm, and you put it on a picture, some of it is lost. Yeah. So, okay, as we can see, you have a tremendous amount of work that you've done. You're extremely experienced, and this is a passion you've had since you've been four years old, and you are exquisitely talented. Old salt tattoos is the name of your business. And if anybody wants to reach you, the number would be 414-721-6817, and you're in Bayview at 2665 South Howell Avenue, correct? That's it. And tattoosbylorant.com... The website. Is the website. So if anybody wants to reach you, this is how they can get a hold of you, and they can bring in their own design, or... They can bring anything. You can bring a picture, anything they want, and then you will help make it body art. I do. Can I do any tattoos from the smallest one to the... To the biggest one. Perfect. Laurent, thank you so much for being a guest on my show today. It was such an honor to have you here. Thank you. Please remember, I am here doing this show, Create a Life You Love. If you've created a life you love, just reach out to me. I'd be happy to have you on the show and showcase your work, but today is all about Laurent and his tattooing skills and abilities. Thank you, Tony. Thank you again, Laurent. Thank you.